the virtue spoken of by Cicero (_de Officiis_, I, 34), “nihil praeter
suum negotium agere, nihil de alieno anquirere, minimeque esse in aliena
republica curiosum.” It is the same to which Plato refers in the
_Timaeus_, 72 A; εὖ καὶ πάλαι λέγεται τὸ πράττειν καὶ γνῶναι τὰ τε
ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἑαυτὸν σώφρονι μόνῳ προσήκειν, not in the sense of a selfish
indifference to a neighbour’s welfare or the public good, but in
opposition to the ways of the busybodies, who tattle and “speak things
which they ought not” (1 Tim., v, 13).
The Egyptian ⁂⁂⁂ is a rare word. Brugsch’s etymology of it is
an impossible one, and his identification of it with ϣⲱⲥⲙ is not less
unfortunate.