Ch. 21
Against those who readily come to the profession of
sophists.
THEY who have taken up bare theorems (θεωρήματα)
immediately wish to vomit them forth, as persons whose
stomach is diseased do with food. First digest the thing,
then do not vomit it up thus: if you do not digest it,
the thing becomes truly an emetic, a crude food and
unfit to eat. But after digestion show us some change
in your ruling faculty, as athletes show in their shoulders
by what they have been exercised and what they have
eaten; as those who have taken up certain arts show by
what they have learned. The carpenter does not come
and say, Hear me talk about the carpenter's art; but
having undertaken to build a house, he makes it, and
proves that he knows the art. You also ought to do
something of the kind; eat like a man, drink like a
man, dress, marry, beget children, do the office of a citizen,
endure abuse, bear with an unreasonable brother, bear
with your father, bear with your son, neighbour, com-
panion.527 Show us these things that we may see that
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you have in truth learned something from the philosophers.
You say, No; but come and hear me read (philosophical)
commentaries. Go away, and seek somebody to vomit
them on. (He replies) And indeed I will expound to you
the writings of Chrysippus as no other man can: I will
explain his text most clearly: I will add also, if I can,
the vehemence of Antipater and Archedemus.528
Is it then for this that young men shall leave their
country and their parents, that they may come to this
place, and hear you explain words? Ought they not to
return with a capacity to endure, to be active in asso-
ciation with others, free from passions, free from pertur-
bation, with such a provision for the journey of life with
which they shall be able to bear well the things that
happen and derive honour from them?529 And how can
you give them any of these things which you do not
possess? Have you done from the beginning any thing
else than employ yourself about the resolution of Syllo-
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gisms, of sophistical arguments (οἱ μεταπίπτοντες), and in
those which work by questions? But such a man has a
school; why should not I also have a school? These
things are not done, man, in a careless way, nor just as
it may happen; but there must be a (fit) age and life
and God as a guide. You say, No. But no man sails
from a port without having sacrificed to the Gods and
invoked their help; nor do men sow without having called
on Demeter; and shall a man who has undertaken so great
a work undertake it safely without the Gods? and shall
they who undertake this work come to it with success?
What else are you doing, man, than divulging the mys-
teries? You say, there is a temple at Eleusis, and one
here also. There is an Hierophant at Eleusis,530 and I also
will make an Hierophant: there is a herald, and I will
establish a herald: there is a torchbearer at Eleusis, and
I also will establish a torchbearer; there are torches at
Eleusis, and I will have torches here. The words are
the same: how do the things done here differ from those
done there?Most impious man, is there no difference?
these things are done both in due place and in due time;
and when accompanied with sacrifice and prayers, when a
man is first purified, and when he is disposed in his mind
to the thought that he is going to approach sacred rites
and antient rites. In this way the mysteries are useful,
in this way we come to the notion that all these things
were established by the antients for the instruction and
correction of life.531 But you publish and divulge them
out of time, out of place, without sacrifices, without purity;
you have not the garments which the hierophant ought to
have, nor the hair, nor the headdress, nor the voice, nor
the age; nor have you purified yourself as he has: but
you have committed to memory the words only, and you
say, Sacred are the words by themselves.532
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You ought to approach these matters in another way:
the thing is great, it is mystical, not a common thing,
nor is it given to every man. But not even wisdom533
perhaps is enough to enable a man to take care of youths:
a man must have also a certain readiness and fitness for
this purpose, and a certain quality of body, and above all
things he must have God to advise him to occupy this
office, as God advised Socrates to occupy the place of one
who confutes error, Diogenes the office of royalty and
reproof, and the office of teaching precepts. But you open
a doctor's shop, though you have nothing except physic:
but where and how they should be applied, you know not
nor have you taken any trouble about it. See, that man
says, I too have salves for the eyes. Have you also the
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power of using them? Do you know both when and how
they will do good, and to whom they will do good? Why
then do you act at hazard in things of the greatest impor-
tance? why are you careless? why do you undertake a
thing that is in no way fit for you? Leave it to those who
are able to do it, and to do it well. Do not yourself bring
disgrace on philosophy through your own acts, and be not
one of those who load it with a bad reputation. But it
theorems please you, sit still, and turn them over by your-
self; but never say that you are a philosopher, nor allow
another to say it; but say: He is mistaken, for neither are
my desires different from what they were before, nor is my
activity directed to other objects, nor do I assent to other
things, nor in the use of appearances have I altered at all
from my former condition. This you must think and say
about yourself, if you would think as you ought: if not
act at hazard, and do what you are doing; for it becomes
you.
