What is left him but to lead a life stale and unprofitable, the scorn
and mockery of men? Let us try another case. Suppose a man wished to
be thought a good general or a good pilot, though he were really
nothing of the sort, let us picture to our minds how it will fare with
him. Of two misfortunes one: either with a strong desire to be thought
proficient in these matters, he will fail to get others to agree with
him, which will be bad enough; or he will succeed, with worse result;
since it stands to reason that anyone appointed to work a vessel or
lead an army without the requisite knowledge will speedily ruin a
number of people whom he least desires to hurt, and will make but a
sorry exit from the stage himself." Thus first by one instance and
then another would he demonstrate the unprofitableness of trying to
appear rich, or courageous, or strong, without really being the thing
pretended. "You are sure sooner or later to have commands laid upon
you beyond your power to execute, and failing just where you are
credited with capacity, the world will give you no commiseration." "I
call that man a cheat, and a great cheat too," he would say, "who gets
money or goods out of some one by persuasion, and defrauds him; but of
all imposters he surely is the biggest who can delude people into
thinking that he is fit to lead the state, when all the while he is a
worthless creature."[4]

[1] {apotrepon proutrepen}. See K. Joel, op. cit. p. 450 foll.

[2] Cf. "Cyrop." I. vi. 22.

[3] Or, "furniture of the finest," like Arion's in Herod. i. 24.
Schneid. cf. Demosth. 565. 6.

[4] Here follows the sentence [{emoi men oun edokei kai tou