[24] Lit. "is beheld by his beloved." Cf. "Symp." iv. 4; viii. 31.

[25] Lit. "in order not to be seen of him."

[26] Lit. "good with respect to her."

[27] Or, "to those toils and that training."



XIII

Now what astonishes me in the "sophists," as they are called,[1] is,
that though they profess, the greater part of them, to lead the young
to virtue, they really lead them in the opposite direction. Never have
we set eyes on the man anywhere who owed his goodness to the sophists
of to-day.[2] Nor do their writings contain anything[3] calculated to
make men good, but they have written volumes on vain and frivolous
subjects, in which the young may find pleasures that pall, but the
essence of virtue is not in them. The result of this literature is to
inflict unncessary waste of time on those who look to learn something
from it all and look in vain, cutting them off from wholesome
occupations and even teaching what is bad. I cannot then but blame
them for certain large offences[4] more than lightly; but as regards
the subject matter of their writings my charge is, that while full of
far-fetched phraseology,[5] of solid wholesome sentiments, by which
the young might be trained to virtue, I see not a vestige. Speaking as
a plain man, I know that to be taught what is good by one's own nature
is best of all,[6] and next best to learn of those who really do know