mbrace of toilful
training and tribulation, (27) by which alone she is hardly taken; and
so should they gain the mastery over her, and she should be laid captive
at their feet.

(23) Or, "that they made their first essay in hunting when mere boys,
and from hunting upwards were taught many noble arts."

(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 unnecessary 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 some
good thing rather than of those who have an art to deceive. It may
well be that I fail to express myself in subtle language, (7) nor do
I pretend to aim at subtlety; what I do aim at is to express
rightly-conceived thoughts such as may serve the need of those who have
been nobly disciplined in virtue; for it is not words and names that
give instruction, but thoughts and sentiments worthy the name.

(1) Cf. Isocr. "Against the Sophists"; "Antidosis"; "Hel. Encom.";
Plat. "Sophist."

(2) Who are these {oi nun sophistai}?

(3) Lit. "do they present writings to the world."

(4) Or, "as to certain weightier matters gravely."

(5) {remata} = "words and phrases"; {ynomai} = "moral maxims, just
thoughts."

(6) "Being myself b