So this great ploughman used the clods of earth, the things
at his hand, illustrations from the fields, to bring the thoughts of his
countrymen down to contentful co-operation again.
"You may," said Alcibiades, speaking of Socrates, "imagine Brasidas and
others to have been like Achilles, or you may imagine Nestor and Antenor
to have been like Pericles; and the same may be said of other famous men.
But of this strange being you will never be able to find any likeness,
however remote, either among men that now are or who ever have been--other
than ... Silenus and the Satyrs, and they represent in a figure not only
himself but his words. For his words are like the images of Silenus which
open. They are ridiculous when you first hear them.... His talk is of
pack-beasts and smiths and cobblers and curriers.... But he who opens the
bust and sees what is within will find they are the only words which have
a meaning in them and also the most divine, abounding in fair images of
virtue, and of the widest comprehension, or rather extending to the whole
duty of a good and honorable man.
Pages:
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428