The Erotic Essay

Be well assured also that the facility acquired solely from practical experience is treacherous and useless for subsequent needs of life, but the education secured through the pursuit of philosophy is happily blended in all these needs. There is no denying, of course, that in the past some men who got practical training just by good luck in action have won admiration, but for you the proper thing is to disregard these men and to take yourself seriously in hand. For in matters of the utmost importance you should not be extemporizing instead of really knowing what to do or in emergencies be studying your arguments instead of really knowing how to debate an issue on its merits.

Be convinced too that all philosophical learning confers precious benefits upon those who take advantage of it, but especially is this true of the knowledge that deals with practical affairs and political discussions. No doubt it is disgraceful to be quite ignorant of geometry and other such subjects of study, but to become a topmost contender in this field is too low an ambition for merit like yours.[*](Blass cites Isoc. 15.267, where the statement is made that cultural studies do not directly prepare the candidate for public life but do increase his power to learn.) In that kind of philosophy, however, not only is it a worthy ambition to excel, but to remain ignorant is altogether ridiculous.

You may infer this to be true on many other grounds and especially by scanning the careers of those who have become eminent before your time. You will hear first that Pericles, who is thought to have far surpassed all men of his age in intellectual grasp, addressed himself to Anaxagoras of Clazomenae and only after being his pupil[*](Blass notes the same information in Isoc. 15.235.) acquired this power of judgement. You will next discover that Alcibiades, though his natural disposition was far inferior in respect to virtue and it was his pleasure to behave himself now arrogantly, now obsequiously,[*](Isocrates employs the same words of Persian satraps, Isoc. 4.152, as Blass notes.) now licentiously, yet, as a fruit of his association with Socrates, he made correction of many errors of his life and over the rest drew a veil of oblivion by the greatness of his later achievements.

But not to spend our time rehearsing ancient examples while others are available closer to our own times,[*](The phrase closer to our own times is defined by the mention of Timotheus, who died in 355 B.C., just after Demosthenes entered public life. The author, whether the orator or a forger, belongs to the second half of the fourth century.) you will discover that Timotheus was deemed worthy of the highest repute and numerous honors, not because of his activities as a younger man, but because of his performances after he had studied with Isocrates.[*](Timotheus, son of Conon, was called by Cornelius Nepos the last Athenian general worthy of mention. Demosthenes regularly spoke of him with admiration.) You will discover also that Archytas of Tarentum became ruler of his city and managed its affairs so admirably and so considerately as to spread the record of that achievement to all mankind; yet at first he was despised and he owed his remarkable progress to studying with Plato.[*](There is a brief life of Archytas which may be consulted in the Loeb translation. It is not known positively that he was a pupil of Plato, but he was his friend: Plat. L. 7.338c,350a; Plat. L. 13.360c. His adherence was to the school of Pythagoras.)

Of these examples not one worked out contrary to reason[*](With a difference of one word this sentence is found in Isoc. 4.150, as Blass notes. It looks, however, like a commonplace.); for it would be much stranger if we were obliged to achieve paltry ends through acquiring knowledge and putting it into practice, but were capable of accomplishing the big things without this effort.

Now I do not know what call there is to say more on these topics, for not even at the outset did I introduce them because I assumed you were absolutely ignorant, but because I thought that such exhortations both arouse those who lack knowledge and spur on those who possess it;.[*](Writings that urged young men to study philosophy formed a distinct literary genre among the ancients under the name protreptics. The Epistle to Menoeceus of Epicurus is an extant example.)

And do not make any such assumption as this, that in speaking these words I am presumably offering to teach you any of these branches myself, for I should feel no shame in saying that there is still much I need myself to learn, and that I have chosen rather to be a contender in political life than a teacher of the other arts.[*](This self-characterization has been thought by some to point to Androtion as the author, but the grounds seem slight to Blass, p. 407 and note 2.) Not that in disavowing these subjects of instruction I am impugning the reputation of those who have chosen the profession of sophist, but my reason is that the truth of the matter happens to be as follows: