Again, suppose the case of men who, having mastered the art of war, did not use their
skill against the enemy, but rose up and slew many of their fellow-citizens; or suppose
the case of men who, having been trained to perfection in the art of boxing or of the
pancration, kept away from the games and fell foul of the passers-by; would anyone
withhold praise from their instructors instead of putting to death those who turned their
lessons to an evil use?
We ought, therefore, to think of the art of discourse just as we think of the other
arts, and not to form opposite judgements about similar things, nor show ourselves
intolerant toward that power which, of all the faculties which belong to the nature of
man, is the source of most of our blessings. For in the other powers which we possess, as
I have already said on a former occasion,
but, because there has been implanted in us the power to persuade each other and to make clear to each other whatever we desire, not only have we escaped the life of wild beasts, but we have come together and founded cities and made laws and invented arts; and, generally speaking, there is no institution devised by man which the power of speech has not helped us to establish.