<GetPassage xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xmlns="http://chs.harvard.edu/xmlns/cts">
            <request>
                <requestName>GetPassage</requestName>
                <requestUrn>urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg037.perseus-eng2:3-4</requestUrn>
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            <reply>
                <urn>urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg037.perseus-eng2:3-4</urn>
                <passage>
                    <TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><text><body><div type="translation" n="urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg037.perseus-eng2" xml:lang="eng"><div type="textpart" xml:base="urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg037.perseus-eng2" subtype="section" n="3"><p>
Do not be daunted, however, and do
not be dismayed at the greatness of your expectations, thinking to undergo untold labours before
you achieve them. I shall not conduct you by a
rough road, or a steep and sweaty one, so that you
will turn back halfway out of weariness. In that
case I should be no better than those other guides
who use the customary route—long, steep, toilsome,
and, as a rule, hopeless. No, my advice has this to
commend it, that ascending in the manner of a
leisurely stroll through flowery fields and perfect
shade in great comfort and luxury by a sloping
bridle-path that is very short as well as very pleasant,
you will gain the summit without sweating for it,
you will bag your game without any effort, yes, by
Heaven, you will banquet at your ease, looking
down from the height at those who went the other
way as they creep painfully upward over sheer and
slippery crags, still in the foot-hills of the ascent,
rolling off head-first from time to time, and getting
many a wound on the sharp rocks—and you, the
while, on the top long before them, with a wreath
upon your head, will be fortunate beyond compare,
for you will have acquired from Rhetoric in an
instant, all but in your sleep, every single blessing
that there is!
</p></div><div type="textpart" xml:base="urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg037.perseus-eng2" subtype="section" n="4"><p>
Yes, my promise goes to that extent in its
generosity ;<note xml:lang="eng" n="v.4.p.137.n.1"><p>A quotation from Demosthenes, Phil. 1, 44, 15. </p></note> but in the name of Friendship<note xml:lang="eng" n="v.4.p.137.n.2"><p>More literally, Friendship’s patron; 7. ¢. Zeus. </p></note> do
not disbelieve me, when I say that I shall show



<pb n="v.4.p.139"/>

you that its attainment is at once easy and pleasant.
Why should you? Hesiod was given a leaf or two
from Helicon, and at once he became a poet instead
of a shepherd and sang the pedigrees of gods and
heroes under the inspiration of the Muses.<note xml:lang="eng" n="v.4.p.139.n.1"><p>Theogony, 30-34. The Muses plucked a branch of laurel and gave it him as a staff of office (oxjrrpov). </p></note> Is it
impossible, then, to become a public speaker —something far inferior to the grand style of poetry—in
an instant, if one could find out the quickest way?

</p></div></div></body></text></TEI>
                </passage>
            </reply>
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