Panathenaicus

The best course, therefore, that I can take under all these conditions is to set before you what I think about the last attempts[*](Obviously he resents bitterly some attack upon him in recent years. Possibly it came from the “Eristics,” to the value of whose teaching he makes a condescending concession in Isoc. 12.26. These are not the “Eristics” mentioned in Against the Sophists (see Isoc. 13.1-8 and notes), who belong to an earlier period, but those referred to in Isoc. 15.258 and Isoc. Letter 5.3 ff.—namely Aristotle and his followers who had been hard on Isocrates (see Blass, Die attische Beredsamkeit ii. p. 65). This is supported by the fact that the critics here referred to frequented the Lyceum. Blass, however (ii. pp. 68, 69), thinks that Isocrates has here in mind especially Speusippus.) to arouse prejudice against me and then proceed to speak on the subject which I had in mind from the first. For I think that if I succeed by my writing in bringing out and making clear what my views are about education and about the poets, I shall stop my enemies from fabricating false charges and speaking utterly at random.

Now in fact, so far from scorning the education which was handed down by our ancestors, I even commend that which has been set up in our own day—I mean geometry, astronomy, and the so-called eristic dialogues,[*](Cf. Isoc. 15.265 and note.) which our young men delight in more than they should, although among the older men not one would not declare them insufferable.

Nevertheless, I urge those who are inclined towards these disciplines to work hard and apply themselves to all of them, saying that even if this learning can accomplish no other good, at any rate it keeps the young out of many other things which are harmful. Nay, I hold that for those who are at this age no more helpful or fitting occupation can be found than the pursuit of these studies;

but for those who are older and for those who have been admitted to man's estate I assert that these disciplines are no longer suitable. For I observe that some of those who have become so thoroughly versed in these studies as to instruct others in them fail to use opportunely the knowledge which they possess, while in the other activities of life they are less cultivated[*](See General Introduction.) than their students—I hesitate to say less cultivated than their servants.

I have the same fault to find also with those who are skilled in oratory and those who are distinguished for their writings and in general with all who have superior attainments in the arts, in the sciences, and in specialized skill. For I know that the majority even of these men have not set their own house in order, that they are insupportable in their private intercourse, that they belittle the opinions of their fellow citizens, and that they are given over to many other grave offences. So that I do not think that even these may be said to partake of the state of culture of which I am speaking.

Whom, then, do I call educated, since I exclude the arts and sciences and specialties? First, those who manage well the circumstances which they encounter day by day, and who possess a judgement which is accurate in meeting occasions as they arise and rarely misses the expedient course of action;[*](See General Introduction; Isoc. 13.3, Isoc. 13.16, Isoc. 13.17; Isoc. 15.184, Isoc. 15.271.)

next, those who are decent and honorable in their intercourse with all with whom they associate, tolerating easily and good-naturedly what is unpleasant or offensive in others and being themselves as agreeable and reasonable to their associates as it is possible to be; furthermore, those who hold their pleasures always under control[*](Cf. Isoc. 1.21 and note; Isoc. 2.29.) and are not unduly overcome by their misfortunes,[*](See Isoc. 1.42 and note.) bearing up under them bravely and in a manner worthy of our common nature;

finally, and most important of all, those who are not spoiled by successes and do not desert their true selves and become arrogant,[*](Cf. Isoc. 12.196-197.) but hold their ground steadfastly as intelligent men, not rejoicing in the good things which have come to them through chance rather than in those which through their own nature and intelligence are theirs from their birth. Those who have a character which is in accord, not with one of these things, but with all of them—these, I contend, are wise and complete men, possessed of all the virtues.