Πῶς ἄν τις αἴσθοιτο ἑαυτοῦ προκόπτοντος ἐπʼ ἀρετή

Lines

1 – 1 1 – 1 1 – 1 2 – 3 3 – 3 3 – 3 4 – 4 4 – 4 5 – 5 5 – 6 6 – 7 7 – 7 7 – 7 8 – 8 8 – 8 8 – 9 9 – 9 9 – 10 10 – 10 10 – 10 10 – 10 10 – 10 11 – 11 11 – 11 11 – 11 11 – 11 12 – 12 12 – 12 12 – 13 13 – 13 14 – 14 14 – 15 15 – 15 16 – 16 17 – 17

İngilizce İngilizce Yunanca

My friend Sossius Senecio,

1 Is it possible, do you think, that all the arguments in the world can make a man sensibly assured that he is a proficient in virtue, upon this supposition, that his proceedings do not in the least alleviate and abate his folly, but that the vice in him, weighing in equal balance against his good inclinations, holds him down, as Heavy lead pulls down the yielding net?

1 In the study of music or grammar, I am sure, such a conclusion would be very absurd; for the scholar could never be certain that he had made any improvement in those sciences, if all the while he is a learning he did not exhaust by little and little his former ignorance about them, but remained during the whole progress of his application under the same degree of unskilfulness as at first setting out.