Book 7
796
Clin. It is no easy thing, Stranger, to reject your account of gymnastic training and competition, and produce a better one.
796
Ath. The subject which comes next to this, and deals with the gifts of Apollo and the Muses, is one which we previouslyPlat. Laws 673b. thought we had done with, and that the only subject left was gymnastic; but I plainly see now, not only what still remains to be said to everybody, but also that it ought to come first. Let us, then, state these points in order.
796
Clin. By all means let us do so.
797
Ath. Give ear to me now, albeit ye have already done so in the past. None the less, one must take great heed, now as before, both in the telling and in the hearing of a thing that is supremely strange and novel. To make the statement that I am going to make is an alarming task; yet I will summon up my courage, and not shrink from it.
797
Clin. What is the statement you refer to, Stranger?
