Book 4
6.35
Queen, may I speak, or must I silence keep? his reply wasNauck, T.G.F.2, Adesp. 283: cf. Wilam. Antiq. v. Kar. p. 74.: Woman, why talk so harshly, not as thou art wont? When some talkative person of no family caused him considerable trouble, he cited the lineNauck, T.G.F.2, Eur. 976.: Right ill to live with are the sons of slaves. Of another who talked much nonsense he said that he could not have had even a nurse to scold him. And some persons he would not so much as answer. To a money-lending student, upon his confessing ignorance of something or other, Arcesilaus replied with two lines from the Oenomaus of SophoclesNauck, T.G.F.2, Soph. 436.: Be sure the hen-bird knows not from what quarter the wind blows until she looks for a new brood in the nest.Men pay little heed to obvious facts except when their own interests are concerned. So A. C. Pearson, ad loc., Soph. Fragments, 477 (vol. ii. p. 130), who takes διέξοδοι in the more specific sense: passage of the winds (through her body), the reference being to the old fable of the wind-egg (Aristoph. Aves, 695, Aristot. Hist. An. vi. 2, 560 a 6). To the usurer τόκος would suggest interest on loans.
6.36
A certain dialectic, a follower of Alexinus, was unable to repeat properly some argument of his teacher, whereupon Arcesilaus reminded him of the story of Philoxenus and the brickmakers. He found them singing some of his melodies out of tune; so he retaliated by trampling on the bricks they were making, saying, If you spoil my work, I’ll spoil yours. He was, moreover, genuinely annoyed with any who took up their studies too late. By some natural impulse he was betrayed into using such phrases as I assert, and So-and-so (mentioning the name) will not assent to this.The use of these phrases was inconsistent with the suspension of judgement professed by Arcesilaus. And this trait many of his pupils imitated, as they did also his style of speaking and his whole address.
