14
Now if I had laid down a law that no one must do any work, I would rightly be thought guilty of breaking it; but if this was nowhere said in my essay, but rather that a good man ought to be active, how better could he employ himself than to work with his friends for the best ends and in full view under the open sky to let his loyalty, seriousness of purpose, and good will in his undertakings be put to the test, so that he may not be “a useless burden to the earth” Homer, Il. xviii, 104. in Homer’s words?
15
Above all, those who censure me must remember that it is not a wise man—if such there be anywhere—whom they will censure but one from the common people, one who has trained himself in words and received moderate praise for them, but one completely unpractised in that acme of the virtues that the cream of men display. And surely I ought not to be grieved even on this account, for I at any rate have met no other who fulfilled the promise of wisdom. However I should be surprised if you were to condemn me for my present life—you knew me long ago when I was commanding the highest fees for the public practice of rhetoric, at the time when you went to see the Western Ocean and the lands of the Celts and met me: my fees were as high as those of any professor.
15
This then, my friend, is the defence which I offer to you, busy though I am with countless tasks, thinking it of prime importance to secure my full acquittal at your hands. As for the rest, even if they all condemn me unanimously, I shall be content to quote “Hippoclides doesn’t care.” A proverb from the story in Herodotus, vi, 127–129.
