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Then the second matter for diligent practice concerns our own answers; to these the chatterer must pay very close attention: in the first place, that he may not inadvertently give a serious answer to those who provoke him to talk merely that they may insolently ridicule him.Cf.Moralia, 547 c. For some persons who require no information, but merely to divert and amuse themselves, devise questions and put them to men of this sort to set going their foolish twaddle. Against this talkers should be on their guard and not leap upon a subject quickly, or as though grateful that it is offered to them, but should first consider both the character of the questioner and the necessity for the question. And when it appears that the questioner is really anxious to learn, the babbler must accustom himself to stop and leave between the question and the answer an interval, in which the asker may add anything he wishes and he himself may reflect upon his reply instead of overrunning and obscuring the question by giving a long string of answers in a hurry while the question is still being asked. For although the Pythian priestess is accustomed to deliver some oracles on the instant, even before the question is put-for the god whom she serves Understands the dumb and hears when no man speaksCf. Herodotus, i. 47.- yet the man who wishes to make a careful answer must wait to apprehend exactly the sense and the intent of him who asks the question, lest it befall, as the proverbParoemiographi Graeci, i. p. 28; Kock, Com. Att. Frag., iii. p. 494, ades. 454. has it, They asked for buckets, but tubs were refused. In any case this ravenous hunger for talking must be checked so that it may not seem as though a stream which has long been pressing hard upon the tongue were being gladly discharged at the instance of the question. Socrates, in fact, used to control his thirst in this manner-he would not allow himself to drink after exercise until he had drawn up and poured out the first bucketful, so that his irrational part might be trained to await the time dictated by reason.
