Kitap 2
13
I am solicitous to please you.
13
For what? Do you know the rules by which one man judges of another? Have you studied to understand what a good and what a bad man is, and how each becomes such? Why, then, are not you yourself a good man?
13
In what respect am I not?
13
Because no good man laments or sighs or groans; no good man turns pale and trembles and says, How will such a one receive me; how will he hear me? As he thinks fit, foolish man. Why do you trouble yourself about what belongs to others? Is it not his fault if he receives you ill?
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Yes, surely.
13
And can one person be in fault and another the sufferer?
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No.
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Why, then, are you anxious about what belongs to others?
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Well; but I am anxious how I shall speak to him.
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What, then; cannot you speak to him as you will?
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But I am afraid I shall be disconcerted.
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If you were going to write down the name of Dion, should you be afraid of being disconcerted?
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By no means.
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What is the reason? Is it because you have learned how to write?
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Yes.
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And if you were going to read, would it not be exactly the same?
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Exactly. What is the reason?
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Because every art gives a certain assurance and confidence on its own ground.
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Have you not learned, then, how to speak? And what else did you study at school?
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Syllogisms and convertible propositions.
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For what purpose? Was it not in order to talk properly? And what is that but to talk seasonably and discreetly and intelligently, and without flutter or hesitation, and, by means of all this, with courage?
13
Very true.
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When, therefore, you go into the field on horseback, are you anxious on being matched against one who is on foot,—you being practised and he unpractised?
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Ay, but the person has power to kill me.
