_Soothed by the filings ground from the same spear._
It is no less true that the sting implanted by philosophy in [Sidenote:
47] a youth of parts is cured by the same reasoning that caused the
wound. While, therefore, it is right that the subject of reproof should
feel some pain from the sting, he must not be crushed or dispirited,
but, after undergoing the first discomposing rites of purification, he
should look for some sweet and splendid revelation to follow the
distress and confusion of the moment. For though the reproof may appear
to be unjust, the proper course is to endure it with all patience until
the speaker concludes. Then he may be met by a plea in self-defence, and
by [Sidenote: B] a request to reserve for some real fault all the
vigorous candour which he has shown in the present instance.
To proceed to the next consideration. In reading and writing, playing
the lyre, or wrestling, the first lessons are very harassing, laborious,
and unsure; but, as we advance step by step, it is much as in dealing
with mankind. By dint of frequent and familiar acquaintance we find that
it all becomes pleasant and manageable, and every word or action easy.
It is the same with philosophy. No doubt the language and matter, as
first met with, contain something both hard and strange. But we must not
take fright at the rudiments and prove so timid and spiritless
[Sidenote: C] as to abandon the study. On the contrary, our duty is to
grapple with every question, to persevere, to be resolved on making
progress, and then to wait for that familiarity which converts all right
action into a pleasure. It will not be long before it arrives, casting
upon the study a flood of light, and inspiring an ardent passion for
excellence. To be without such passion and to put up with the ordinary
type of life because one is driven from philosophy by a lack of mettle,
is to be a miserable or cowardly creature.
We may also expect that at first the argumentation will prove somewhat
difficult for young and inexperienced students to understand. For the
most part, however, the obscurity and want of comprehension are due to
themselves. Opposite dispositions [Sidenote: D] lead to the same
mistake. Thus one class, through bashfulness and a desire to spare the
teacher, will shrink from putting questions and making sure of the
argument, and will ostensibly assent as if they quite understood. The
others, led by misplaced ambition and meaningless rivalry to make a show
of cleverness and quickness, pretend to have mastered a thing before
they take it in, and so will not take it in at all. The consequence is
that when the former—the modest and silent kind—go home, they will worry
themselves with their perplexities, and in the end they will be driven
perforce to trouble the speaker by harking back with their questions at
a later date, when they will feel still more ashamed. Meanwhile the bold
and ambitious kind will be perpetually cloaking their ignorance and
hiding the fact that it haunts them.
Let us then thrust aside all this pretentious silliness, and march
[Sidenote: E] on towards learning. Let our business be to get an
intelligent grasp upon valuable instruction. And let us put up with the
laughter of those who are thought to be clever. Remember how Cleanthes
and Xenocrates, though to all appearance slower than their
fellow-pupils, refused to give up or run away from their studies. On the
contrary, they were the first to joke at their own expense, comparing
themselves to a narrow-necked bottle or a brass tablet, inasmuch as,
though slow at taking their instruction in, they were safe and sure at
retaining it. Not only must we, as Phocylides puts it,
_Oft-times be baulked of our hope while seeking to come unto
goodness_;
we must also ‘oft-times’ be laughed at, and bear with scoffing
[Sidenote: F] and jeering, meanwhile putting all our heart and energy
into winning the struggle against our ignorance.
We must, however, be quite as careful not to err in the opposite
direction. Some do so from sloth, which makes them a wearisome
infliction. Unwilling to trouble themselves when [Sidenote: 48] alone,
they keep troubling the teacher by repeatedly asking for information on
the same questions. Like unfledged birds in the nest, they are
perpetually agape to be fed from another’s mouth, and expect to receive
everything ready masticated by someone else.
Another kind, in the misplaced quest of a reputation for alertness and
acumen, worry the lecturer with their fussy garrulity, perpetually
mooting some unimportant difficulty or demanding some unnecessary
demonstration,
_Till a short journey so becometh long_
[Sidenote: B] —as Sophocles says—not only to themselves but to every one
else. By continually arresting the teacher with superfluous and futile
questions, as if they were merely chatting with a companion, they
interfere with the continuity of the lesson by a series of checks and
delays. Persons of this class are (to quote Hieronymus) like wretched
cowardly puppies, who bite the skins and tear the odds and ends of wild
animals at home, but who never touch the animals themselves.
As for the former and lazy class, let us give them this advice. When
they have managed to comprehend the main points, let them piece the rest
together for themselves, using their [Sidenote: C] memory as a guide to
independent thought. And let them take the reasoning they hear from
another as a beginning—a seed which they are to make grow and thrive.
The mind is not a vessel which calls for filling. It is a pile, which
simply requires kindling-wood to start the flame of eagerness for
original thought and ardour for truth. Suppose someone goes to borrow
from his neighbour’s fire, and then, on finding a large bright blaze,
persists in staying and basking on the spot. It is the same when a man
comes to another to borrow reason, and does not realize that he must
kindle a light of his own in the shape of thinking for himself, but sits
enchanted with enjoyment of the lecture. He derives from the lesson
[Sidenote: D] a ruddy glow or outward brilliance, but he fails to drive
out the mould and darkness from within by the warming power of
philosophy.
If therefore any advice is needed for the hearing of lectures, it is to
remember the rule just given—to practise independent thought along with
learning. We shall thus attain, not to the ability of a sophist or the
‘well-informed’ man, but to a deep-seated philosophic power. Right
listening will be for us the introduction to right living.
Footnote 44:
The _paedagogus_, an attendant slave, who accompanied the boy and
watched over his conduct.
Footnote 45:
In his _Phaedrus_.
Footnote 46:
i. e. in the mixolydian mode, which was of a sad and dirgelike
character.