_Socr._ Be we then content with having thus far amused ourselves with
the subject of speeches; and do you go and tell Lysias that we, having
descended to the fountain of the nymphs, have heard words which charged
us to tell Lysias and any one else who composes speeches, and Homer and
any one else who is in the habit of composing poetry, epic or
lyric[133], and thirdly, Solon and whosoever commits political
discourses to writing under the name of laws, if they composed their
works knowing how the truth stands, and able to defend them when brought
to account for what they have written, and being themselves capable by
speaking to shew that their writings are poor, then they ought not to be
named from these works, but from those to which they have seriously
applied themselves.
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Footnote 133:
Ψιλὴν ἢ ἐν ᾠδῇ, without music or with.
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