Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/82

 56 ACCOUNT OF INDIA BY STKABO luxury became proud and insolent. Zeus, indignant at this state of things, destroyed all and appointed a life of toil for man. On the re-appearance of temper- ance and other virtues, there was again an abundance of good things; but at present the condition of mankind approaches satiety and insolence, and there is danger lest the things which now exist should disappear." When he had finished, he proposed to Onesikritos, if he wished to hear his discourse, to strip off his clothes, to lie down naked by him on the same stones, and in that manner to listen to him. While the latter was hesitating what to do, Mandanis, 1 who was the oldest and wisest of the sophists, reproached Kalanos for his insolence, although he censured such insolence himself. Mandanis then called Onesikritos to him and said: " I commend the king, because, although he governs so large an empire, he is nevertheless desirous of acquiring wisdom, for he is the only person I ever saw philoso- phizing in arms. It would be of the greatest advantage, if those who have the power of persuading the willing and of compelling the unwilling to learn temperance, were philosophers. But I am entitled to indulgence if I am not able to demonstrate the utility of philos- ophy, when I have to converse through the medium of three interpreters who know nothing more than the common people, except the language. To attempt it is to expect water to flow pure through mud." The tendency of his discourse, Onesikritos said, was this, that the best philosophy was that which liberated 1 By Arrian and Plutarch he is called Dandamis.