Page:Lucian (IA lucianlucas00collrich).pdf/136

126 really think that in such a matter it is safe to go by a mere majority of voices? But it was not only that; he heard everybody say the Stoics were the wisest—that your true Stoic is the only complete man—king, and cobbler all in one.—Did the Stoics say this of themselves? (because you can hardly trust a man's own account of himself;) or did other people say it of them? Other people, also, certainly—many of them.—Surely not the philosophers of rival sects? they would not say so? No.—It was people who were not philosophers at all, then? the vulgar and illiterate, in fact? and could a man of sense like Hermotimus really go by what they said on such a question? Nay, but he had acted on his own judgment as well: he had observed the Stoics to be always grave and well-behaved, and respectably dressed; not effeminate like some, or rough like others. Then, says Lycinus, it comes to this,—you judge wisdom by dress, and looks, and gait: which makes it hard for the blind man, does it not? how is he to know which to follow? Hermotimus does not consider himself bound to make provision for the blind: that is an extreme case. Well, suppose we leave the blind to shift without philosophy, says Lycinus—though they seem to want it as much as anybody, poor fellows, to help them to bear their infirmity—still, even those who can see, how can they look inside a man and know what he really is? because you chose these men as guides, I suppose, for their insides, not their outsides? The student feels that he is no match for his opponent, and wants to close the discussion. "Nothing that I say satisfies