Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/293

Rh make answer and say: He is not within, but if he be disposed to laconise a little, and speak more brief, he would leave out the word (within) and say: He is not; or yet more short than so, pronouncing only the negative adverb, and saying no more but No. Thus the Lacedaemonians dealt once by Philip; for when he had dispatched his letters unto them to this effect; To know whether they would receive him into their city or no: they wrote back again, in fair great capital letters, within a sheet of paper, no more but OY, that is to say. No: and so sent it unto him: but he that would make answer to the former question of Socrates a little more civilly and courteously, would say thus: He is not within, sir, for he is gone to the bank or exchange; and to give yet a somewhat better measure, he might perhaps add, moreover, and say; He looketh there for certain strangers and friends of his. But a vain prating fellow, and one that loves many words, especially if his hap hath been to read the book of Antimachus the Colophonian, will make answer to the demand aforesaid in this wise: He is not within, sir, gone he is to the burse or exchange, for there he expecteth certain strangers out of Ionia, of whom and in whose behalf Alcibiades wrote unto him, who now maketh his abode within the city of Miletus, sojoumeth with Tissaphernes, one of the lieutenants-general of the great King of Persia; who before time was in league with the Lacedaemonians, stood their friend, and sent them aid; but not for the love of Alcibiades, he is turned from them and is sided with the Athenians: for Alcibiades, being desirous to return into his own country, hath prevailed so much that he hath altered Tissaphernes his mind, and drawn him away from our part: and thus shall you have him rehearse in good earnest the whole eighth book (in manner) of Thucydides his story, until he have overwhelmed a man with a multitude of narrations, and made him believe that in Miletus there is some great sedition; that it is ready to be lost, and Alcibiades to be banished a second time.

Herein then ought a man principally to set his foot and stay his overmuch language, so as the centre and circumference of the answer be that which he who maketh the demand desireth and hath need to know. Cameades, before he had any great name, disputed one day in the public schools and place appointed for exercise: unto whom the master or president of the place sent beforehand, and gave him warning to moderate his voice (for he spake naturally exceeding big and loud, so as the schools rung again therewith); Give me, then (quoth he), a gauge and