Discourses - Book III   

they are made of shell, and they have nothing inside."
About such a matter as this you are deliberating. Therefore, if
you please, I urge you in God's name, defer the matter, and first
consider your preparation for it. For see what Hector says to
Andromache, "Retire rather," he says, "into the house and weave:

War is the work of men
Of all indeed, but specially 'tis mine.

So he was conscious of his own qualification, and knew her weakness.

CHAPTER 23

To those who read and discuss for the sake of ostentation

First say to yourself, who you wish to be: then do accordingly
what you are doing; for in nearly all other things we see this to be
so. Those who follow athletic exercises first determine what they wish
to be, then do accordingly what follows. If a man is a runner in the
long course, there is a certain kind of diet, of walking, rubbing
and exercise: if a man is a runner in the stadium, all these things
are different; if he is a Pentathlete, they are still more
different. So you will find it also in the arts. If you are a
carpenter, you will have such and such things: if a worker in metal,
such things. For everything that we do, if we refer it to no end, we
shall do it to no purpose; and if we refer it to the wrong end, we
shall miss the mark. Further, there is a general end or purpose, and a
particular purpose. First of all, we must act as a man. What is
comprehended in this? We must not be like a sheep, though gentle,
nor mischievous, like a wild beast. But the particular cud has
reference to each person's mode of life and his will. The
lute-player acts as a lute-player, the carpenter as a carpenter, the
philosopher as a philosopher, the rhetorician as a rhetorician. When
then you say, "Come and hear me read to you": take care first of all
that you are not doing this without a purpose; then, if you have
discovered that you are doing this with reference to a purpose,
consider if it is the right purpose. Do you wish to do good or to be
praised? Immediately you hear him saying, "To me what is the value
of praise from the many?" and he says well, for it is of no value to a
musician, so far as he is a musician, nor to a geometrician. Do you
then wish to be useful? in what? tell us that we may run to your
audience-room. Now can a man do anything useful to others, who has not
received something useful himself? No, for neither can a man do
anything useful in the carpenter's art, unless he is a carpenter;
nor in the shoemaker's art, unless he is a shoemaker.
Do you wish to know then if you have received any advantage? Produce
your opinions, philosopher. What is the thing which desire promises?
Not to fall in the object. What does aversion promise? Not to fall
into that which you would avoid. Well; do we fulfill their promise?
Tell me the truth; but if you lie, I will tell you. Lately when your