Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 4.djvu/377

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Book i.]
THE MISCELLANIES.
373

those who hear. "But instruction wanders reproachless,"[1] it is said. We must be conversant with the art of reasoning, for the purpose of confuting the deceitful opinions of the sophists. Well and felicitously, therefore, does Anaxarchus write in his book respecting "kingly rule:" "Erudition benefits greatly, and hurts greatly him who possesses it; it helps him who is worthy, and injures him who utters readily every word, and before the whole people. It is necessary to know the measure of time. For this is the end of wisdom. And those who sing at the doors, even if they sing skilfully, are not reckoned wise, but have the reputation of folly." And Hesiod:

"Of the Muses, who make a man loquacious, divine, vocal."

For him who is fluent in words he calls loquacious; and him who is clever, vocal; and " divine," him who is skilled, a philosopher, and acquainted with the truth.


  1. Prov. x. 19.