purposes for which I received it, and shall I grieve and lament over
what happens?

  "Yes, but my nose runs." For what purpose then, slave, have you
hands? Is it not that you may wipe your nose? "Is it, then, consistent
with reason that there should be running of noses in the world?"
Nay, how much better it is to wipe your nose than to find fault.
What do you think that Hercules would have been if there had not
been such a lion, and hydra, and stag, and boar, and certain unjust
and bestial men, whom Hercules used to drive away and clear out? And
what would he have been doing if there had been nothing of the kind?
Is it not plain that he would have wrapped himself up and have
slept? In the first place, then he would not have been a Hercules,
when he was dreaming away all his life in such luxury and case; and
even if he had been one what would have been the use of him? and
what the use of his arms, and of the strength of the other parts of
his body, and his endurance and noble spirit, if such circumstances
and occasions had not roused and exercised him? "Well, then, must a
man provide for himself such means of exercise, and to introduce a
lion from some place into his country, and a boar and a hydra?" This
would be folly and madness: but as they did exist, and were found,
they were useful for showing what Hercules was and for exercising him.
Come then do you also having observed these things look to the
faculties which you have, and when you have looked at them, say:
"Bring now, O Zeus, any difficulty that Thou pleasest, for I have
means given to me by Thee and powers for honoring myself through the
things which happen." You do not so; but you sit still, trembling
for fear that some things will happen, and weeping, and lamenting
and groaning for what does happen: and then you blame the gods. For
what is the consequence of such meanness of spirit but impiety? And
yet God has not only given us these faculties; by which we shall be
able to bear everything that happens without being depressed or broken
by it; but, like a good king and a true father, He has given us
these faculties free from hindrance, subject to no compulsion
unimpeded, and has put them entirely in our own power, without even
having reserved to Himself any power of hindering or impeding. You,
who have received these powers free and as your own, use them not: you
do not even see what you have received, and from whom; some of you
being blinded to the giver, and not even acknowledging your
benefactor, and others, through meanness of spirit, betaking
yourselves to fault finding and making charges against God. Yet I will
show to you that you have powers and means for greatness of soul and
manliness but what powers you have for finding fault and making
accusations, do you show me.

  CHAPTER 7

  Of the use of sophistical arguments, and hypothetical, and the like

  The handling of sophistical and hypothetical arguments, and of those
which derive their conclusions from questioning, and in a word the
handling of all such arguments, relates to the duties of life,
though the many do not know this truth. For in every matter we inquire
how the wise and good man shall discover the proper path and the
proper method of dealing with the matter. Let, then, people either say
that the grave man will not descend into the contest of question and
answer, or that, if he does descend into the contest, he will take
no care about not conducting himself rashly or carelessly in
questioning and answering. But if they do not allow either the one
or the other of these things, they must admit that some inquiry
ought to be made into those topics on which particularly questioning
and answering are employed. For what is the end proposed in reasoning?
To establish true propositions, to remove the false, to withhold
assent from those which are not plain. Is it enough then to have
learned only this? "It is enough," a man may reply. Is it, then,
also enough for a man, who would not make a mistake in the use of
coined money, to have heard this precept, that he should receive the
genuine drachmae and reject the spurious? "It is not enough." What,
then, ought to be added to this precept? What else than the faculty
which proves and distinguishes the genuine and the spurious
drachmae? Consequently also in reasoning what has been said is not
enough; but is it necessary that a man should acquire the faculty of
examining and distinguishing the true and the false, and that which is
not plain? "It is necessary." Besides this, what is proposed in
reasoning? "That you should accept what follows from that which you
have properly granted." Well, is it then enough in this case also to
know this? It is not enough; but a man must learn how one thing is a
consequence of other things, and when one thing follows from one
thing, and when it follows from several collectively. Consider, then
if it be not necessary that this power should also be acquired by
him who purposes to conduct himself skillfully in reasoning, the power
of demonstrating himself the several things which he has proposed, and
the power of understanding the demonstrations of others, including
of not being deceived by sophists, as if they were demonstrating.
Therefore there has arisen among us the practice and exercise of
conclusive arguments and figures, and it has been shown to be
necessary.

  But in fact in some cases we have properly granted the premisses
or assumptions, and there results from them something; and though it
is not true, yet none the less it does result. What then ought I to
do? Ought I to admit the falsehood? And how is that possible? Well,
should I say that I did not properly grant that which we agreed
upon? "But you are not allowed to do even this." Shall I then say that
the consequence does not arise through what has been conceded? "But
neither is it allowed." What then must be done in this case?
Consider if it is not this: as to have borrowed is not enough to
make a man still a debtor, but to this must be added the fact that
he continues to owe the money and that the debt is not paid, so it
is not enough to compel you to admit the inference that you have