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--- home:texts_and_library:essays:the-vision [2019/07/10 20:27] – [8] frank
+++ home:texts_and_library:essays:the-vision [2019/07/10 20:29] (current) – [18] frank
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 "I, my son, am Eloquence, not unknown to, though at present not fully possessed by you; what advantages you will reap by turning statuary she has already told you: to be nothing but a low mechanic, living on the work of your hands, and confining all your hopes and desires to that alone; getting a mean and scanty maintenance in obscurity, poor and dejected, neither serviceable to your friends, nor formidable to your enemies, neither courted nor envied by your fellow-citizens; a low plebeian, always, like the timid hare, in dread of your superiors, and looking up with adoration to the great and eloquent above you, on whom you must depend for support: should you even produce the noblest works, and become a Phidias or Polycletus, all men will admire your skill, but not one, whilst they are in their senses, will wish to change conditions with you; for, after all, you will be considered as a vulgar mechanic, who lives by the labor[1] of his hands.
-> [1] Lives by the labor] The word in the original is remarkable, and could not be translated literally, Cheironax, //dominus five rex manuum//, one who is master of nothing but his hands.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
+> [1] Lives by the labor | The word in the original is remarkable, and could not be translated literally, Cheironax, //dominus five rex manuum//, one who is master of nothing but his hands.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
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 you who are now poor and unknown, the son of an obscure and indigent father, going to embrace a mean and illiberal profession, shall soon be the envy and admiration of all men, crowned with glory and honor, praised and caressed by the rich and great, clothed in such a garment as this, and (shewing her own splendid vest) you shall be placed placed in the first seat, adorned with, and raised to rank and precedency. If you travel, even in foreign countries you shall not live unknown or inglorious; for I will render you so illustrious, that whosoever beholds you shall point you out to his neighbor, and say, "that is he."[1]
-> [1] That is he] Digito monstrari & dicier: hie est. Pers. fati,
+> [1] That is he | Digito monstrari & dicier: hie est. Pers. fati,
 > Muneris hoc tui est
 > Quod monstror digito praetereuntiumr
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 Socrates[2] himself, bred up by a statuary, turned his mind to other things; he quit his profession, and came to me; and is not he the theme of every song?
-> [1] Aeschines] A great orator, and rival of Demosthenes, whose Philippics so stung the powerful invader of the liberties of Greece, that he applied to Aeschines to answer them. See Aelian.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
+> [1] Aeschines | A great orator, and rival of Demosthenes, whose Philippics so stung the powerful invader of the liberties of Greece, that he applied to Aeschines to answer them. See Aelian.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
-> [2] Socrates] As Diogenes Laertius informs us, was the son of Sophroniscus, a statuary, and Phanarete, a midwife.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
+> [2] Socrates | As Diogenes Laertius informs us, was the son of Sophroniscus, a statuary, and Phanarete, a midwife.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
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 What it was [2] I dropped upon them myself I cannot remember; I only know, that wherever I went, men looked up to and addressed me like a deity with prayers and praises.
-> [1] Like Triptolemus] Triptolemus, king of Eleusis, is said to have first brought into Greece the worship of Ceres, who, in return for his civilities, equipped him with a fine chariot drawn by two dragons, in which he drove round the world, and as he flew along scattered seeds upon the earth. The invention of the plough is likewise ascribed to him. The foundation of this story is probably no more than that Triptolemus was one of the first who practiced husbandry, and perhaps wrote some books concerning it, which were transported into foreign countries in a ship called the Dragon.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
+> [1] Like Triptolemus | Triptolemus, king of Eleusis, is said to have first brought into Greece the worship of Ceres, who, in return for his civilities, equipped him with a fine chariot drawn by two dragons, in which he drove round the world, and as he flew along scattered seeds upon the earth. The invention of the plough is likewise ascribed to him. The foundation of this story is probably no more than that Triptolemus was one of the first who practiced husbandry, and perhaps wrote some books concerning it, which were transported into foreign countries in a ship called the Dragon.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
-> [2] What it was] Though Lucian modestly pretends not to know, his readers, however, can tell what it was he dropped on this occasion, viz. a large quantity of good sense, wit, and humor, which are scattered throughout his works.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
+> [2] What it was | Though Lucian modestly pretends not to know, his readers, however, can tell what it was he dropped on this occasion, viz. a large quantity of good sense, wit, and humor, which are scattered throughout his works.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
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 What does he mean by trifling so with us, and talking of his boyish dreams; does he think we have nothing to do but to be his interpreter? Such-frigid speeches as these are always ridiculous. But, soft and fair, my good friends; Xenophon[2] was not of that opinion, when he told you what he dreamed at home and elsewhere; he designed it not merely as an idle fiction, to divert you, as you may suppose by his doing it in the time of war, at a dangerous crisis, and even surrounded by enemies, but because he thought the relation of it might be useful to mankind.
-> [1] Hercules's] Jupiter is said to have spent three nights with Alcmena when he begat Hercules. These three nights Lucian humorously calls Hercules's dream.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
+> [1] Hercules's | Jupiter is said to have spent three nights with Alcmena when he begat Hercules. These three nights Lucian humorously calls Hercules's dream.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
-> [2] Xenophon] In the two dreams of Xenophon, as related in the third and fourth books of his Anabasis, or Retreat of the Ten Thousand.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
+> [2] Xenophon | In the two dreams of Xenophon, as related in the third and fourth books of his Anabasis, or Retreat of the Ten Thousand.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
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 And for the same reason[1] I have told you my dream, that by it I might persuade our young men to the study of literature; more especially if any of them, induced by poverty, should be inclined to throw away good parts and genius, and embrace some mean and illiberal profession; whoever they may be, I am satisfied they would change their resolution when they heard this discourse, and would follow my example, when they reflected on what I was, when, turning my mind to better things, I applied to literature, without regard to the narrowness of my circumstances, and considering what I am, as I now appear before you, at least preferable, if nothing more, to a statuary.
-> [1] For the same reason] That is, Xenophon did not tell his dream to the officers about: him merely to entertain and divert them; it was not a Fiction, (which is the best sense we can put on the word hypocrisis but a real vision; he was in earnest, and so am I; his dream was attended with the best: consequences, and so I hope will mine; his saved the army, and mine perhaps may save many a young man from throwing away his time and talents on views much beneath him! This is Lucian's meaning in his allusion to Xenophon, which does not so well appear at first reading; the Greek is in this place rather obscure.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))
+> [1] For the same reason | That is, Xenophon did not tell his dream to the officers about: him merely to entertain and divert them; it was not a Fiction, (which is the best sense we can put on the word hypocrisis but a real vision; he was in earnest, and so am I; his dream was attended with the best: consequences, and so I hope will mine; his saved the army, and mine perhaps may save many a young man from throwing away his time and talents on views much beneath him! This is Lucian's meaning in his allusion to Xenophon, which does not so well appear at first reading; the Greek is in this place rather obscure.((Select Dialogues: Of Lucian, Translated from the Greek by Thomas Franklin, D.D. The Sungraphein, by G. W. Vernon, Esq. William M’Kenzie, 1792.))