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home:texts_and_library:essays:the-vision [2019/07/10 20:28] – [15] frankhome:texts_and_library:essays:the-vision [2019/07/10 20:29] (current) – [18] frank
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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. 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'sJupiter 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'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] XenophonIn 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. 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 reasonThat 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.))
  
home/texts_and_library/essays/the-vision.1562808510.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/07/10 20:28 by frank

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