of rustic labour 279 



attendance at his lectures in town. What is to hinder the pupil, while 

 he works at his teacher's side, from catching his utterances on self- 

 control or justice or fortitude? For the right pursuit of philosophy is 

 not promoted by much talking, and young men are under no necessity 

 to learn off the mass of speculation on these topics, an accomplishment 

 of which the Professors 1 are so vain. For such discourses are indeed 

 sufficient to use up a man's lifetime: but it is possible to pick up the 

 most indispensable and useful points even when one is engaged in the 

 work of husbandry, especially as the work will not be unceasing but 

 admits periods of rest. Now I am well aware that few will be willing 

 to receive instruction by this method : but it is better that the majority 

 of youths who profess the pursuit of philosophy should never attend a 

 philosopher at all, I mean those unsound effeminate creatures whose 

 presence at the classes is a stain upon the name of philosophy. For of 

 those that have a genuine love of philosophy not one would be unwill- 

 ing to spend his time with a good man on a farm, aye though that farm 

 were one most difficult 2 to work; seeing that he would reap great ad- 

 vantages from this employment. He would have the company of his 

 teacher night and day; he would be removed from the evils of city life, 

 which are a stumbling-block to the pursuit of philosophy; his conduct, 

 good or bad, could not escape notice (and nothing benefits a pupil 

 more than this); moreover, to be under the eye of a good man when 

 eating and drinking and sleeping is a great benefit/ 



At this point the writer digresses for a moment to quote some 

 lines of Theognis and to interpret them in a sense favourable to his own 

 views. He then continues 'And let no one say that husbandry is a 

 hindrance to learning or teaching. Surely it is not so, if we reflect that 

 under these conditions the pupil enjoys most fully the company of his 

 teacher while the teacher has the fullest control of his pupil. Such 

 then being the state of the case, it is clear that of the philosopher's 

 resources none is more useful or more becoming than that drawn from 

 husbandry.' 



In this extract three points simply stand for princilgs_^flf . tn all J 

 sincere^ Stoics ; (i^ the duty and benefit of living 'according to Nature,' / 

 (2^Jthe duty ancTbenefit of self-sufficiency and not depending on the C 

 Support of others, (3) the duty and satisfaction of continued self-im- \ 

 provement. Consistent practice on these lines would go far to produce ^ 

 the Stoic ideal, the Wise Man, happy and perfect in his assurance and 

 dignity. But the attempt to combine all these in a ' back to the land ' 

 scheme of moral betterment has surely in it a marked personal note. 

 It is the dream of a singular man in the surroundings of a rotten civi- 

 lization* ; a civilization more rotten, and a dream more Utopian, than 



