xxix PHILOSOPHY UNFASHIONABLE 307 



vexed that we cannot strip it off. One becomes a 

 eunuch, another assumes the scandalous part of a 

 gladiator, and, hired for death, arms for disgrace. 

 The very pauper selects a victim on whom to sate 

 his morbid lust. 



XXXII 



Do you wonder that wisdom has not yet attained r 

 her perfect work? Why, vice has not wholly re- 

 vealed itself. It is still in its infancy, and yet 

 on it we bestow all our efforts ; our eyes and our 

 hands are its slaves. Who attends the school of 

 wisdom now ? Who thinks it worth while to have 

 more than a bowing acquaintance with her ? Who 

 has regard for philosophy or any liberal pursuit, 

 except when a rainy day comes round to interrupt 

 the games, and it may be wasted without loss ? And 

 so the many sects of philosophers are all dying out 2 

 for lack of successors. The Academy, both old and 

 new, has left no disciple. Who is there to hand down 

 the precepts of Pyrrho? That famous school of 

 Pythagoras, despised of the rabble, can find no master. 

 The new sect of the Sextii, which contained the 

 vigour of Rome, started with great enthusiasm, but 

 on the very threshold of its career is also dead. 



But what anxious care we bestow that the name 3 

 of no actor may be lost ! The house of Pylades 

 and Bathyllus stands in a long line of successors. 

 For arts of that kind there are plenty of pupils and 

 plenty of teachers. The actor's platform resounds 

 in every private house in the whole city. On 

 it men and women alike practise the ballet step. 

 Husbands and wives vie in paying court to actors. 

 By and by, when the brow is rubbed smooth by 



