359
version are not difficult. In every city is to be found anorder of men of whom as yet you are ignorant, calledmagistri, or masters. By giving them a small part ofyour property, you will make yourself sure of the remain-der, and from them you will learn that kind of eloquencewhich is termed forensick: an art not difficult to be ac-quired. If I had been acquainted with you in your youth,I should have advised you to frequent the doors of the so-phists and philosophers; and to fence round your housewith every kind of knowledge. But as the time of makingthese intellectual acquirements is gone by, learn now, atleast, an eloquence that will defend yourself; and remem-ber, that had you acquired a more perfect kind of know-ledge, you would have resembled a soldier rendered formi-dable by his heavy armour; even yet, should you learn theart of rhetoric, you will have the armour worn by thelight troops, and with it will be able to drive away syco-phants as you would dogs. The young man fully sensibleof what was said, gave up his passion for birds, and fre-quented the schools of the masters, by whom the powers ofhis understanding and language were improved and aug-mented.
CHAP. XXXVII.
THERE were two stories prevalent at Sardis, one was,that the Pactolus* of old supplied Crassus with his gold,and the other that the. trees were older than the earth.The first Apollonius said was probably true, because itwas known that the mountain Tmolus contained gold dust,which, when loosened by the rains, was carried down the