“I confess it was. At least, we neither of us convinced the other.”
“My son, it would have added one more to the seven wonders if you had. I incline to doubt, if two men, in the course of an olympiad, enter on an argument from the honest and single desire of coming at the truth, or if, in the course of a century, one man comes from an argument convinced by his opponent.”
“Well, then, if you will allow me no credit for not being convinced, you may at least for my not being silenced, I, so young an arguer, and Cleanthes so practised a one!”
“You broke the ice beforehand yesterday in the Portico,” said the Philosopher, tapping his shoulder. “After that generous instance of confidence, I shall not marvel if you now find a tongue upon all proper occasions. And trust me, the breaking of the ice is a very important matter. Many an orator has made but one spring to the land, and his legs, after he had taken courage to make the first stroke. Cleanthes himself found this. You know his history? He first appeared in Athens as a wrestler, a stranger to philosophy and learning of all kinds. In our streets, however, the buzz of it could not fail to reach him. He ran full speed into the school of Crates. His curiosity, joined to his complete ignorance, gave him so singular an appearance, and produced from him so many simple questions, and blundering replies, that he received from his fellow disciples the nickname of the Ass. But the Ass persevered, and soon after, entering the Portico he applied with such intense diligence to the unravelling the mysteries of Zeno’s philosophy, that he speedily secured the esteem of his Master, and the respect of his companions. But his timidity was for some time extreme, and probably nothing but a sudden excitement could have enabled him to break through it. This, however, accidentally occurred, and he is now the ready and powerful orator that you know him.”
“I have often heard,” said Theon, “and really not without some scepticism, the change that a few years have wrought in Cleanthes;—a brawny wrestler! who could believe it? and a dull, ignorant Barbarian!”
“The world always adds marvel to the marvellous. A brawny wrestler he never was; though certainly something stouter and squarer in person than he is now; and though ignorant, he was not dull. Intense application, and some say, the fasting of poverty, as well as temperance, rapidly reduced his body, and spiritualized his mind.”
“The fasting of poverty!” cried Theon, “do you believe this?”
“I fear it is possible,” returned the Master. “At least it is asserted that he possessed but four drachmas when he left the school of wrestling for that of philosophy; and it does not well appear that he now follows any other trade than that of a scholar; one which certainly brings very little nourishment to the body, whatever it might do to the mind.”
“But his Master; do you think Zeno would suffer him to want the necessaries of life?”
“The actual necessaries, somehow or other, he certainly has; but I can believe he will make very few serve, and procure those few with some difficulty, rather than be indebted even to his Master.”