"Far better be a tinker," said I.
"Young fellow," said the Tinker, shaking his head reprovingly, "you're off the mark there—knowledge is power; why, Lord love my eyes and limbs! what's finer than to be able to read in the Greek and Latin?"
"To possess the capacity of earning an honest livelihood," said I.
"Why, I tell you," continued the Tinker, unheeding my remark, "I'd give this here left hand o' mine to be able to read the very words of such men as Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Xenophon, and all the rest of 'em."
"There are numerous translations," said I.
"Ah, to be sure!" sighed the Tinker, "but then, they are translations."
"There are good translations as well as bad," said I.
"Maybe," returned the Tinker, "maybe, but a translation's only a echo, after all, however good it be." As he spoke, he dived into his pack and brought forth a book, which he handed to me. It was a smallish volume in battered leathern covers, and had evidently seen much long and hard service. Opening it at the title-page, I read:
Epictetus
his
ENCHIRIDION
with
Simplicius
his
COMMENT.
Made English from the Greek
By
George Stanhope, late Fellow
Of King's College in Camb.
LONDON
Printed for Richard Sare at Gray's Inn Gate in Holborn And Joseph
Hindmarsh against the Exchange in Cornhill.
1649.
"You've read Epictetus, perhaps?" inquired the Tinker.