I see, moreover, that fortune is on our side and that the present circumstances are in league with us; for you are eager for education and I profess to educate; you are ripe for philosophyFor the meaning of “philosophy” in Isocrates see Introduction, pp. xxv. ff. and I direct students of philosophy. Now those who compose hortatory discourses addressed to their own friends are, no doubt, engaged in a laudable employment;

yet they do not occupy themselves with the most vital part of philosophy. Those, on the contrary, who point out to the young, not by what means they may cultivate skill in oratory, but how they may win repute as men of sound character, are rendering a greater serviceHermogenes, Περὶ μεθόδου δεινότητος, 25, refers to this introduction as an example of inoffensive self-laudation in the orators. to their hearers in that, while the former exhort them to proficiency in speech, the latter improve their moral conduct.For Isocrates’ insistence on right conduct as the end of education see Introduction, p. xxv.