Furthermore, the cultivation of practical wisdom may also reasonably be attributed to
 Busiris. For example, he saw to it that from the revenues of the sacrifices the priests
 should acquire affluence, but self-control through the purifications prescribed by the
 laws, and leisure by exemption from the hazards of fighting and from all work. And the priests, because they enjoyed such conditions of life, discovered for the body
 the aid which the medical art affords Cf. Hdt. 2.84 and Hdt. 3.129 . , not
 that which uses dangerous drugs, but drugs of such a nature that they are as harmless as
 daily food, yet in their effects are so beneficial that all men agree the Egyptians are
 the healthiest and most long of life among men; and then for the soul they introduced
 philosophy’s training, a pursuit which has the power, not only to establish laws, but also
 to investigate the nature of the universe. The older men Busiris appointed to have charge of the most important matters, but the
 younger he persuaded to forgo all pleasures and devote themselves to the study of the
 stars, to arithmetic, and to geometry; the value of these sciences For the views of Isocrates in regard to the sciences see Isoc. 12.26-27 . some praise for their utility in certain ways, while
 others attempt to demonstrate that they are conducive in the highest measure to the
 attainment of virtue. The piety of the Egyptians and their worship of the gods are especially deserving of
 praise and admiration. For all persons who have so bedizened themselves as to create the
 impression that they possess greater wisdom, or some other excellence, than they can
 rightly claim, certainly do harm to their dupes; but those persons who have so championed
 the cause of religion that divine rewards and punishments are made to appear more certain
 than they prove to be, such men, I say, benefit in the greatest measure the lives of men.
 For actually those who in the beginning inspired in us our fear of the gods, brought it
 about that we in our relations to one another are not altogether like wild beasts In Isoc. 3.6 , Isocrates affirms
 that the power of speech and of reason has enables us to escape the life of wild beasts.
 See also Isoc. 4.48 ff. So great, moreover, is the
 piety and the solemnity with which the Egyptians deal with these matters that not only are
 the oaths taken in their sanctuaries more binding than is the case elsewhere, but each
 person believes that he will pay the penalty for his misdeeds immediately and that he will
 neither escape detection for the present nor will the punishment be deferred to his
 children’s time.