Among wise men, I maintain, the most praiseworthy are they who not only have spoken cleverly
on their particular subjects, but have made their
assertions good by doing things to match them.
Take doctors, for instance: a man of sense, on falling
ill, does not send for those who can talk about their
profession best, but for those who have trained
themselves to accomplish something in it. Likewise a
musician who can himself play the lyre and the cithara
is better, surely, than one who simply has a good ear
for rhythm and harmony. And why need I tell you
that the generals who have been rightly judged’ the
best were good not only at marshalling their forces
and addressing them, but at heading charges and at
doughty deeds? Such, we know, were Agamemnon
and Achilles of old, Alexander and Pyrrhus more
recently.

 
Why have I said all this? It was not out of an
ill-timed desire to air my knowledge of history that
I brought it up, but because the same. thing is true
of engineers—we ought to admire those who, though
famous for knowledge, have yet left to later generations reminders and proofs of their practical skill,
for men trained in words alone would better be called


 

wiseacres than wise. Such an engineer we are told,
was Archimedes, and also Sostratus of Cnidus, The
latter took Memphis for Ptolemy without a siege by
turning the river aside and dividing it; the former
burned the ships of the enemy by means of his
science. And before their time Thales of Miletus,
who had promised Croesus to set his army across the
Halys dryshod, thanks to his ingenuity brought the
river round behind the camp in a single night.
Yet he was not an engineer: he was wise, however, and very able at devising plans and grasping
problems. . As for the case of Epeius, it is prehistoric :
he is said not only to have made the wooden horse
for the Achaeans but to have gone into it along
with them.
 

Among these men Hippias, our own contemporary, deserves mention. Not only is he trained as
highly in the art of speech as any of his predecessors,
and alike quick of comprehension and clear in exposition, but he is better at action than speech, and fulfils
his professional promises, not merely doing so in those
matters in which his predecessors succeeded in
getting to the fore, but, as the geometricians put it,
knowing how to construct a triangle accurately on a
given base. In other words, he has originality. Moreover, whereas each of the others
marked off some one department of science and
sought fame in it, making a name for himself in
spite of this delimitation, he, on the contrary, is
clearly a leader in harmony and music as well as in
engineering and geometry, and yet he shows as



 

great perfection in each of these fields as if he knew
nothing else. It would take no little time to sing
his praises in the doctrine of rays and refraction and
mirrors, or in astronomy, in which he made his predecessors appear’ children,

 

but I shall not hesitate
to speak of one of his achievements which I recently
looked upon with wonder. Though the undertaking
is a commonplace, and in our days a very frequent
one, the construction of a bath, yet his thoughtfulness and intelligence even in this commonplace
matter is marvellous.
The site was not flat, but quite sloping and steep;
it was extremely low on one side when he took it in
hand, but he made it level, not only constructing a
firm basis for the entire work and laying foundations
to ensure the safety of the superstructure, but
strengthening the whole with buttresses, very sheer
and, for security’s sake, close together. The building
suits the magnitude of the site, accords well with
the accepted idea of such an establishment, and
shows regard for the principles of lighting.

 
The entrance is high, with a flight of broad
steps of which the tread is greater than the pitch,
to make them easy to ascend. On entering, one
is received into a public hall of good size, with
ample accommodations for servants and attendants.
On the left are the lounging-rooms, also of just
the right sort for a bath, attractive, brightly lighted


 

retreats, Then, beside them, a hall, larger than
need be for the purposes of a bath, but necessary
for the reception of the rich. Next, capacious
locker-rooms to undress in, on each side, with a very
high and brilliantly lighted hall between them, in
which are three swimming-pools of cold water; it
is finished in Laconian marble, and has two statues
of white marble in the ancient technique, one of
Hygieia, the other of Aesculapius.