The same thing is bound to happen, I think, to a man who tries to show his eloquence among works of art like these. Amid the mass of beautiful things, what he says goes unheeded, vanishes and is absorbed, as if a candle were taken toa great fire and thrown in, or’ an ant pointed out on the back of an elephant or a camel. This danger, certainly, the speaker must guard against, and also that his voice be not disturbed when he speaks in a hall so musical and echoing, for it resounds, replies, refutes—in fact, it drowns his utterance, just as the trumpet drowns the flute when they are played together, and as the sea drowns chanty-men when they undertake to sing for the rowers against the noise of the surf. For the great volume of sound overpowers and crushes into silence all that is weaker.

"As to the other point which my opponent made, that a beautiful hall spurs a speaker on and makes him more ambitious, I think it does the opposite. It dazzles and frightens him, disturbs his thought and makes him more timid, for he reflects that it is disgraceful beyond everything that his discourse should not match a place so beautiful. For such surroundings put a man most clearly to the proof. It is ’ asif he should put on a handsome coat of mail and then take to his heels.before the rest, making his cowardice only the more conspicuous for his armour. This, ‘I think, is the consideration which causes Homer's famous oratorOdysseus: Il. 3, 219. to think very little of good-looks and even make himself appear ‘ an utter know-nothing’ in order that the beauty of his words may seem more striking by comparison with that which is uglier. Besides, it is inevitable that the speaker’s own mind should be occupied in looking, and that the accuracy of his thinking should be disturbed because what he is looking at gets the better of him, attracts him and ‘does not allow him to attend to what he is saying. So how can he help speaking very badly, when in spirit he is busied with the praise of all that he sees?

“I forbear to say that even those who are present and have been invited to the lecture become spectators instead of hearers when they enter such a hall as this, and no speaker is enough of a Demodocus, a Phemius, a Thamyris, an Amphion or an Orpheus to distract their minds from looking. Why, every one of them is flooded with beauty the instant he crosses the threshold, and does not give the least sign of hearing Il, 23, 430. what the speaker says or anything else, but is all absorbed in what he sees, unless he is stone-blind or like the court of the Areopagus, listens in the dark!

That the power of the tongue is no match for the eyes, one can learn by comparing the story of the Sirens with the one about the Gorgons. The Sirens charmed passing voyagers by making music and working on them with songs, and held them long when they put in. In short, their performance only exacted a delay, and no doubt one or another voyager went by them, neglecting their music. On the contrary, the beauty of the Gorgons, ° being extremely powerful and affecting the very vitals of the soul, stunned its beholdersand made them speechless, so that, as the story has it and everyone says, they turned to stone in wonder. For this reason I count what my opponent said to you a moment ago about the peacock a plea for my side: surely his attractiveness is in his looks, not in his voice! If anybody should match a nightingale or a swan against him, letting them sing - and showing the peacock silent while they were singing, I “know well that your soul would go over to him, bidding a long farewell to their songs. So invincible, it seems, is the delight of the eyes!

If you wish, I will produce you a witness in the person of a sage, who will testify on the spot that what one sees is far more effective than what one hears. Crier, summon in person Herodotus, son ‘of Lyxus, of Halicarnassus. Since he has been so kind as to comply, let him take the stand and give his testimony. Suffer him to speak to you in Ionic, to which he is accustomed. “'Master Point o’ View telleth ye true herein. Believe whatso he sayeth to this matter, esteeming sight over hearing, for in sooth ears be less trusty than eyes.’ Only the last clause is really Herodotean (I, 8, 3). “Do you hear what the witness says, that he gives the palm to sight? With reason, for words are winged and go flying off the instant they have left the lips, while the beauty of things seen is always present and lasting and entices the spectator, will he, nill he.