"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 orator Odysseus: 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!