APOLLO 
This Timocles is an upright, God-fearing man and
he is thoroughly up in the Stoic doctrines, so that
he gives lessons to many of the young men
-and collects large fees for it, being very plausible
when he disputes privately with his pupils; but he
utterly lacks the courage to speak before a crowd
and his language is vulgar and half-foreign, so that
he gets laughed at for that reason when he appears
in public, for he does not talk fluently but stammers
and gets confused, especially when in spite of these
faults he wants to make a show of fine language.
His intellect, to be sure, is exceedingly keen and
subtle, as people say who know more than I about
Stoicism, but in lecturing and expounding he weakens
and obscures his points by his incapacity, not making
his meaning clear but presenting propositions that
are like riddles and returning answers that are still
more unintelligible; hence the others failing to com-


 

prehend, laugh at him. But it is essential to speak
clearly, I think, and beyond all else to take great
pains to be understood by the hearers.

 MOMUS 
You were right, Apollo, in praising people who
speak clearly, even though you yourself do not do
it at all, for in your oracles you are ambiguous and
riddling and you unconcernedly toss most of them
into the debatable ground so that your hearers need
another Apollo to interpret them. But what do
you advise as the next step, what remedy for
Timocles’ helplessness in debate ?

 APOLLO 
To give him a spokesman if possible, Momus, one of
those eloquent chaps who will say fittingly whatever
Timocles thinks of and suggests.
 MOMUS 
Truly a puerile suggestion which shows that you
still need a tutor, that we should bring a spokesman
into a meeting of philosophers to interpret the
opinions of Timocles to the company, and that Damis
should speak in his own person and unaided while
the other, making use of a proxy, privately whispers
his ideas into his ear and the proxy does the speaking,
perhaps without even understanding what he hears,
Wouldn’t that be fun for the crowd! No, let’s
think of some other way to manage this thing.