“If you follow my advice, first of all I shall show you many works of men of old, tell you their wondrous deeds and words, and make you conversant with almost all knowledge, and I shall ornament your soul, which concerns you most, with many noble adornments—temperance, justice, piety, kindliness, reasonableness, understanding, steadfastness, love of all that is beautiful, ardour towards all that is sublime; for these are the truly flawless jewels of the soul. Nothing that came to pass of old will escape you; and nothing that must now come to pass; nay, you will even foresee the future with me. In a word, I shall speedily teach you everything that there is, whether it pertains to the gods or to man.

“You who are now the beggarly son of a nobody, who have entertained some thought of so illiberal a trade, will after a little inspire envy and jealousy in all men, for you will be honoured and lauded, you will be held in great esteem for the highest qualities and admired by men_ preeminent in lineage and in wealth, you will wear clothing such as this”—she pointed to her own, and she was very splendidly dressed—“and will be deemed worthy of office and precedence. If ever you go abroad, even on foreign soil you will not be unknown or inconspicuous, for will attach to you such marks of identification that everyone who sees you will nudge his neighbour and point you out with his finger, saying, ‘There he is!’

If anything of grave import befalls your friends or even the entire city, all will turn their eyes upon you; and if at any time you chance to make a speech, the crowd will listen open-mouthed, marvelling and felicitating you upon your eloquence and your father upon his good fortune. They say that some men become immortal. I shall bring this to pass with you; for though you yourself depart from life, you will never cease associating with men of education and conversing with men of eminence. You know whose son Demosthenes was, and how great I made him. You know that Aeschines was the son of a tambourine girl, but for all that, Philip paid court to him for my sake. And Socrates himself was brought upunder the tutelage of our friend Sculpture, but as soon as he understood what was better he ran away from her and joined my colours; and you have heard how his praises are sung by everyone.