“On the other hand, if you turn your back upon
these men so great and noble, upon glorious deeds
and sublime words, upon a dignified appearance,
upon honour, esteem, praise, precedence, power and
offices, upon fame for eloquence and felicitations for
wit, then you will put on a filthy tunic, assume a
servile appearance, and hold bars and gravers and
sledges and chisels in your hands, with your back bent
over your work; you will be a groundling, with groundling ambitions, altogether humble ; you will never lift
your head, or conceive a single manly or liberal
thought, and although you will plan to make your
works well-balanced and well-shapen, you will not
show any concern to make yourself well-balanced and
sightly ; on the contrary, you will make yourself a
thing of less value than a block of stone.”

 

While these words were still on her lips, without
waiting for her to finish what she was saying, I stood
up and declared myself. Abandoning the ugly


 

working-woman, I went over to Education with a
right good will, especially when the stick entered
my mind and the fact that it had laid many a blow
upon me at the very outset the day before. When
I abandoned Sculpture, at first she was indignant
and struck her hands together and ground her
teeth ; but at length, like Niobe in the story, she
grew rigid and turned to stone. Her fate was
strange, but do not be incredulous, for dreams work
miracles.

 
The other fixed her eyes upon me and said: “I
will therefore repay you for the justice that you have
done in judging this issue rightly : come at once and
mount this car”—pointing to a car with winged
horses resembling Pegasus—“in order that you may
know what you would have missed if you had not
come with me.” When I had mounted she plied whip
and reins, and I was carried up into the heights and
went from the East to the very West, surveying
cities and nations and peoples, sowing something
broadcast over the earth like Triptolemus. I do not
now remember what it was that I sowed; only that
men, looking up from below, applauded, and all those
above whom I passed in my flight sped me on my way
with words of praise.