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    who can understand it , and those who cannot . It is not able to tell iu story to those only to whom it is suitable ; and when it is unjustly criticised , it always needs its author to assist it , for it cannot defend

    itself . * There is another sort of discourse , which is far better and more potent than this / € What is it ?* That which is written scientifically in the learner ' s mind . This is capable of defending itself ; and it can speak itself , or be silent , as it sees fit . ' You mean the real and living discourse of the person who understands the subject ; of which discourse the written one may be called the picture ?* * Precisely . ' c Now , think you that a sensible husbandman would take seed which he valued , and wished to produce a harvest , and would seriously , after the summer had

    begun , scatter it in the gardens of Adonis , * for the pleasure of seeing it spring up and look green in a week ? or , do you not rather think that he might indeed do this for sport and amusement , but , when his purpose was serious , would employ the art of agriculture , and , sowing the seed at the proper time , be content to gather in his harvest in the eighth month ?' The last , undoubtedly . * And do you think that he who possesses the knowledge of what is just , and noble , and good , will deal less prudently

    with hi * seeds than the husbandman with his V * Certainly not . * * He will not , then , seriously set about sowing them with a pen and a black liquid ; or , ( to drop the metaphor , ) scattering these truths by means of discourses which cannot defend themselves against attack , and which are incapable of adequately expounding the truth . No doubt , he will , for the sake of sport , occasionally scatter some of the seeds in this manner , and will thus treasure up memoranda for himself , in case he should fall

    into the forgetfulness of old age , and for all others who follow in the 8 ame track ; and he will be pleased when he sees the blade growing up green . When others play and amuse themselves in other ways , soaking themselves with wine , and so forth , he will choose this as his amusement . ' And a far better one than the other . ' * Assuredly ; but it is a far better employment still , when any one , employing the dialectical art , and

    finding a mind which affords a suitable soil , sows and plants therein , with knowledge , discourses which can defend themselves and him who sows them , and which are not barren , but in their turn bear seed , from whence other discourses being reared up in other minds , can make their truths immortal , and can give to those who possess them , as much happiness as man is capable of .

    * We have now , then , found what we were seeking for ; viz ., to be enabled to judge whether it is justly a reproach to Lysias to be a writer of discourses ; and what was the difference between discourses according to art , and those which are without art . On the subject of art , we have come to the conclusion , that unless a man knows the truth on the subject on which he speaks or writes ,

    and can define the subject itself , and divide it into kinds until he reaches the indivisible ; and , unless he understands the nature of Mind , and having found out what kind of discourne is suitable to each kind of mind , adapts his discourse accordingly ( giving to mindu of complex and diversified structure , discourses of the same kind , and to simple minds , simple discourses )—unless he doeu all this , he does not possess , in the ? T * what thU allude * we are ignorant * and have not at present the raeani of taveatigaiing . The gardens of Adonis were possibly some forcing ground .

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    642 Plato ' * Dialogues ; the Phmdrus *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1834, page 642, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2637/page/38/