prejudice his position, for it is not considered disgraceful among
the Greeks.'*
I have always thought it unreasonable to condemn this
amusement, and unjust to refuse entrance into our large cities
to actors who are worth seeing, thus begrudging the populace
a pubic entertainment. Wise administrators take care to assemble
and unite their citizens, not only for the serious duties of
religion, but for sports and spectacles as well, to the enhancement
of good-fellowship and friendship among them. And no
more orderly amusements could be found for them than those
that take place with everyone present and beneath the eye of the
magistrate himself For my part, I should think it reasonable if
the magistrate and the prince were sometimes to give the
people a show at their own expense, out of paternal kindness
and affection, and if in populous cities there should be places
appointed and set apart for these spectacles - as a diversion from
worse actions performed in secret.
To return to my subject, there is nothing like tempting the
appetite and the interest; otherwise we shall produce only book-laden
asses. With strokes of the birch we put a pocketful of
learning into our pupils' keeping, But if it is to be of any use, it
should not merely be kept within. It should be indissolubly
wedded to the mind.