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Some persons say that the Sophists are the corrupters of youth;

but is not public opinion the real Sophist who is everywhere

present-in those very persons, in the assembly, in the courts, in

the camp, in the applauses and hisses of the theatre re-echoed by

the surrounding hills? Will not a young man's heart leap amid

these discordant sounds? and will any education save him from

being carried away by the torrent? Nor is this all. For if he

will not yield to opinion, there follows the gentle compulsion of

exile or death. What principle of rival Sophists or anybody else

can overcome in such an unequal contest? Characters there may be

more than human, who are exceptions-God may save a man, but not

his own strength. Further, I would have you consider that the

hireling Sophist only gives back to the world their own opinions;

he is the keeper of the monster, who knows how to flatter or

anger him, and observes the meaning of his inarticulate grunts.