Pagina 651 di 734

But of the Sophists they who profess to teach it are plainly a

long way off from doing so: in fact, they have no knowledge at

all of its nature and objects; if they had, they would never have

put it on the same footing with Rhetoric or even on a lower:

neither would they have conceived it to be "an easy matter to

legislate by simply collecting such laws as are famous because of

course one could select the best," as though the selection were

not a matter of skill, and the judging aright a very great

matter, as in Music: for they alone, who have practical knowledge

of a thing, can judge the performances rightly or understand with

what means and in what way they are accomplished, and what

harmonises with what: the unlearned must be content with being

able to discover whether the result is good or bad, as in

painting.