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I have learned of your fairmindedness, Polycrates, and of the reversal in your life, through information from others; and having myself read certain of the discourses which you have written, I should have been greatly pleased to discuss frankly with you and fully the education with which you have been obliged to occupy yourself. For I believe that when men through no fault of their own are unfortunate and so seek in philosophy a source of gain,1 it is the duty of all who have had a wider experience in that occupation, and have become more thoroughly versed in it, to make this contribution2 voluntarily for their benefit.
1 That is, from the teaching of the subject.
2 For the figure of speech in ἔρανος see Isoc. 10.20 and Plat. Sym.177c.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
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