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Why then, pray, did you use to teach us the opposite of this when we were boys and youths?
Aye, by Zeus, said he; and so we would have you still towards your friends and fellow-citizens; but, that you might be able to hurt your enemies, do you not know that you all were learning many villainies?
No, indeed, father, said he; not I, at any rate.
Why said he, did you learn to shoot, and why to throw the spear? Why did you learn to ensnare wild boars with nets and pitfalls, and deer with traps and toils? And why were you not used to confront lions and bears and leopards in a fair fight face to face instead of always trying to contend against them with some advantage on your side? Why, do you not know that all this is villainy and deceit and trickery and taking unfair advantage?
Why then, pray, did you use to teach us the opposite of this when we were boys and youths?
Aye, by Zeus, said he; and so we would have you still towards your friends and fellow-citizens; but, that you might be able to hurt your enemies, do you not know that you all were learning many villainies?
No, indeed, father, said he; not I, at any rate.
Why said he, did you learn to shoot, and why to throw the spear? Why did you learn to ensnare wild boars with nets and pitfalls, and deer with traps and toils? And why were you not used to confront lions and bears and leopards in a fair fight face to face instead of always trying to contend against them with some advantage on your side? Why, do you not know that all this is villainy and deceit and trickery and taking unfair advantage?
Cyropaedia. Xenophon. Walter Miller (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1914.
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