VI. 6–8. ANTISTHENES

"It is strange," said he, "that we weed out the darnel Weeds that look like wheat. from the corn and the unfit in war, but do not excuse evil men from the service of the state." When he was asked what advantage had accrued to him from philosophy, his answer was, "The ability to hold converse with myself." Some one having called upon him over the wine for a song, he replied, "Then you must accompany me on the pipe." When Diogenes begged a coat of him, he bade him fold his cloak around him double. Being asked what learning is the most necessary, he replied, "How to get rid of having anything to unlearn." And he advised that when men are slandered, they should endure it more courageously than if they were pelted with stones.

And he used to taunt Plato with being conceited. At all events, when in a procession he spied a spirited charger, he said, turning to Plato, "It seems to me that you would have made just such a proud, showy steed." This because Plato was constantly praising horseflesh. And one day he visited Plato, who was ill, and seeing the basin into which Plato had vomited, remarked, "The bile I see, but not the pride." He used to recommend the Athenians to vote that asses are horses. When they deemed this absurd, his reply was, "But yet generals are found among you who have had no training, but were merely elected." "Many men praise you," said one. "Why, what wrong have I done?" was his rejoinder. When he turned the torn part of his cloak so that it came into view, Socrates no sooner saw this than he said, "I spy your love of fame peeping through your cloak." Phanias in his work on the Socratics tells us how some one asked him