[250]
But what is most astonishing of all is that while they would grant that the mind is superior to the body, nevertheless, in spite of this opinion, they look with greater favor upon training in gymnastics than upon the study of philosophy.1 And yet how unreasonable it is to give higher praise to those who cultivate the less than to those who cultivate the greater thing, and that too when everyone knows it was not through excellence of body that Athens ever accomplished any noteworthy thing, but that through wisdom of men2 she became the most prosperous and the greatest of Hellenic states.
1 Cf. the opening paragraph of Isoc. 4.1 and note.
2 The rendering is here doubtful. Literally it is “through wisdom of a man.” Possibly Isocrates has in mind Pericles and the triumphs of Athens under his administration. Supporting the rendering “of a man” is Isoc. 7.11.
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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