There are also some liberal arts which are not improper for
freemen to apply to in a certain degree; but to endeavour to acquire a
perfect skill in them is exposed to the faults I have just mentioned;
for there is a great deal of difference in the reason for which any
one does or learns anything: for it is not illiberal to engage in it
for one's self, one's friend, or in the cause of virtue; while, at the
same time, to do it for the sake of another may seem to be acting the
part of a servant and a slave. The mode of instruction which now
prevails seems to partake of both parts.
CHAPTER III
There are four things which it is usual to teach children--reading,
gymnastic exercises, and music, to which (in the fourth place) some
add painting. Reading and painting are both of them of singular use
in life, and gymnastic exercises, as productive of courage. As to
music, some persons may doubt, as most persons now use it for the sake
of pleasure: but those who originally made it part of education did
it because, as has been already said, nature requires that we should
not only be properly employed, but to be able to enjoy leisure
honourably: for this (to repeat what I have already said) is of all
things the principal. But, though both labour and rest are
necessary, yet the latter is preferable to the first; and by all means
we ought to learn what we should do when at rest: for we ought not to
employ that time at play; for then play would be the necessary
business of our lives.
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