The multitude treat these latter as men corrupted by the Sophists. But this is a mistake. Neither Sophists nor other private individuals produce mischief worth mentioning. It is the multitude themselves, utterers of these complaints, who are the most active Sophists and teachers: it is they who educate and mould every individual, man and woman, young and old, into such a character as they please.[161] When they are assembled in the public assembly or the dikastery, in the theatre or the camp--when they praise some things and blame others, with vociferation and vehemence echoed from the rocks around--how irresistible will be the impression produced upon the mind of a youth who hears them! No private training which he may have previously received can hold out against it. All will be washed away by this impetuous current of multitudinous praise or blame, which carries him along with it. He will declare honourable or base the same things as they declare to be so: he will adopt the character, and follow the pursuits, which they enjoin. Moreover, if he resists such persuasive influence, these multitudinous teachers and Sophists have stronger pressure in store for him.[162] They punish the disobedient with disgrace, fine, and even death. What other Sophist, or what private exhortation, can contend successfully against teachers such as these? Surely none. The attempt to do so is insane. There neither is, nor has been, nor will be, any individual human disposition educated to virtue in opposition to the training of the multitude:[163] I say _human_, as distinguished from _divine_, of which I make exception: for in the existing state of society, any individual who is preserved from these ascendant influences to acquire philosophical excellence, owes his preservation to the divine favour. [Footnote 161: Plato, Republic, vi. p. 492 A. [Greek: ê)\ kai\ su\ ê(gei=, ô(/sper oi( polloi/, diaphtheirome/nous tina\s ei)=nai u(po\ sophistô=n ne/ous, diaphthei/rontas de/ tinas sophista\s i)diôtikou/s, o(/, ti kai\ a)/xion lo/gon, a)ll' ou)k au)tou\s tou\s tau=ta le/gontas megi/stous me\n ei)=nai sophista/s? paideu/ein de\ teleô/tata kai\ a)perga/zesthai oi(/ous bou/lontai ei)=nai kai\ ne/ous kai\ presbute/rous kai\ a)/ndras kai\ gunai=kas?]] [Footnote 162: Plato, Republic, vi. p. 492 C-D. [Greek: Kai\ phê/sein te ta\ au)ta\ tou/tois kala\ kai\ ai)schra\ ei)=nai, kai\ e)pitêdeu/sein a(/per a)\n ou(=toi, kai\ e)/sesthai toiou=ton . . . Kai\ mê\n ou(/pô tê\n megi/stên a)na/gkên ei)rê/kamen. Poi/an? E(\n e)/rgô| prostithe/asi, lo/gô| mê\ pei/thontes, ou(=toi oi( paideutai/ te kai\ sophistai/. Ê)\ ou)k oi)=stha o(/ti to\n mê\ peitho/menon a)timi/ais te kai\ chrê/masi kai\ thana/tois kola/zousin? Kai\ ma/la, e)/phê, spho/dra.]] [Footnote 163: Plato, Republic, vi. p. 492 D.] [Side-note: The Sophists and other private teachers accept the prevalent orthodoxy, and conform their teaching to it.]