Ἀλλὰ μή ποτε οὐκ ἐκείνων χρὴ νῦν τὸν ἔπαινον γράφειν οὐδὲ ὅσα ἡμῖν ἀγαθὰ γένοιτ᾽ ἂν ἐνθένδε, [125] ὁπόσου δὲ τὸ δῶρον ἄξιον καταμαθόντας χάριν ἀποτίνειν τυχὸν οὐκ ἀλλοτρίαν τοῦ δοθέντος τῇ χαρισαμένῃ. λόγων γὰρ ἀστείων καὶ παντοδαπῶν θησαυροὺς τὸν ἐν ταῖς βίβλοις δεξάμενον οὐκ ἄδικον διὰ σμικρῶν καὶ φαύλων ῥημάτων ἰδιωτικῶς καὶ ἀγροίκως ἄγαν ξυγκειμένων ᾄδειν εὐφημίαν. οὐδὲ γὰρ γεωργὸν φήσεις εὐγνώμονα, ὃς καταφυτεύειν μὲν τὴν φυταλιὰν ἀρχόμενος κλήματα ᾔτει παρὰ τῶν γειτόνων, εἶτα ἐκτρέφων τὰς ἀμπέλους δίκελλαν καὶ αὖθις σμινύην, καὶ τέλος ἤδη κάλαμον, [B] ᾧ χρὴ προσδεδέσθαι καὶ ἐπικεῖσθαι τὴν ἄμπελον, ἵνα αὐτή τε ἀνέχηται καὶ οἱ βότρυες ἐξηρτημένοι μηδαμοῦ ψαύωσι τῆς βώλου, τυχόντα δὲ ὧν ἐδεῖτο μόνον ἐμπίπλασθαι τοῦ Διονύσου τῆς χάριτος οὔτε τῶν βοτρύων οὔτε τοῦ γλεύκους μεταδιδόντα τοῖς,(584) ὧν πρὸς τὴν γεωργίαν ἔτυχε προθύμων. οὔκουν οὐδὲ νομέα ποιμνίων οὐδὲ βουκολίων οὐδὲ μὴν αἰπολίων ἐπιεικῆ καὶ ἀγαθὸν καὶ εὐγνώμονα φήσει τις, ὃς τοῦ μὲν χειμώνος, ὅτε αὐτῷ στέγης καὶ πόας ἐδεῖτο τὰ βοσκήματα, [C] σφόδρα ἐτύγχανε προθύμων τῶν φίλων, πολλὰ μὲν αὐτῷ ξυμποριζόντων καὶ μεταδιδόντων τροφῆς ἀφθόνου καὶ καταγωγίων, ἦρος δὲ οἶμαι καὶ θέρους φανέντος μάλα γενναίως ἐπιλαθόμενον ὧν εὖ πάθοι, οὔτε τοῦ γάλακτος οὔτε τῶν τυρῶν οὔτε ἄλλου τοῦ μεταδιδόντα τοῖς(585) ὑφ᾽ ὧν αὐτῷ διεσώθη ἀπολόμενα ἂν ἄλλως τὰ θρέμματα. (But perhaps I ought not now to be writing a panegyric on books, nor to describe all the benefits that we might derive from them, but since I recognise how much that gift was worth, I ought to pay back to the gracious giver thanks not perhaps altogether different in kind from what she gave. For it is only just that one who has accepted clever discourses of all sorts laid up as treasure in books, should sound a strain of eulogy if only in slight and unskilful phrases, composed in an unlearned and rustic fashion. For you would not say that a farmer showed proper feeling who, when starting to plant his vineyard, begs for cuttings from his neighbours, and presently, when he cultivates his vines, asks for a mattock and then for a hoe, and finally for a stake to which the vine must be tied and which it must lean against, so that it may itself be supported, and the bunches of grapes as they hang may nowhere touch the soil; and then, after obtaining all he asked for, drinks his fill of the pleasant gift of Dionysus, but does not share either the grapes or the must with those whom he found so willing to help him in his husbandry. Just so one would not say that a shepherd or neatherd or even a goatherd was honest and good and right‐minded, who in winter, when his flocks need shelter and fodder, met with the utmost consideration from his friends, who helped him to procure many things, and gave him food in abundance, and lodging, and presently when spring and summer appeared, forgot in lordly fashion all those kindnesses, and shared neither his milk nor cheeses nor anything else with those who had saved his beasts for him when they would