9
"I, my child, am Culture, an acquaintance and familiar of yours already, although you have not yet made full trial of me. This person has told you in advance what you will gain, forsooth, by becoming a stone-cutter; namely, that you will be nothing but a workman, toiling with your body, on which all your hopes of a livelihood will depend. You will be yourself obscure; your gains will be small and sordid, your mind dwarfed, your progress despicable. Your friends will not seek you out, your enemies will not fear you, your townsfolk will not envy you. You will be simply an artisan, one of the undistinguished crowd, tripping over every obstacle, and the obedient servant of every one capable of expressing himself, while you live the life of a dumb beast, a treasure-trove for any stronger man than you. And even if you should become a Pheidias or a Polykleitos, and should produce many marvellous works, it is your art that the world will praise, and not one of those who behold them, if he has sense, would pray to become like you. For they will deem you just what you are, a mechanic, an artisan, living by the sweat of your brow.
