Demetrius the grammarian finding in the temple of Delphi a knot of philosophers set chatting together, said to them, “Either I am much deceived, or by your cheerful and pleasant countenances, you are engaged in no very deep discourse.” To which one of them, Heracles the Megan, replied:“ ’Tis for such as are puzzled about inquiring whether the future tense of the verb Ball be spelled with double L, or that hunt after the derivation of the comparatives Charon and Belton, and the superlatives Chariot and Eliot, to knit their brows whilst discoursing of their science; but as to philosophical discourses, they always divert and cheer up those that entertain them, and never deject them or make them sad.

The Complete Essays