Chapter 5. His Mind and Memory

¹ And your natural aptitude for learning, your quickness of mind, your retentive memory—where shall I place these, most gifted of boys? I myself am an unimpeachable witness to all of them, one who will not be gainsaid; and this excellent company here bears witness with me, all of whom have had experience of your nature. Often some deed or saying of the ancients, worthy to be read, is being read aloud; and you, the pupil, outrun me, the teacher, and seize the thought before I can finish—and having seized it, you do not immediately lose it, but store it away in the treasury of your soul as a possession that cannot be taken from you. For many learn quickly, but unlearn even more quickly; they take hold and let go in the same breath, like someone writing on water: the pen moves swiftly enough, but no trace follows the speed of its motion. But in you nature has joined together what is elsewhere kept apart—swiftness of learning and an incomparable memory. You take an impression more readily than any wax, and hold it more firmly than any tablet of stone.