Antigonus in plain terms. For, when Antigonus inquired : Who among men, and whence, are you? What is your city and your parents ? 4 he, knowing that he had already been maligned to the king, replied, ‘‘ My father was a freedman, who wiped his nose on his sleeve ’—meaning that he was a dealer in salt fish—‘ a native of Borysthenes, with no face to show, but only the writing on his face, a token of his master’s severity. My mother was such as a man like my father would marry, from a brothel. Afterwards my father, who had cheated the revenue in some way, was sold with all his family. And I, then a not ungraceful youngster, was bought by a certain rhetorician, who on his death left me all he had. And I burnt his books, scraped everything together, came to Athens and turned philosopher. This is the stock and this the blood from which I boast to have sprung. Suchis my story. Itis high time, then, that Persaeus and Philonides left off recounting it. Judge me by myself.” In truth Bion was in other respects a shifty character, a subtle sophist, and one who had given the enemies of philosophy many an occasion to blaspheme, while in certain respects he was even pompous and able to indulge in arrogance. He left very many memoirs, and also sayings of useful application. For example, when he was reproached for not paying court to a youth, his excuse was, “ You can’t get hold of a soft cheese with a hook.” Being once asked who suffers most from anxiety, he