Now the pilot is the philosopher--he whom in the parable they call star-gazer, and the mutinous sailors are the mob of politicians by whom he is rendered useless.

Not that these are the worst enemies of philosophy, who is far more dishonoured by her own professing sons when they are corrupted by the world.

Need I recall the original image of the philosopher?
Did we not say of him just now, that he loved truth and hated falsehood, and that he could not rest in the multiplicity of phenomena, but was led by a sympathy in his own nature to the contemplation of the absolute?
All the virtues as well as truth, who is the leader of them, took up their abode in his soul.

But as you were observing, if we turn aside to view the reality, we see that the persons who were thus described, with the exception of a small and useless class, are utter rogues.
The point which has to be considered, is the origin of this corruption in nature.

Every one will admit that the philosopher, in our description of him, is a rare being.