[35,7] τῷ δ´ αὖτε πτερὰ γίνετ´, ἄειρε δὲ ποιμένα λαῶν. ἡλίκη δέ ἐστιν ἡ τῶν πολλῶν δύναμις τοῦ πείθειν ὅ, τι ἂν αὐτοὶ θέλωσιν, οὐχ ἥκιστα ἀπὸ τῶν παίδων μάθοι τις ἄν, ὅταν ἀνθρώπῳ σωφρονοῦντι παιδάρια ἀκολουθῇ, φάσκοντα μαίνεσθαι. τὸ μὲν γὰρ πρῶτον ἄπεισιν ἀγανακτῶν καθ´ αὑτόν, ἔπειτα προσκρούων ἀεὶ καὶ λοιδορούμενος ἑκάστῳ καὶ διώκων αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἔπαθεν, ἐξέστη τελευτῶν, καὶ τὴν φήμην ὑπέλαβε θεὸν εἶναι, οὐ μόνον τὴν τῶν ἀνδρῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν τῶν παίδων.

[35,7] And how great the power of the populace is to make men believe anything they please may perhaps best be learned from children : when a sane man is followed by urchins who keep calling him crazy. For at first the man goes away inwardly annoyed, and then, from constantly falling foul of them and reviling and chasing them one by one, he gets into that very state and ends by going mad, and the spoken word he took to be a manifestation of deity, not merely the utterance of men, but even that of boys.

[35,8] δοκεῖ δέ μοι καὶ τὸ τῶν σοφιστῶν γένος ἐντεῦθεν αὔξεσθαί ποθεν. ἐπειδὰν πολλοὶ νεανίσκοι σχολὴν ἄγοντες ἕνα θαυμάζωσι πηδῶντες, καθάπερ αἱ Βάκχαι περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον, πᾶσα ἀνάγκη τοῦτον τὸν ἄνθρωπον οὐ πολλῷ τινι χρόνῳ {πολλοῖς τῶν ἄλλων} δόξαι τι λέγειν. σχεδὸν γὰρ ὥσπερ οἱ γονεῖς διαλέγεσθαι τὰ παιδία διδάσκουσιν, ἐπὶ παντὶ χαίροντες ὅ, τι ἂν εἴπωσιν· οὐκοῦν ἐκ τούτων θαρρεῖ καὶ μᾶλλον πρόεισι καὶ σαφέστερον ἀεὶ διαλέγεται καὶ τέλος ἐξέμαθε τὴν φωνὴν τῶν ξυνόντων, ἐάν τε Ἕλληνες ὦσιν ἐάν τε βάρβαροι· καὶ τοὺς σοφιστὰς ἀνάγκη τὴν διάνοιαν τῶν ἀκροατῶν ἀναλαβεῖν, τοιαῦτα καὶ λέγοντας καὶ διανοουμένους ὁποῖοί ποτ´ ἂν οὗτοι τυγχάνωσιν ὄντες.

[35,8] And, methinks, the tribe of sophists also owes its development to some such cause as this. When a lot of young men with nothing to do go leaping about a man with cries of admiration, as the Bacchants leap about Dionysus, inevitably that man after no great lapse of time will gain a reputation with many others for talking sensibly. Why, that is very much the way in which parents teach their children how to talk, expressing keen delight over anything the children may utter. Accordingly, in consequence of that applause, the children take courage and make further progress and keep speaking more and more distinctly, until finally they have mastered the language of their associates, be they Greeks or barbarians. The sophists also can't help adopting the thought of their listeners, saying and thinking such things as fit the nature of those listeners, whatever it happens to be ; but the majority of these are pretty much simpletons, victims of an unkind fate.