I do not doubt that the more modest someone is the more he will wonder, and justly, what has come to my mind that I, a boy barely out of swaddling clothes, should decide to speak here in the assembly of most learned youths. Indeed, we have not to such an extent laid aside all sense of shame that we would dare mutter, so to speak, in this lecture-room, unless most honourable reasons forced us to do so. For since it is unseemly to step forward here unless one can defend one's position with honour, with eloquence as well as authority, I fear that I shall be ridiculous if I undertake such a thing at an age of which everyone knows what it can do and how much it knows. However, if you do not expect perfect erudition, reverence should deserve the first praise in youthful minds; if I did not realise how far removed from it this theatrical show is, I should clearly be stupid. But my teacher's authority overcomes these reasonings; in order to try my intellect, he imposed on me this duty of speaking, and if I had refused it, I would not have appeared sufficiently dutiful. For I believe that a well-behaved young man has to obey his teacher even in an unjust matter. And so I preferred to be seen as no matter what, rather than to detract from my teacher's authority.