[9] It isn’t easy to convert young men to philosophy, any more than one can catch soft cheese on a hook; but those who are naturally gifted, even if one tries to turn them away, attach themselves all the more strongly to reason. [10] And so Rufus* used to turn people away most of the time, using that as a test to distinguish the gifted from the ungifted. For he used to say, ‘Just as a stone, even if you throw it into the air, will fall down to the earth by virtue of its own nature, so it is too with the gifted person: the more one tries to beat him off, the more he inclines towards the object
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