Section 73

On another occasion men of the same kind met Antony at the outer mountain and tried to mock him because he had not learned letters.

Antony said to them: “Tell me: which comes first, mind or letters? And which is the cause of the other—does mind produce letters, or do letters produce mind?”

They answered that mind comes first and is the inventor of letters.

Antony replied: “Then anyone whose mind is sound has no need of letters.”

The answer amazed both the philosophers and those standing nearby. They left marveling that they had found so much understanding in an uneducated man.

His manners were not rough, as one might expect from a man who had been raised in the mountains and grown old there. Instead, he was gracious and courteous, and his speech was seasoned with divine salt. No one who visited him felt envy toward him; rather, everyone rejoiced in him.