“But,” you say, “whatever you do, whatever you are able to bestow on your father, is a part of his benefit to you.” Yes, and the progress I have made in liberal studies is a benefit from my teacher; nevertheless we leave behind the very teachers who have transmitted their knowledge, particularly those who have taught us the alphabet, and, although no one could have accomplished anything without them, it is, nevertheless, not true that, no matter how much anyone has accomplished, he is still their inferior. There is a great deal of difference between what is first in time and what is first in importance, and it does not follow that what is first in time is the equivalent of what is first in importance on the ground that without the first in time there could be no first in importance.