Seite - 76 - in The Complete Plato

pleasures, and some in pains: some in desires, and some in fears, and some are cowards under the same conditions, as I should imagine. LACHES: Very true. SOCRATES: Now I was asking about courage and cowardice in general. And I will begin with courage, and once more ask, What is that common quality, which is the same in all these cases, and which is called courage? Do you now understand what I mean? LACHES: Not over well. SOCRATES: I mean this: As I might ask what is that quality which is called quickness, and which is found in running, in playing the lyre, in speaking, in learning, and in many other similar actions, or rather which we possess in nearly every action that is worth mentioning of arms, legs, mouth, voice, mind;—would you not apply the term quickness to all of them? LACHES: Quite true. SOCRATES: And suppose I were to be asked by some one: What is that common quality, Socrates, which, in all these uses of the word, you call quickness? I should say the quality which accomplishes much in a little time —whether in running, speaking, or in any other sort of action. LACHES: You would be quite correct. SOCRATES: And now, Laches, do you try and tell me in like manner, What is that common quality which is called courage, and which includes all the various uses of the term when applied both to pleasure and pain, and in all the cases to which I was just now referring? LACHES: I should say that courage is a sort of endurance of the soul, if I am to speak of the universal nature which pervades them all. SOCRATES: But that is what we must do if we are to answer the question. And yet I cannot say that every kind of endurance is, in my opinion, to be deemed courage. Hear my reason: I am sure, Laches, that you would consider courage to be a very noble quality. LACHES: Most noble, certainly. SOCRATES: And you would say that a wise endurance is also good and noble? LACHES: Very noble. SOCRATES: But what would you say of a foolish endurance? Is not that, on the other hand, to be regarded as evil and hurtful? 76