Seite - 903 - in The Complete Plato

SOCRATES: And the fancies of hope are also pictured in us; a man may often have a vision of a heap of gold, and pleasures ensuing, and in the picture there may be a likeness of himself mightily rejoicing over his good fortune. PROTARCHUS: True. SOCRATES: And may we not say that the good, being friends of the gods, have generally true pictures presented to them, and the bad false pictures? PROTARCHUS: Certainly. SOCRATES: The bad, too, have pleasures painted in their fancy as well as the good; but I presume that they are false pleasures. PROTARCHUS: They are. SOCRATES: The bad then commonly delight in false pleasures, and the good in true pleasures? PROTARCHUS: Doubtless. SOCRATES: Then upon this view there are false pleasures in the souls of men which are a ludicrous imitation of the true, and there are pains of a similar character? PROTARCHUS: There are. SOCRATES: And did we not allow that a man who had an opinion at all had a real opinion, but often about things which had no existence either in the past, present, or future? PROTARCHUS: Quite true. SOCRATES: And this was the source of false opinion and opining; am I not right? PROTARCHUS: Yes. SOCRATES: And must we not attribute to pleasure and pain a similar real but illusory character? PROTARCHUS: How do you mean? SOCRATES: I mean to say that a man must be admitted to have real pleasure who is pleased with anything or anyhow; and he may be pleased about things which neither have nor have ever had any real existence, and, more often than not, are never likely to exist. PROTARCHUS: Yes, Socrates, that again is undeniable. SOCRATES: And may not the same be said about fear and anger and the like; are they not often false? 903