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he was famous, not for his own merits but because he was an Athenian: “If
you had been a native of my country or I of yours, neither of us would have
been famous.” And to those who are not rich and are impatient of old age, the
same reply may be made; for to the good poor man old age cannot be a light
burden, nor can a bad rich man ever have peace with himself.
May I ask, Cephalus, whether your fortune was for the most part inherited
or acquired by you?
Acquired! Socrates; do you want to know how much I acquired? In the art
of making money I have been midway between my father and grandfather: for
my grandfather, whose name I bear, doubled and trebled the value of his
patrimony, that which he inherited being much what I possess now; but my
father, Lysanias, reduced the property below what it is at present; and I shall
be satisfied if I leave to these my sons not less, but a little more, than I
received.
That was why I asked you the question, I replied, because I see that you are
indifferent about money, which is a characteristic rather of those who have
inherited their fortunes than of those who have acquired them; the makers of
fortunes have a second love of money as a creation of their own, resembling
the affection of authors for their own poems, or of parents for their children,
besides that natural love of it for the sake of use and profit which is common
to them and all men. And hence they are very bad company, for they can talk
about nothing but the praises of wealth. That is true, he said.
Yes, that is very true, but may I ask another question?— What do you
consider to be the greatest blessing which you have reaped from your wealth?
One, he said, of which I could not expect easily to convince others. For let
me tell you, Socrates, that when a man thinks himself to be near death, fears
and cares enter into his mind which he never had before; the tales of a world
below and the punishment which is exacted there of deeds done here were
once a laughing matter to him, but now he is tormented with the thought that
they may be true: either from the weakness of age, or because he is now
drawing nearer to that other place, he has a clearer view of these things;
suspicions and alarms crowd thickly upon him, and he begins to reflect and
consider what wrongs he has done to others. And when he finds that the sum
of his transgressions is great he will many a time like a child start up in his
sleep for fear, and he is filled with dark forebodings. But to him who is
conscious of no sin, sweet hope, as Pindar charmingly says, is the kind nurse
of his age:
“Hope,” he says, “cherishes the soul of him who lives in justice and
holiness, and is the nurse of his age and the companion of his journey— hope
1014
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Buch The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Titel
- The Complete Plato
- Autor
- Plato
- Datum
- ~347 B.C.
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 1612
- Schlagwörter
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Kategorien
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International