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there are many opinions, is an attribute of the Gods not given to man,
Stranger; but I shall be very happy to tell you what I think, especially as we
are now proposing to enter on a discussion concerning laws and constitutions.
Cleinias. Your opinion, Stranger, about the questions which are now being
raised, is precisely what we want to hear.
Athenian. Very good; I will try to find a way of explaining my meaning,
and you shall try to have the gift of understanding me. But first let me make
an apology. The Athenian citizen is reputed among all the Hellenes to be a
great talker, whereas Sparta is renowned for brevity, and the Cretans have
more wit than words. Now I am afraid of appearing to elicit a very long
discourse out of very small materials. For drinking indeed may appear to be a
slight matter, and yet is one which cannot be rightly ordered according to
nature, without correct principles of music; these are necessary to any clear or
satisfactory treatment of the subject, and music again runs up into education
generally, and there is much to be said about all this. What would you say
then to leaving these matters for the present, and passing on to some other
question of law?
Megillus. O Athenian Stranger, let me tell you what perhaps you do not
know, that our family is the proxenus of your state. I imagine that from their
earliest youth all boys, when they are told that they are the proxeni of a
particular state, feel kindly towards their second and this has certainly been
my own feeling. I can well remember from the days of my boyhood, how,
when any Lacedaemonians praised or blamed the Athenians, they used to say
to me—”See, Megillus, how ill or how well,” as the case might be, “has your
state treated us”; and having always had to fight your battles against
detractors when I heard you assailed, I became warmly attached to you. And I
always like to hear the Athenian tongue spoken; the common saying is quite
true, that a good Athenian is more than ordinarily good, for he is the only man
who is freely and genuinely good by the divine inspiration of his own nature,
and is not manufactured. Therefore be assured that I shall like to hear you say
whatever you have to say.
Cleinias. Yes, Stranger; and when you have heard me speak, say boldly
what is in your thoughts. Let me remind you of a tie which unites you to
Crete. You must have heard here the story of the prophet Epimenides, who
was of my family, and came to Athens ten years before the Persian war, in
accordance with the response of the Oracle, and offered certain sacrifices
which the God commanded. The Athenians were at that time in dread of the
Persian invasion; and he said that for ten years they would not come, and that
when they came, they would go away again without accomplishing any of
their objects, and would suffer more evil than they inflicted. At that time my
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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