Page - 69 - in The Complete Plato

LYSIMACHUS: Why, yes, Socrates; what else am I to do? SOCRATES: And would you do so too, Melesias? If you were deliberating about the gymnastic training of your son, would you follow the advice of the majority of us, or the opinion of the one who had been trained and exercised under a skilful master? MELESIAS: The latter, Socrates; as would surely be reasonable. SOCRATES: His one vote would be worth more than the vote of all us four? MELESIAS: Certainly. SOCRATES: And for this reason, as I imagine,—because a good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers? MELESIAS: To be sure. SOCRATES: Must we not then first of all ask, whether there is any one of us who has knowledge of that about which we are deliberating? If there is, let us take his advice, though he be one only, and not mind the rest; if there is not, let us seek further counsel. Is this a slight matter about which you and Lysimachus are deliberating? Are you not risking the greatest of your possessions? For children are your riches; and upon their turning out well or ill depends the whole order of their father’s house. MELESIAS: That is true. SOCRATES: Great care, then, is required in this matter? MELESIAS: Certainly. SOCRATES: Suppose, as I was just now saying, that we were considering, or wanting to consider, who was the best trainer. Should we not select him who knew and had practised the art, and had the best teachers? MELESIAS: I think that we should. SOCRATES: But would there not arise a prior question about the nature of the art of which we want to find the masters? MELESIAS: I do not understand. SOCRATES: Let me try to make my meaning plainer then. I do not think that we have as yet decided what that is about which we are consulting, when we ask which of us is or is not skilled in the art, and has or has not had a teacher of the art. NICIAS: Why, Socrates, is not the question whether young men ought or ought not to learn the art of fighting in armour? 69