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there is still hope of them.
Protagoras ended, and in my ear
‘So charming left his voice, that I the while Thought him still speaking;
still stood fixed to hear (Borrowed by Milton, “Paradise Lost”.).’
At length, when the truth dawned upon me, that he had really finished, not
without difficulty I began to collect myself, and looking at Hippocrates, I said
to him: O son of Apollodorus, how deeply grateful I am to you for having
brought me hither; I would not have missed the speech of Protagoras for a
great deal. For I used to imagine that no human care could make men good;
but I know better now. Yet I have still one very small difficulty which I am
sure that Protagoras will easily explain, as he has already explained so much.
If a man were to go and consult Pericles or any of our great speakers about
these matters, he might perhaps hear as fine a discourse; but then when one
has a question to ask of any of them, like books, they can neither answer nor
ask; and if any one challenges the least particular of their speech, they go
ringing on in a long harangue, like brazen pots, which when they are struck
continue to sound unless some one puts his hand upon them; whereas our
friend Protagoras can not only make a good speech, as he has already shown,
but when he is asked a question he can answer briefly; and when he asks he
will wait and hear the answer; and this is a very rare gift. Now I, Protagoras,
want to ask of you a little question, which if you will only answer, I shall be
quite satisfied. You were saying that virtue can be taught;—that I will take
upon your authority, and there is no one to whom I am more ready to trust.
But I marvel at one thing about which I should like to have my mind set at
rest. You were speaking of Zeus sending justice and reverence to men; and
several times while you were speaking, justice, and temperance, and holiness,
and all these qualities, were described by you as if together they made up
virtue. Now I want you to tell me truly whether virtue is one whole, of which
justice and temperance and holiness are parts; or whether all these are only
the names of one and the same thing: that is the doubt which still lingers in
my mind.
There is no difficulty, Socrates, in answering that the qualities of which you
are speaking are the parts of virtue which is one.
And are they parts, I said, in the same sense in which mouth, nose, and
eyes, and ears, are the parts of a face; or are they like the parts of gold, which
differ from the whole and from one another only in being larger or smaller?
I should say that they differed, Socrates, in the first way; they are related to
one another as the parts of a face are related to the whole face.
And do men have some one part and some another part of virtue? Or if a
263
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book The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Title
- The Complete Plato
- Author
- Plato
- Date
- ~347 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 1612
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International