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changeable is the nature of the benefit), that which is the greatest good to the
outward parts of a man, is a very great evil to his inward parts: and for this
reason physicians always forbid their patients the use of oil in their food,
except in very small quantities, just enough to extinguish the disagreeable
sensation of smell in meats and sauces.
When he had given this answer, the company cheered him. And I said:
Protagoras, I have a wretched memory, and when any one makes a long
speech to me I never remember what he is talking about. As then, if I had
been deaf, and you were going to converse with me, you would have had to
raise your voice; so now, having such a bad memory, I will ask you to cut
your answers shorter, if you would take me with you.
What do you mean? he said: how am I to shorten my answers? shall I make
them too short?
Certainly not, I said.
But short enough?
Yes, I said.
Shall I answer what appears to me to be short enough, or what appears to
you to be short enough?
I have heard, I said, that you can speak and teach others to speak about the
same things at such length that words never seemed to fail, or with such
brevity that no one could use fewer of them. Please therefore, if you talk with
me, to adopt the latter or more compendious method.
Socrates, he replied, many a battle of words have I fought, and if I had
followed the method of disputation which my adversaries desired, as you
want me to do, I should have been no better than another, and the name of
Protagoras would have been nowhere.
I saw that he was not satisfied with his previous answers, and that he would
not play the part of answerer any more if he could help; and I considered that
there was no call upon me to continue the conversation; so I said: Protagoras,
I do not wish to force the conversation upon you if you had rather not, but
when you are willing to argue with me in such a way that I can follow you,
then I will argue with you. Now you, as is said of you by others and as you
say of yourself, are able to have discussions in shorter forms of speech as well
as in longer, for you are a master of wisdom; but I cannot manage these long
speeches: I only wish that I could. You, on the other hand, who are capable of
either, ought to speak shorter as I beg you, and then we might converse. But I
see that you are disinclined, and as I have an engagement which will prevent
my staying to hear you at greater length (for I have to be in another place), I
270
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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