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voice vehemently assented, and bid him exhibit the power of his wisdom.
Then I said: O Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, I earnestly request you to do
myself and the company the favour to exhibit. There may be some trouble in
giving the whole exhibition; but tell me one thing,—can you make a good
man of him only who is already convinced that he ought to learn of you, or of
him also who is not convinced, either because he imagines that virtue is a
thing which cannot be taught at all, or that you are not the teachers of it? Has
your art power to persuade him, who is of the latter temper of mind, that
virtue can be taught; and that you are the men from whom he will best learn
it?
Certainly, Socrates, said Dionysodorus; our art will do both.
And you and your brother, Dionysodorus, I said, of all men who are now
living are the most likely to stimulate him to philosophy and to the study of
virtue?
Yes, Socrates, I rather think that we are.
Then I wish that you would be so good as to defer the other part of the
exhibition, and only try to persuade the youth whom you see here that he
ought to be a philosopher and study virtue. Exhibit that, and you will confer a
great favour on me and on every one present; for the fact is I and all of us are
extremely anxious that he should become truly good. His name is Cleinias,
and he is the son of Axiochus, and grandson of the old Alcibiades, cousin of
the Alcibiades that now is. He is quite young, and we are naturally afraid that
some one may get the start of us, and turn his mind in a wrong direction, and
he may be ruined. Your visit, therefore, is most happily timed; and I hope that
you will make a trial of the young man, and converse with him in our
presence, if you have no objection.
These were pretty nearly the expressions which I used; and Euthydemus, in
a manly and at the same time encouraging tone, replied: There can be no
objection, Socrates, if the young man is only willing to answer questions.
He is quite accustomed to do so, I replied; for his friends often come and
ask him questions and argue with him; and therefore he is quite at home in
answering.
What followed, Crito, how can I rightly narrate? For not slight is the task of
rehearsing infinite wisdom, and therefore, like the poets, I ought to commence
my relation with an invocation to Memory and the Muses. Now Euthydemus,
if I remember rightly, began nearly as follows: O Cleinias, are those who
learn the wise or the ignorant?
The youth, overpowered by the question blushed, and in his perplexity
336
back to the
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