Page - 1380 - in The Complete Plato
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Athenian. Dear is the son to the father—the younger to the elder.
Megillus. Of course.
Athenian. And yet the son often prays to obtain things which the father
prays that he may not obtain.
Megillus. When the son is young and foolish, you mean?
Athenian. Yes; or when the father, in the dotage of age or the heat of youth,
having no sense of right and justice, prays with fervour, under the influence of
feelings akin to those of Theseus when he cursed the unfortunate Hippolytus,
do you imagine that the son, having a sense of right and justice, will join in
his father’s prayers?
Megillus. I understand you to mean that a man should not desire or be in a
hurry to have all things according to his wish, for his wish may be at variance
with his reason. But every state and every individual ought to pray and strive
for wisdom.
Athenian. Yes; and I remember, and you will remember, what I said at first,
that a statesman and legislator ought to ordain laws with a view to wisdom;
while you were arguing that the good lawgiver ought to order all with a view
to war. And to this I replied that there were four virtues, but that upon your
view one of them only was the aim of legislation; whereas you ought to
regard all virtue, and especially that which comes first, and is the leader of all
the rest—I mean wisdom and mind and opinion, having affection and desire
in their train. And now the argument returns to the same point, and I say once
more, in jest if you like, or in earnest if you like, that the prayer of a fool is
full of danger, being likely to end in the opposite of what he desires. And if
you would rather receive my words in earnest, I am willing that you should;
and you will find, I suspect, as I have said already, that not cowardice was the
cause of the ruin of the Dorian kings and of their whole design, nor ignorance
of military matters, either on the part of the rulers or of their subjects; but
their misfortunes were due to their general degeneracy, and especially to their
ignorance of the most important human affairs. That was then, and is still, and
always will be the case, as I will endeavour, if you will allow me, to make out
and demonstrate as well as I am able to you who are my friends, in the course
of the argument.
Cleinias. Pray go on, Stranger;—compliments are troublesome, but we will
show, not in word but in deed, how greatly we prize your words, for we will
give them our best attention; and that is the way in which a freeman best
shows his approval or disapproval.
Megillus. Excellent, Cleinias; let us do as you say.
1380
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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