Moreover, I observe that already the state is exacting
heavy contributions from you: you must needs keep
horses, pay for choruses and gymnastic competitions,
and accept presidencies;It is unlikely that προστατείας is used
here for προστασίας, the charge of resident
aliens, since there is no proof that this duty
involved expense to the patron. and if war
breaks out, I know they will require you to maintain
a ship and pay taxes that will nearly crush you.
Whenever you seem to fall short of what is expected
of you, the Athenians will certainly punish you as
though they had caught you robbing them.
Besides all this, I notice that you imagine yourself to
be a rich man; you are indifferent to money, and yet
go courting minions, as though the cost were nothing
to you. And that is why I pity you, and fear that
you may come to grief and find yourself reduced to
penury.
Now, if I ran short of money, no doubt you know as well
as I do that I should not lack helpers who would
need to contribute very little to fill my cup to
overflowing. But your friends, though far better
supplied with means to support their establishment
than you, yet look to receive help from you.
I cannot dispute this,
Socrates,
said Critobulus, but it is time for you to take me
in hand, and see that I don’t become a real object
of pity.
At this
Socrates
exclaimed, What, don’t you think it strange,
Critobulus, that a little while ago, when I said I
was rich, you laughed at me, as though I did not
even know the meaning of riches, and would not cease
until you had proved me wrong and made me own that
my possessions were less than one-hundredth part of
yours, and yet now you bid me take you in hand and
see that you don’t become in literal truth a poor
man?
Well,
Socrates,
I see that you understand one process by which
wealth is created—how to create a balance. So a man
who saves on a small income can, I suppose, very
easily show a large surplus with a large one.
Then don’t you remember
saying just now in our conversation, when you
wouldn’t give me leave to utter a syllable, that if
a man doesn’t know how to manage horses, his horses
are not wealth to him, nor his land, sheep, money or
anything else, if he doesn’t know how to manage
them? Now these are the sources from which income is
derived: and how do you suppose that I can possibly
know how to manage any of these things, seeing that
I never yet possessed any one of them?
Still we held that, even
if a man happens to have no wealth, there is such a
thing as a science of household management. Then
what reason is there why you should not know
it?Exactly the same reason,
of course, that a man would have for not knowing how
to play on the flute if he had never possessed one
himself and had never borrowed one to learn on.
That is just my case with regard to estate management;
for never having possessed wealth myself, I have not
had an opportunity of learning on an instrument of
my own, and nobody has ever let me handle his, until
you made your offer. Beginners, I fancy, are apt to
spoil the lyres they learn on; and if I attempted to
learn to manage estates by practising on yours,
possibly I might spoil it entirely for you.
Ah,
Socrates!
rejoined Critobulus, I see you are eager to avoid
giving me any help towards lightening the weight of
my troublesome duties.
Not at all, not at all,
said
Socrates,
I am all eagerness to tell you all I know.
Suppose that you had come to me for fire, and I, having
none by me, had taken you to some place where you
could get it; you would not, I think, have found
fault with me: or, if you had asked for water, and
I, having none myself, had brought you to some other
place for it, I feel sure that you would not have
found fault with me for that either: or, suppose you
wanted to learn music with me and I directed you to
persons far more skilled in music than I am, who
would be grateful to you for taking lessons with
them, what fault could you find with me for doing
so?
None, if I were fair,
Socrates.Well then, Critobulus, I
will direct you to others far more skilled than I in
the things you now seek to learn from me. I confess
that I have made a point of finding out who are the
greatest masters of various sciences to be found in
Athens.
For observing once that the same pursuits lead in one
case to great poverty and in another to great
riches, I was filled with amazement, and thought it
worth while to consider what this could mean. And on
consideration I found that these things happen quite
naturally.
For I saw that those who follow these pursuits carelessly
suffer loss, and I discovered that those who devote
themselves earnestly to them accomplish them more
quickly, more easily and with more profit. I think
that if you would elect to learn from these, you too
with God’s favour would turn out a clever man of
business.