Come, my friend, and tell me, your purchaser, what sort of person you are, and, to begin with, whether it is not an affliction to you to be sold and in slavery.
Not at all; for those things are not under our control, and what is not under our control is therefore indifferent.
I don't understand just what you mean.
What, do you not understand that in such matters some things are preferred and some again rejected?
I don't understand even yet.
Naturally, for you are not accustomed to our terminology, nor have you the perceptive imagination. But the virtuous man, he
who has mastered logical theory, knows not only
In the name of wisdom, kindly take the trouble to tell me this, too: what accidents and secondary accidents are. I am indescribably impressed by the roll of the words.
No trouble at all. If a lame man, stumbling with that lame foot itself against a stone gets unexpectedly hurt, this man's lameness is evidently a primary accident to which he adds a secondary accident in the way of the wound.
What else, now, do you claim to know?
How clever!
The meshes of argument wherewith I trip up my interlocutors and block their passage and reduce them to silence by actually muzzling them. The name of this faculty is the famous syllogism.
By Herkules, it is an irresistible, mighty weapon, from your description.
I will give you a specimen. Have you a child?
Certainly.
If a crocodile should manage to
snatch it, finding it wandering too near the river,
and if, then, he should promise to restore it if you
could tell him truly whether he had determined
That is a difficult question, for I do not see which answer would be the more likely to get the child back. But do you, in Heaven's name, answer for me, and save my child before he eats him.
Never fear, I will teach you other things still more surprising.
What sort of things?
The Reaper, the Master, and, above all, the Elektra, and the Veiled.
What do you mean by the "Veiled," or the "Elektra ?"
Elektra is that famous person, the daughter of Agamemnon, who at the same moment knows a thing and does not know it; for when Orestes stands beside her, still incognito, she knows, indeed, that Orestes is her brother, but that this is Orestes she does not know. And I will tell you about the "Veiled," too, a most extraordinary figure. Answer me, do you know your father?
Yes.
Well, then, if I present some veiled person to you and ask whether you know him, what would you say?
That I do not, of course.
And yet this very person was your
Not at all, for if I unveil him I shall know the truth. However, what is the object of your philosophy? What do you do when you have reached the pinnacle of virtue?
I shall then be occupied with the first things in the order of nature-riches, I mean, and health, and such like things. But before that one must needs toil much, sharpening his sight on books in fine print, taking notes, and filling himself with solecisms aand uncouth phrases. Most important of all, it is not permitted to become a sage until you have drunk hellebore three times in succession.
This is all very noble in you and extremely manly. But what are we to say when a man, who has already drunk the hellebore and arrived at virtue, turns money - lender at fifty per cent., for I see this belongs to your principles too?
By all means. The sage is the only
man fit to lend money; for since ratiocination
is his peculiar function, and calculating ratios and
per cents. seems to be the next thing to ratiocinating, it follows from these premises that the
special business of the good man alone is to get
not only simple interest like other people, but
compound. For you know there are two sorts of
interest, one sort coming first, and the other second,
And must we say the same of the fees you take for imparting your wisdom to young men? Is it clear that the good man alone will make money out of his virtue?
You grasp the idea. It is not on my own account that I take fees, but for the good of the giver himself. For since one party in a transaction must give and the other receive, I train myself to receive and my pupil to give.
It ought to be the other way about. The young man ought to receive, and you, who alone are rich, to give out.
You are chaffing, fellow; but be careful lest I let fly at you with the apodeiktic syllogism.
What are the frightful effects of the weapon?
Embarrassment, silence, confusion of mind.
If you like, I will give you an extreme example, and prove in a twinkling that you are a stone.
How a stone? You do not look to me
like Perseus with the Gorgon's head, my friend.
This is the way. Is the stone a body?
Yes.
Well, is not a living creature a body?
Yes.
But you are a living creature?
Certainly, I have that appearance.
Then you are a stone, for you are a body.
Heaven forbid! In Zeus' name, release me and make me a man again!
That is easy; be a man once more. For, tell me, is every body a living creature?
No.
Well, is a stone a living creature?
No.
But you are a body?
Yes.
And being a body you are a living creature?
Yes.
Then you are not a stone, because you are a living creature.
Thank you. My legs were getting lifeless already and stiff, like Niobe's. But I am certainly going to buy you. What is his price?
Two hundred and forty dollars.
Here it is.
Are you the sole purchaser ?
Dear me, no. All these people are with me.
There are plenty of them, and strong in the shoulder. They are fit for "the Mower."
Don't waste time. Call up another, the Peripatetic.
You are the man I want-the handsome, the rich one. Come now, buy the most intelligent life-the one whose forte is omniscience!
What sort of a person is he?
He leads a reasonable, well-ordered life, never doing either too much or too little. Most important of all, he is double.
What do you mean?
It seems that his visible man is one person and his inward man another; so, if you buy him, remember to call the one "exoteric," the other "esoteric."
What does he know best?
That there are three classes of goods, relating to the soul, the body, and to externals.
He thinks like a human being. What is his price?
Three hundred and seventy-five dollars.
That is high.
No, my good fellow, for he seems to have some money himself, so you can't buy him too quickly. Moreover, you will presently learn from him how long the gnat lives, how far down the sea is lighted by the sun, and the nature of the soul of the oyster.
Herakles! there's precision for you.
What would you say if you should hear things a great deal shrewder than these— how man is a laughing animal, but the ass neither a laughing, nor a house-building, nor a seafaring animal?
Edifying and profitable knowledge! I will take him for four hundred dollars.
Done.
Whom have we still left?
The sceptic here. Come forward, Pyrrhias, and be published as fast as you can. Most of the people have already stolen away, and there will be few buyers. All the same, who wants this fellow, too?
I do. But first tell me, what is your line of knowledge?
Nothing.
What do you mean by that?
That in my opinion nothing at all exists.
Then are we nobody, too?
I don't even know that.
Nor whether you happen to be somebody, either?
I am still more ignorant of that, by a good deal.
What an uncertainty! But, tell me, what do you want with these balances?
I weigh arguments in them and get them even, and when I see them exactly equal and of the same weight, then I am ignorant which is the truer.
What else are you clever at?
Everything, except chasing a runaway slave.
Why can't you do that?
Because, good sir, I never appresee. hend.
Of course. You do seem to be a slow, dull person. But what is the aim of your science?
Ignorance; neither to hear nor to apprehend.
You mean, then, to be blind and deaf?
Yes, and incapable of judgment and sensation, and, in a word, the double of an earthworm.
I must buy you for that. How much do you say he is worth?
Twenty dollars.
Here it is. What have you to say, fellow? Have I bought you?
Doubtful.
Not at all. I have purchased you and paid the money.
I suspend my judgment about it and consider.
You will follow me, as my slave should.
Who knows whether you are telling the truth?
The salesman and the eighteen dollars and the by-standers.
Are there, then, any standing by?
I will clap you into the mill in a moment, and persuade you by a vicious argument that I am your master.
Suspend your judgment about that.
No, by Heaven, I have formed my opinion already!
Here, stop your resistance and follow
your purchaser.
We will summon you again to-morrow, for we
are going to put up the lives of the private citizens and artisans and tradesfolk.