Phaedrus — Plato
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THE REPUBLIC 19I he was an Athenian : ''If you had been an Athenian and I a Seriphian, neither of us would have been famous. And to those who are not rich and are impatient of old age, the same reply may be made ; for neither can a good poor man lightly bear age, nor can a bad rich man ever be at peace with himseif. May I ask, Cephalus, whether you inherited or acquired the greater part of your wealth ?
How much did I acquire, Socrates? he replied, — is that your question? Well, the property which Cephalus, my grandfather, originally inherited wa^ nearly of the same value as my own is at present ; this he doubled and trebled, but my father Lysanias reduced below the original amount ; and I, who am neither a spender of money like the one, nor a gainer of money like the other, shall be satisfied if I leave my sons a little more than I received.
That was why I asked you the question, I said, because I saw that you were not fond of money, which is a characteristic rather of those who have inherited their fortunes than of those who have acquired them ; for the latter have a second or extraordinary love of money as a creation of their own, resembling the affection of authors for their own poems, or of parents for their children, besides that other love of money for the sake of use and enjoyment which is common to them and all men.
And hence they are very bad company, for they talk about nothing but the praises of wealth. That is true, he said. Yes, that is very true, I said ; but may I ask you one more question ? which is this — What do you consider to be the greatest blessing which you have reaped from wealth ? Not one, he said, of which I could easily convince others.
For let me tell you, Socrates, that when a man thinks himself to be near death he has fears and cares which never entered into his mind before ; the tales of a life below and T the punishment which is exacted there of deeds done here were a laughing matter to him once, but now he is haunted with the thought that they may be true : either because of the feebleness of age, or from the nearness of the prospect, he seems to have a clearer view of the other world ; suspicions and alarms crowd upon him, and he begins to reckon up in his own mind what wrongs he has done to others. And when he p. 192finds that the sum of his transgressions is great, he will many a time like a child, start up in his sleep for fear, and he is filled with dark forebodings.
'But he who is conscious of no sin has in age a sweet hope which, as Pindar ^^ charmingly says, is a kind nurse to him. *' Hope," as he says, "cherishes the soul of him who lives in holiness and righteousness, and is the nurse of his age and the companion of his journey — hope, which is mightiest to sway the eager soul of man. " That is an expression of his which wonderfully delights me.
And this is the great blessing of riches, I do not say to every man, but to a good fnan, that he has had no occasion to deceive another, either intentionally or unintentionally ; and when he departs to the other world he is not in any apprehension about offerings due to the gods or debts which he owes to men.
Now the possession of wealth has a great deal to do with this ; and therefore I say that, setting one thing against another, this, in my opinion, is to a man of sense the greatest of the many advantages which wealth has to. give. That is excellent, Cephalus, I replied ; but then is justice no more than this — to speak the truth and pay your debts ? And are there not exceptions even to this ?
If I have received arms from a friend when in his right mind, and he asks for them when he is not in his right mind, ought I to give them back to him ? No one would say that I ought, any more than they would say that I ought always to speak the truth to one who is in that condition. You are quite right, he replied. But then, I said, speaking the truth and paying your debts is not a correct definition of justice.
And yet, said Polemarchus, that is the definition which has the authority of Simonides.*^ I fear, said Cephalus, that I must look to the sacrifices ; and therefore I now take leave of this argument, which I bequeath to you and Polemarchus. Is not Polemarchus your heir ? I said. To be sure, he answered, and went away laughing to the sacrifices. "See Euthydemus, note 22. " See Protagoras, note 26. The authority of the greater poets was revered almost as we revere that of the Bible.
THE REPUBLIC I93 [Socrates and Polemarchus enter into a discussion of the definition of justice. They examine the view mentioned above that justice consists in speaking the truth and paying one*s debts.
They finally agree that this definition is unsatisfactory and cannot be the true one.] Several times in the middle of our discourse Thrasymachus had made an attempt to get the argument into his own hands «." ^ by interrupting us, and had been put down by the rest of the company, who wanted to hear the end.
But when I had done speaking and there was a pause, he could no longer hold his peace ; and, gathering himself up, he came at us like a wild beast seeking to devour us, and Polemarchus and I quaked with fear. What folly has possessed you, Socrates ? he said, with a roar. Why do you drop down at one another's feet in this silly way ?
I say that if you want to know what justice really is, ^ you should answer and not ask, and you shouldn't pride your- .^\ self in refuting others, but have your own answer ; for there is many a one who can ask and cannot answer. And don't tell me that justice is duty or advantage or profit or gain or interest, for that sort of watery stuff won't do for me ; I must and will have a precise answer.
I was panic-stricken at these words, and trembled at the very look of him ; and I verily believe that if I had not caught his eye first, 1 should have been deprived of utterance : but now, when 1 saw his fury rising, I had the presence of mind to keep my eye upon him, and this enabled me to reply to him. Thrasymachus, I said, with a quiver, have mercy on us.
Our error, if we were guilty of any error, was certainly unintentional ; and therefore you, in your wisdom, should have pity upon us, and not be angry with us. If we were seeking for gold, you would not imagine that we were pretending only, or dropping down, as you say, out of foolish complaisance, at one another's feet. Do not imagine, then, that we are pretending to seek for justice, which is a treasure far more precious than gold.
How characteristic of Socrates ! he replied, with a ' bitter laugh ; that's your ironical way ! Did I not foresee — did I not tell you all that he would refuse to answer, and try 13
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