ect but to make
shipwreck of the craft and yourself together? or suppose by similar
false assertions I can persuade the state at large to entrust her
destinies to you--"a man with a fine genius for command," I say, "a
practised lawyer," "a politician born," and so forth. The odds are, the
state and you may come to grief through you. Or to take an instance
from everyday life. By my falsehoods I persuade some private person to
entrust his affairs to you as "a really careful and business-like
person with a head for economy." When put to the test would not your
administration prove ruinous, and the figure you cut ridiculous? No, my
dear friend, there is but one road, the shortest, safest, best, and it
is simply this: In whatsoever you desire to be deemed good, endeavour
to be good. For of all the virtues namable among men, consider, and
you will find there is not one but may be increased by learning and
practice. For my part then, Critobulus, these are the principles on
which we ought to go a-hunting; but if you take a different view, I am
all attention, please instruct me.

Then Critobulus: Nay, Socrates, I should be ashamed to gainsay what you
have said; if I did, it would neither be a noble statement nor a true.
(27)

(27) {kala... alethe}.

VII

He had two ways of dealing with the difficulties of his friends: where
ignorance was the cause, he tried to meet the trouble by a dose of
common sense; or where want and poverty were to blame, by lessoning them
that they should assist one another according to their ability; and here
I may mention certain incidents which occurred within my own knowledge.
How, for instance, he chanced upon Aristarchus wearing the look of one
who suffered from a fit of the "sullens," and thus accosted him.

Soc. You seem to have some trouble on your mind, Aristarchus; if so, you
should share it with your friends. Perhaps together we might lighten the
weight of it a little.

Aristarchus answered: Yes, Socrates, I am in sore straits indeed. Ever
since the party strife declared itself in the city, (1) what with the
rush of people to Piraeus, and the wholesale banishments, I have been
fairly at the mercy of my poor deserted female relatives. Sisters,
nieces, cousins, they have all come flocking to me for protection. I
have fourteen free-born souls, I tell you, under my single roof, and how
are we to live? We can get nothing out of the soil--that is in the hands
of the enemy; nothing from my