d, no sooner falls in love than he loses the faculty at once, and in
his prodigal expenditure of riches he will no longer withhold his hand
from gains which in former days were too base to invite his touch. Where
then is the difficulty of supposing that a man may be temperate to-day,
and to-morrow the reverse; or that he who once has had it in his power
to act virtuously may not quite lose that power? (10) To myself, at all
events, it seems that all beautiful and noble things are the result
of constant practice and training; and pre-eminently the virtue of
temperance, seeing that in one and the same bodily frame pleasures are
planted and spring up side by side with the soul and keep whispering in
her ear, "Have done with self-restraint, make haste to gratify us and
the body." (11)

(8) Theognis, 35, 36. See "Symp." ii. 4; Plat. "Men." 95 D.

(9) The author is unknown. See Plat. "Protag." l.c.

(10) Cf. "Cyrop." V. i. 9 foll.; VI. i. 41.

(11) See my remarks, "Hellenica Essays," p. 371 foll.

But to return to Critias and Alcibiades, I repeat that as long as they
lived with Socrates they were able by his support to dominate their
ignoble appetites; (12) but being separated from him, Critias had to
fly to Thessaly, (13) where he consorted with fellows better versed in
lawlessness than justice. And Alcibiades fared no better. His personal
beauty on the one hand incited bevies of fine ladies (14) to hunt him
down as fair spoil, while on the other hand his influence in the state
and among the allies exposed him to the corruption of many an adept in
the arts of flattery; honoured by the democracy and stepping easily
to the front rank he behaved like an athlete who in the games of the
Palaestra is so assured of victory that he neglects his training; thus
he presently forgot the duty which he owed himself.

(12) Cf. (Plat.) "Theag." 130 A.

(13) See "Hell." II. iii. 36.

(14) Cf. Plut. "Ages.," "Alcib."

Such were the misadventures of these two. Is the sequel extraordinary?
Inflated with the pride of ancestry, (15) exalted by their wealth,
puffed up by power, sapped to the soul's core by a host of human
tempters, separate moreover for many a long day from Socrates--what
wonder that they reached the full stature of arrogancy! And for the
offences of these two Socrates is to be held responsible! The accuser
will have it so. But for the fact that in early days, when they
were both young and of an age when derelict