face toils rather than turn and flee from
them?

Ar. This, too, belongs of right to him who is being trained for
government.

Soc. Well, and to which of them will it better accord to be taught all
knowledge necessary towards the mastery of antagonists?

Ar. To our future ruler certainly, for without these parts of learning
all his other capacities will be merely waste.

Soc. (6)Will not a man so educated be less liable to be entrapped by
rival powers, and so escape a common fate of living creatures, some
of which (as we all know) are hooked through their own greediness, and
often even in spite of a native shyness; but through appetite for
food they are drawn towards the bait, and are caught; while others are
similarly ensnared by drink?

(6) (SS. 4, 5, L. Dind. ed Lips.)

Ar. Undoubtedly.

Soc. And others again are victims of amorous heat, as quails, for
instance, or partridges, which, at the cry of the hen-bird, with
lust and expectation of such joys grow wild, and lose their power of
computing dangers: on they rush, and fall into the snare of the hunter?

Aristippus assented.

Soc. And would it not seem to be a base thing for a man to be affected
like the silliest bird or beast? as when the adulterer invades the
innermost sanctum (7) of the house, though he is well aware of the risks
which his crime involves, (8) the formidable penalties of the law,
the danger of being caught in the toils, and then suffering the direst
contumely. Considering all the hideous penalties which hang over the
adulterer's head, considering also the many means at hand to release him
from the thraldom of his passion, that a man should so drive headlong on
to the quicksands of perdition (9)--what are we to say of such frenzy?
The wretch who can so behave must surely be tormented by an evil spirit?
(10)

(7) {eis as eirktas}. The penetralia.

(8) Or, "he knows the risks he runs of suffering those penalties with
which the law threatens his crime should he fall into the snare,
and being caught, be mutilated."

(9) Or, "leap headlong into the jaws of danger."

(10) {kakodaimonontos}.

Ar. So it strikes me.

Soc. And does it not strike you as a sign of strange indifference that,
whereas the greater number of the indispensable affairs of men, as for
instance, those of war and agriculture, and more than half the rest,
need to be conducted under the broad canopy of heaven, (11) yet the
majority of men are quite untrai