the bystanders, would probably have got up and struck
him. For he thought that he had been robbed of a great possession when
it became obvious to him that he had been wrong in his former opinion
about wealth. I observed his vexation, and feared that they would
proceed to abuse and quarrelling: so I said,--I heard that very argument
used in the Lyceum yesterday by a wise man, Prodicus of Ceos; but the
audience thought that he was talking mere nonsense, and no one could
be persuaded that he was speaking the truth. And when at last a certain
talkative young gentleman came in, and, taking his seat, began to laugh
and jeer at Prodicus, tormenting him and demanding an explanation of his
argument, he gained the ear of the audience far more than Prodicus.

Can you repeat the discourse to us? Said Erasistratus.

SOCRATES: If I can only remember it, I will. The youth began by asking
Prodicus, In what way did he think that riches were a good and in what
an evil? Prodicus answered, as you did just now, that they were a good
to good men and to those who knew in what way they should be employed,
while to the bad and the ignorant they were an evil. The same is true,
he went on to say, of all other things; men make them to be what they
are themselves. The saying of Archilochus is true:--

'Men's thoughts correspond to the things which they meet with.'

Well, then, replied the youth, if any one makes me wise in that wisdom
whereby good men become wise, he must also make everything else good to
me. Not that he concerns himself at all with these other things, but he
has converted my ignorance into wisdom. If, for example, a person teach
me grammar or music, he will at the same time teach me all that relates
to grammar or music, and so when he makes me good, he makes things good
to me.

Prodicus did not altogether agree: still he consented to what was said.

And do you think, said the youth, that doing good things is like
building a house,--the work of human agency; or do things remain what
they were at first, good or bad, for all time?

Prodicus began to suspect, I fancy, the direction which the argument
was likely to take, and did not wish to be put down by a mere stripling
before all those present:--(if they two had been alone, he would not
have minded):--so he answered, cleverly enough: I think that doing good
things is a work of human agency.

And is virtue in your opinion, Prodicus, innate or acquired by
instruction?

The l