eved about the charm which I learned with so much
pain, and to so little profit, from the Thracian, for the sake of a
thing which is nothing worth. I think indeed that there is a mistake,
and that I must be a bad enquirer, for wisdom or temperance I believe to
be really a great good; and happy are you, Charmides, if you certainly
possess it. Wherefore examine yourself, and see whether you have this
gift and can do without the charm; for if you can, I would rather
advise you to regard me simply as a fool who is never able to reason out
anything; and to rest assured that the more wise and temperate you are,
the happier you will be.

Charmides said: I am sure that I do not know, Socrates, whether I have
or have not this gift of wisdom and temperance; for how can I know
whether I have a thing, of which even you and Critias are, as you say,
unable to discover the nature?--(not that I believe you.) And further,
I am sure, Socrates, that I do need the charm, and as far as I am
concerned, I shall be willing to be charmed by you daily, until you say
that I have had enough.

Very good, Charmides, said Critias; if you do this I shall have a proof
of your temperance, that is, if you allow yourself to be charmed by
Socrates, and never desert him at all.

You may depend on my following and not deserting him, said Charmides: if
you who are my guardian command me, I should be very wrong not to obey
you.

And I do command you, he said.

Then I will do as you say, and begin this very day.

You sirs, I said, what are you conspiring about?

We are not conspiring, said Charmides, we have conspired already.

And are you about to use violence, without even going through the forms
of justice?

Yes, I shall use violence, he replied, since he orders me; and therefore
you had better consider well.

But the time for consideration has passed, I said, when violence is
employed; and you, when you are determined on anything, and in the mood
of violence, are irresistible.

Do not you resist me then, he said.

I will not resist you, I replied.

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