ndeed, you show yourself honest, because you will not, out of
avarice, cheat any man, but at the same time you discover, too, that you
know but little, since all your knowledge is not worth the buying."

Socrates answered him in this manner:--"There is a great resemblance
between beauty and the doctrine of philosophers; what is praiseworthy in
the one is so in the other, and both of them are subject to the same
vice: for, if a woman sells her beauty for money, we immediately call her
a prostitute; but if she knows that a man of worth and condition is
fallen in love with her, and if she makes him her friend, we say she is a
prudent woman. It is just the same with the doctrine of philosophers;
they that sell it are sophists, and like the public women, but if a
philosopher observe a youth of excellent parts, and teacheth him what he
knows, in order to obtain his friendship, we say of him, that he acts the
part of a good and virtuous citizen. Thus as some delight in fine
horses, others in dogs, and others in birds; for my part all my delight
is to be with my virtuous friends. I teach them all the good I know, and
recommend them to all whom I believe capable to assist them in the way to
perfection. We all draw together, out of the same fountain, the precious
treasures which the ancient sages have left us; we run over their works,
and if we find anything excellent we take notice of it and select it: in
short, we believe we have made a great improvement when we begin to love
one another." This was the answer he made, and when I heard him speak in
this manner I thought him very happy, and that he effectually stirred up
his hearers to the love of virtue.

Another time when Antiphon asked him why he did not concern himself with
affairs of State, seeing he thought himself capable to make others good
politicians? he returned this answer:--"Should I be more serviceable to
the State if I took an employment whose function would be wholly bounded
in my person, and take up all my time, than I am by instructing every one
as I do, and in furnishing the Republic with a great number of citizens
who are capable to serve her?"

CHAPTER VII. IN WHAT MANNER SOCRATES DISSUADED MEN FROM SELF-CONCEIT AND
OSTENTATION.

But let us now see whether by dissuading his friends from a vain
ostentation he did not exhort them to the pursuit of virtue. He
frequently said that there was no readier way to glory than to render
oneself excellent,