Part

  1 Pre |         characters are ill-drawn. Socrates assumes the ‘superior person’
  2 Text|          PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates and Alcibiades.~SOCRATES:
  3 Text|          Socrates and Alcibiades.~SOCRATES: Are you going, Alcibiades,
  4 Text|         to Zeus?~ALCIBIADES: Yes, Socrates, I am.~SOCRATES: you seem
  5 Text|  ALCIBIADES: Yes, Socrates, I am.~SOCRATES: you seem to be troubled
  6 Text|       suppose that I am thinking?~SOCRATES: Of the greatest of all
  7 Text|            ALCIBIADES: Certainly.~SOCRATES: Do you not imagine, then,
  8 Text|          dilate?~ALCIBIADES: Yes, Socrates, but you are speaking of
  9 Text|    venture to make such a prayer?~SOCRATES: Madness, then, you consider
 10 Text|            ALCIBIADES: Of course.~SOCRATES: And some men seem to you
 11 Text|    contrary?~ALCIBIADES: They do.~SOCRATES: Well, then, let us discuss
 12 Text|         are mad?~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES: And again, there are some
 13 Text|            ALCIBIADES: There are.~SOCRATES: While others are ailing?~
 14 Text|          ailing?~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES: And they are not the same?~
 15 Text|        ALCIBIADES: Certainly not.~SOCRATES: Nor are there any who are
 16 Text|    neither state?~ALCIBIADES: No.~SOCRATES: A man must either be sick
 17 Text|   ALCIBIADES: That is my opinion.~SOCRATES: Very good: and do you think
 18 Text|      ALCIBIADES: How do you mean?~SOCRATES: Do you believe that a man
 19 Text|        ALCIBIADES: Decidedly not.~SOCRATES: He must be either sane
 20 Text|         ALCIBIADES: So I suppose.~SOCRATES: Did you not acknowledge
 21 Text|      discretion?~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES: And that there is no third
 22 Text|   indiscretion?~ALCIBIADES: True.~SOCRATES: And there cannot be two
 23 Text|         ALCIBIADES: There cannot.~SOCRATES: Then madness and want of
 24 Text|           appears to be the case.~SOCRATES: We shall be in the right,
 25 Text|           many?~ALCIBIADES: I do.~SOCRATES: But how could we live in
 26 Text|       otherwise?~ALCIBIADES: Why, Socrates, how is that possible? I
 27 Text|          must have been mistaken.~SOCRATES: So it seems to me. But
 28 Text|           thus:—~ALCIBIADES: How?~SOCRATES: I will tell you. We think
 29 Text|          we not?~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES: And must every sick person
 30 Text|        ALCIBIADES: Certainly not.~SOCRATES: And is every kind of ophthalmia
 31 Text|         disease?~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES: And every disease ophthalmia?~
 32 Text|    understand what I mean myself.~SOCRATES: Perhaps, if you give me
 33 Text|       ALCIBIADES: I am attending, Socrates, to the best of my power.~
 34 Text|          to the best of my power.~SOCRATES: We are agreed, then, that
 35 Text|   ophthalmia?~ALCIBIADES: We are.~SOCRATES: And so far we seem to be
 36 Text|            ALCIBIADES: Certainly.~SOCRATES: There are cobblers and
 37 Text|           ALCIBIADES: No, indeed.~SOCRATES: And in like manner men
 38 Text|     ALCIBIADES: I agree with you.~SOCRATES: Then let us return to the
 39 Text|           ALCIBIADES: To be sure.~SOCRATES: And you regard those as
 40 Text|         or said?~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES: The senseless are those
 41 Text|           this?~ALCIBIADES: True.~SOCRATES: The latter will say or
 42 Text|   knowledge?~ALCIBIADES: Exactly.~SOCRATES: Oedipus, as I was saying,
 43 Text|       ALCIBIADES: And not only I, Socrates, but any one else who should
 44 Text|       should meet with such luck.~SOCRATES: Yet you would not accept
 45 Text|         use could I make of them?~SOCRATES: And would you accept them
 46 Text|          ALCIBIADES: I would not.~SOCRATES: You see that it is not
 47 Text|      ALCIBIADES: It is difficult, Socrates, to oppose what has been
 48 Text|       like a curse than a prayer.~SOCRATES: But perhaps, my good friend,
 49 Text|          in any conceivable case?~SOCRATES: So I believe:—you do not
 50 Text|        ALCIBIADES: Certainly not.~SOCRATES: And yet surely I may not
 51 Text|           ALCIBIADES: Good words, Socrates, prithee.~SOCRATES: You
 52 Text|         words, Socrates, prithee.~SOCRATES: You ought not to bid him
 53 Text|        ALCIBIADES: Certainly not.~SOCRATES: Nor would any one else,
 54 Text|          I fancy?~ALCIBIADES: No.~SOCRATES: That ignorance is bad then,
 55 Text| ALCIBIADES: So I think, at least.~SOCRATES: And both to the person
 56 Text|  everybody else?~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES: Let us take another case.
 57 Text|         is best?~ALCIBIADES: No.)~SOCRATES:—If, then, you went indoors,
 58 Text|          omitted in several MSS.)~SOCRATES: For you designed to kill,
 59 Text|            ALCIBIADES: Certainly.~SOCRATES: And if you made many attempts,
 60 Text|           him?~ALCIBIADES: Never.~SOCRATES: Well, but if Orestes in
 61 Text|         upon her?~ALCIBIADES: No.~SOCRATES: He did not intend to slay
 62 Text|        his own?~ALCIBIADES: True.~SOCRATES: Ignorance, then, is better
 63 Text|            ALCIBIADES: Obviously.~SOCRATES: You acknowledge that for
 64 Text|       supposed?~ALCIBIADES: I do.~SOCRATES: And there is still another
 65 Text|         ALCIBIADES: What is that, Socrates?~SOCRATES: It may be, in
 66 Text|           What is that, Socrates?~SOCRATES: It may be, in short, that
 67 Text|   ALCIBIADES: Yes, in my opinion.~SOCRATES: We may take the orators
 68 Text|        orators.~ALCIBIADES: True.~SOCRATES: But now see what follows,
 69 Text|         foolish?~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES: The many are foolish, the
 70 Text|            ALCIBIADES: Certainly.~SOCRATES: And you use both the terms, ‘
 71 Text|      something?~ALCIBIADES: I do.~SOCRATES: Would you call a person
 72 Text|        ALCIBIADES: Decidedly not.~SOCRATES: Nor again, I suppose, a
 73 Text|         how long?~ALCIBIADES: No.~SOCRATES: Nor, once more, a person
 74 Text|        ALCIBIADES: Certainly not.~SOCRATES: But he who understands
 75 Text|           same?—~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES:—Such an one, I say, we
 76 Text|       think?~ALCIBIADES: I agree.~SOCRATES: And if any one knows how
 77 Text|           rider?~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES: And in a similar way you
 78 Text|      other art?~ALCIBIADES: True.~SOCRATES: But is it necessary that
 79 Text|          difference in the world.~SOCRATES: And what sort of a state
 80 Text|     should call such a state bad, Socrates.~SOCRATES: You certainly
 81 Text|       such a state bad, Socrates.~SOCRATES: You certainly would when
 82 Text|            ALCIBIADES: Decidedly.~SOCRATES: But ought we not then,
 83 Text|          or say?~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES: And if a person does that
 84 Text|          state?~ALCIBIADES: True.~SOCRATES: And if he do the contrary,
 85 Text|          suffer?~ALCIBIADES: Yes.~SOCRATES: Well, and are you of the
 86 Text|         before?~ALCIBIADES: I am.~SOCRATES: But were you not saying
 87 Text|          wise?~ALCIBIADES: I was.~SOCRATES: And have we not come back
 88 Text|     ALCIBIADES: That is the case.~SOCRATES: It is good, then, for the
 89 Text|        What you say is very true.~SOCRATES: Do you not see that I was
 90 Text|         now, if I did not before, Socrates.~SOCRATES: The state or
 91 Text|         did not before, Socrates.~SOCRATES: The state or the soul,
 92 Text|     ALCIBIADES: How in the world, Socrates, do the words of the poet
 93 Text|    bearing on the point whatever.~SOCRATES: Quite the contrary, my
 94 Text|         do not think that it has, Socrates: at least, if the argument
 95 Text|      another which I could trust.~SOCRATES: And you are right in thinking
 96 Text|         Well, that is my opinion.~SOCRATES: But tell me, by Heaven:—
 97 Text|  opportunity?~ALCIBIADES: Indeed, Socrates, I could not answer you
 98 Text|         from the ‘Margites’ which Socrates has just made; but it is
 99 Text|       what he at first requested.~SOCRATES: And was not the poet whose
100 Text|       believe that you are right.~SOCRATES: The Lacedaemonians, too,
101 Text|     matters.~ALCIBIADES: I agree, Socrates, with you and with the God,
102 Text|      unbecoming for me to oppose.~SOCRATES: Do you not remember saying
103 Text|           good?~ALCIBIADES: I do.~SOCRATES: You see, then, that there
104 Text|         And how long must I wait, Socrates, and who will be my teacher?
105 Text|         very glad to see the man.~SOCRATES: It is he who takes an especial
106 Text|           be the better for them.~SOCRATES: And surely he has a wondrous
107 Text|      sacrifice until he is found.~SOCRATES: You are right: that will
108 Text|          But how shall we manage, Socrates?—At any rate I will set
109 Text|           hence, if they so will.~SOCRATES: I accept your gift, and