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not have to go away before the Mysteries, as you told me yesterday that you must, but could stay instead and be initiated. M: I would stay, Socrates, if you could tell me many things like these. S: Then I won’t spare any effort to tell you these sorts of things, both for your sake and for my own — though I may not be able to continue in this vein for long. But come on, you too try to fulfill your promise to me. Tell me the nature of virtue as a whole and stop making many things out of one — as jokers say to people who have shattered something. Please allow virtue to remain sound and whole, and tell me what it is. You can use things I have said as examples.
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M: I think, Socrates, that virtue is, as the poet says, “to find joy in beautiful things and have power.” Therefore I say that virtue is to want the best things in life, and have the power to get them. S: Do you mean that the man who desires the best things in life desires good things? M: That’s certainly right. S: Do you take it for granted that there are people who desire bad things, and others who desire good things? Don’t you think, my good man, that all men desire good things? M: I certainly don’t. S: You think some want bad things, then? M: Yes. S: Do you mean that they think the bad things are good, or that they know they are bad and nevertheless want them anyway? M: I think there are both kinds.
© John Holbo/Belle Waring 2015. Please do not distribute without permission.
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