“You would accustom both of them,” said
Socrates, “to eat and drink at a certain hour?”
“It is likely I should?” “But which
of the two,” said Socrates, “would you
teach to leave eating before he was satisfied, to
go about some earnest business?” “Him,
without doubt,” answered Aristippus, “whom
I intended to render capable to govern, to the end
that under him the affairs of the Republic might not
suffer by delay.” “Which of the
two,” continued Socrates, “would you teach
to abstain from drinking when he was thirsty, to sleep
but little, to go late to bed, to rise early, to watch
whole nights, to live chastely, to get the better
of his favourite inclinations, and not to avoid fatigues,
but expose himself freely to them?” “The
same still,” replied Aristippus. “And
if there be any art that teaches to overcome our enemies,
to which of the two is it rather reasonable to teach
it?” “To him to,” said Aristippus,
“for without that art all the rest would avail
him nothing.” “I believe,”
said Socrates, “that a man, who has been educated
in this manner, would not suffer himself to be so easily
surprised by his enemies as the most part of animals
do. For some perish by their gluttony, as those
whom we allure with a bait, or catch by offering them
to drink, and who fall into the snares, notwithstanding
their fears and distrust. Others perish through
their lasciviousness, as quails and partridges, who
suffer themselves to be decoyed by the counterfeit
voice of their females, and blindly following the amorous
warmth that transports them, fall miserably into the
nets.” “You say true,” said
Aristippus. “Well, then,” pursued
Socrates, “is it not scandalous for a man to
be taken in the same snares with irrational animals?
And does not this happen to adulterers, who skulk
and hide themselves in the chambers and closets of
married women, though they know they run a very great
risk, and that the laws are very strict and rigorous
against those crimes? They know themselves to
be watched, and that, if they are taken, they shall
not be let go with impunity. In a word, they
see punishment and infamy hanging over the heads of
criminals like themselves. Besides, they are
not ignorant, that there are a thousand honourable
diversions to deliver them from those infamous passions,
and yet they run hand over head into the midst of these
dangers, and what is this but to be wretched and desperate
to the highest degree?” “I think it so,”
answered Aristippus. “What say you to this,”
continued Socrates, “that the most necessary
and most important affairs of life, as those of war
and husbandry, are, with others of little less consequence,
performed in the fields and in the open air, and that
the greatest part of mankind accustom themselves so
little to endure the inclemency of the seasons, to
suffer heat and cold? Is not this a great neglect?
and do you not think that a man who is to command others
ought to inure himself to all these hardships?”
“I think he ought,” answered Aristippus.
“Therefore,” replied Socrates, “if
they who are patient and laborious, as we have said,
are worthy to command, may we not say that they who
can do nothing of all this, ought never to pretend
to any office?” Aristippus agreed to it, and
Socrates went on.