Cleinias:  True.

Athenian:  Our young men break forth into dancing and singing, and we who are their elders deem that we are fulfilling our part in life when we look on at them.  Having lost our agility, we delight in their sports and merry-making, because we love to think of our former selves; and gladly institute contests for those who are able to awaken in us the memory of our youth.

Cleinias:  Very true.

Athenian:  Is it altogether unmeaning to say, as the common people do about festivals, that he should be adjudged the wisest of men, and the winner of the palm, who gives us the greatest amount of pleasure and mirth?  For on such occasions, and when mirth is the order of the day, ought not he to be honoured most, and, as I was saying, bear the palm, who gives most mirth to the greatest number?  Now is this a true way of speaking or of acting?

Cleinias:  Possibly.

Athenian:  But, my dear friend, let us distinguish between different cases, and not be hasty in forming a judgment:  One way of considering the question will be to imagine a festival at which there are entertainments of all sorts, including gymnastic, musical, and equestrian contests:  the citizens are assembled; prizes are offered, and proclamation is made that any one who likes may enter the lists, and that he is to bear the palm who gives the most pleasure to the spectators—­there is to be no regulation about the manner how; but he who is most successful in giving pleasure is to be crowned victor, and deemed to be the pleasantest of the candidates:  What is likely to be the result of such a proclamation?

Cleinias:  In what respect?

Athenian:  There would be various exhibitions:  one man, like Homer, will exhibit a rhapsody, another a performance on the lute; one will have a tragedy, and another a comedy.  Nor would there be anything astonishing in some one imagining that he could gain the prize by exhibiting a puppet-show.  Suppose these competitors to meet, and not these only, but innumerable others as well—­can you tell me who ought to be the victor?

Cleinias:  I do not see how any one can answer you, or pretend to know, unless he has heard with his own ears the several competitors; the question is absurd.

Athenian:  Well, then, if neither of you can answer, shall I answer this question which you deem so absurd?

Cleinias:  By all means.

Athenian:  If very small children are to determine the question, they will decide for the puppet show.

Cleinias:  Of course.

Athenian:  The older children will be advocates of comedy; educated women, and young men, and people in general, will favour tragedy.

Cleinias:  Very likely.

Athenian:  And I believe that we old men would have the greatest pleasure in hearing a rhapsodist recite well the Iliad and Odyssey, or one of the Hesiodic poems, and would award the victory to him.  But, who would really be the victor?—­that is the question.