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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lesser Hippias, by Plato
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lesser Hippias
+
+Author: Plato
+
+Translator: Benjamin Jowett
+
+Posting Date: October 15, 2008 [EBook #1673]
+Release Date: March, 1999
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LESSER HIPPIAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sue Asscher
+
+
+
+
+
+LESSER HIPPIAS
+
+by Plato
+
+(see Appendix I)
+
+
+Translated by Benjamin Jowett
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I.
+
+It seems impossible to separate by any exact line the genuine writings
+of Plato from the spurious. The only external evidence to them which is
+of much value is that of Aristotle; for the Alexandrian catalogues of
+a century later include manifest forgeries. Even the value of the
+Aristotelian authority is a good deal impaired by the uncertainty
+concerning the date and authorship of the writings which are ascribed to
+him. And several of the citations of Aristotle omit the name of Plato,
+and some of them omit the name of the dialogue from which they are
+taken. Prior, however, to the enquiry about the writings of a particular
+author, general considerations which equally affect all evidence to the
+genuineness of ancient writings are the following: Shorter works are
+more likely to have been forged, or to have received an erroneous
+designation, than longer ones; and some kinds of composition, such as
+epistles or panegyrical orations, are more liable to suspicion than
+others; those, again, which have a taste of sophistry in them, or the
+ring of a later age, or the slighter character of a rhetorical exercise,
+or in which a motive or some affinity to spurious writings can be
+detected, or which seem to have originated in a name or statement really
+occurring in some classical author, are also of doubtful credit; while
+there is no instance of any ancient writing proved to be a forgery,
+which combines excellence with length. A really great and original
+writer would have no object in fathering his works on Plato; and to the
+forger or imitator, the 'literary hack' of Alexandria and Athens, the
+Gods did not grant originality or genius. Further, in attempting to
+balance the evidence for and against a Platonic dialogue, we must not
+forget that the form of the Platonic writing was common to several of
+his contemporaries. Aeschines, Euclid, Phaedo, Antisthenes, and in the
+next generation Aristotle, are all said to have composed dialogues; and
+mistakes of names are very likely to have occurred. Greek literature in
+the third century before Christ was almost as voluminous as our own, and
+without the safeguards of regular publication, or printing, or binding,
+or even of distinct titles. An unknown writing was naturally attributed
+to a known writer whose works bore the same character; and the name once
+appended easily obtained authority. A tendency may also be observed to
+blend the works and opinions of the master with those of his scholars.
+To a later Platonist, the difference between Plato and his imitators was
+not so perceptible as to ourselves. The Memorabilia of Xenophon and the
+Dialogues of Plato are but a part of a considerable Socratic literature
+which has passed away. And we must consider how we should regard the
+question of the genuineness of a particular writing, if this lost
+literature had been preserved to us.
+
+These considerations lead us to adopt the following criteria of
+genuineness: (1) That is most certainly Plato's which Aristotle
+attributes to him by name, which (2) is of considerable length, of (3)
+great excellence, and also (4) in harmony with the general spirit of
+the Platonic writings. But the testimony of Aristotle cannot always
+be distinguished from that of a later age (see above); and has various
+degrees of importance. Those writings which he cites without mentioning
+Plato, under their own names, e.g. the Hippias, the Funeral Oration, the
+Phaedo, etc., have an inferior degree of evidence in their favour. They
+may have been supposed by him to be the writings of another, although in
+the case of really great works, e.g. the Phaedo, this is not credible;
+those again which are quoted but not named, are still more defective
+in their external credentials. There may be also a possibility that
+Aristotle was mistaken, or may have confused the master and his scholars
+in the case of a short writing; but this is inconceivable about a more
+important work, e.g. the Laws, especially when we remember that he was
+living at Athens, and a frequenter of the groves of the Academy, during
+the last twenty years of Plato's life. Nor must we forget that in all
+his numerous citations from the Platonic writings he never attributes
+any passage found in the extant dialogues to any one but Plato. And
+lastly, we may remark that one or two great writings, such as the
+Parmenides and the Politicus, which are wholly devoid of Aristotelian
+(1) credentials may be fairly attributed to Plato, on the ground of (2)
+length, (3) excellence, and (4) accordance with the general spirit
+of his writings. Indeed the greater part of the evidence for the
+genuineness of ancient Greek authors may be summed up under two heads
+only: (1) excellence; and (2) uniformity of tradition--a kind of
+evidence, which though in many cases sufficient, is of inferior value.
+
+Proceeding upon these principles we appear to arrive at the conclusion
+that nineteen-twentieths of all the writings which have ever been
+ascribed to Plato, are undoubtedly genuine. There is another portion of
+them, including the Epistles, the Epinomis, the dialogues rejected by
+the ancients themselves, namely, the Axiochus, De justo, De virtute,
+Demodocus, Sisyphus, Eryxias, which on grounds, both of internal and
+external evidence, we are able with equal certainty to reject. But there
+still remains a small portion of which we are unable to affirm either
+that they are genuine or spurious. They may have been written in youth,
+or possibly like the works of some painters, may be partly or wholly
+the compositions of pupils; or they may have been the writings of some
+contemporary transferred by accident to the more celebrated name of
+Plato, or of some Platonist in the next generation who aspired to
+imitate his master. Not that on grounds either of language or philosophy
+we should lightly reject them. Some difference of style, or inferiority
+of execution, or inconsistency of thought, can hardly be considered
+decisive of their spurious character. For who always does justice to
+himself, or who writes with equal care at all times? Certainly not
+Plato, who exhibits the greatest differences in dramatic power, in the
+formation of sentences, and in the use of words, if his earlier writings
+are compared with his later ones, say the Protagoras or Phaedrus with
+the Laws. Or who can be expected to think in the same manner during
+a period of authorship extending over above fifty years, in an age
+of great intellectual activity, as well as of political and literary
+transition? Certainly not Plato, whose earlier writings are separated
+from his later ones by as wide an interval of philosophical speculation
+as that which separates his later writings from Aristotle.
+
+The dialogues which have been translated in the first Appendix, and
+which appear to have the next claim to genuineness among the Platonic
+writings, are the Lesser Hippias, the Menexenus or Funeral Oration, the
+First Alcibiades. Of these, the Lesser Hippias and the Funeral Oration
+are cited by Aristotle; the first in the Metaphysics, the latter in the
+Rhetoric. Neither of them are expressly attributed to Plato, but in his
+citation of both of them he seems to be referring to passages in the
+extant dialogues. From the mention of 'Hippias' in the singular by
+Aristotle, we may perhaps infer that he was unacquainted with a second
+dialogue bearing the same name. Moreover, the mere existence of a
+Greater and Lesser Hippias, and of a First and Second Alcibiades, does
+to a certain extent throw a doubt upon both of them. Though a very
+clever and ingenious work, the Lesser Hippias does not appear to contain
+anything beyond the power of an imitator, who was also a careful student
+of the earlier Platonic writings, to invent. The motive or leading
+thought of the dialogue may be detected in Xen. Mem., and there is
+no similar instance of a 'motive' which is taken from Xenophon in an
+undoubted dialogue of Plato. On the other hand, the upholders of the
+genuineness of the dialogue will find in the Hippias a true Socratic
+spirit; they will compare the Ion as being akin both in subject and
+treatment; they will urge the authority of Aristotle; and they will
+detect in the treatment of the Sophist, in the satirical reasoning
+upon Homer, in the reductio ad absurdum of the doctrine that vice is
+ignorance, traces of a Platonic authorship. In reference to the last
+point we are doubtful, as in some of the other dialogues, whether the
+author is asserting or overthrowing the paradox of Socrates, or merely
+following the argument 'whither the wind blows.' That no conclusion
+is arrived at is also in accordance with the character of the earlier
+dialogues. The resemblances or imitations of the Gorgias, Protagoras,
+and Euthydemus, which have been observed in the Hippias, cannot with
+certainty be adduced on either side of the argument. On the whole, more
+may be said in favour of the genuineness of the Hippias than against it.
+
+The Menexenus or Funeral Oration is cited by Aristotle, and is
+interesting as supplying an example of the manner in which the orators
+praised 'the Athenians among the Athenians,' falsifying persons and
+dates, and casting a veil over the gloomier events of Athenian history.
+It exhibits an acquaintance with the funeral oration of Thucydides, and
+was, perhaps, intended to rival that great work. If genuine, the
+proper place of the Menexenus would be at the end of the Phaedrus. The
+satirical opening and the concluding words bear a great resemblance to
+the earlier dialogues; the oration itself is professedly a mimetic work,
+like the speeches in the Phaedrus, and cannot therefore be tested by
+a comparison of the other writings of Plato. The funeral oration of
+Pericles is expressly mentioned in the Phaedrus, and this may have
+suggested the subject, in the same manner that the Cleitophon appears to
+be suggested by the slight mention of Cleitophon and his attachment to
+Thrasymachus in the Republic; and the Theages by the mention of Theages
+in the Apology and Republic; or as the Second Alcibiades seems to be
+founded upon the text of Xenophon, Mem. A similar taste for parody
+appears not only in the Phaedrus, but in the Protagoras, in the
+Symposium, and to a certain extent in the Parmenides.
+
+To these two doubtful writings of Plato I have added the First
+Alcibiades, which, of all the disputed dialogues of Plato, has the
+greatest merit, and is somewhat longer than any of them, though not
+verified by the testimony of Aristotle, and in many respects at variance
+with the Symposium in the description of the relations of Socrates
+and Alcibiades. Like the Lesser Hippias and the Menexenus, it is to be
+compared to the earlier writings of Plato. The motive of the piece may,
+perhaps, be found in that passage of the Symposium in which Alcibiades
+describes himself as self-convicted by the words of Socrates. For the
+disparaging manner in which Schleiermacher has spoken of this dialogue
+there seems to be no sufficient foundation. At the same time, the lesson
+imparted is simple, and the irony more transparent than in the undoubted
+dialogues of Plato. We know, too, that Alcibiades was a favourite
+thesis, and that at least five or six dialogues bearing this name passed
+current in antiquity, and are attributed to contemporaries of Socrates
+and Plato. (1) In the entire absence of real external evidence (for
+the catalogues of the Alexandrian librarians cannot be regarded as
+trustworthy); and (2) in the absence of the highest marks either of
+poetical or philosophical excellence; and (3) considering that we have
+express testimony to the existence of contemporary writings bearing
+the name of Alcibiades, we are compelled to suspend our judgment on the
+genuineness of the extant dialogue.
+
+Neither at this point, nor at any other, do we propose to draw an
+absolute line of demarcation between genuine and spurious writings of
+Plato. They fade off imperceptibly from one class to another. There may
+have been degrees of genuineness in the dialogues themselves, as there
+are certainly degrees of evidence by which they are supported. The
+traditions of the oral discourses both of Socrates and Plato may have
+formed the basis of semi-Platonic writings; some of them may be of the
+same mixed character which is apparent in Aristotle and Hippocrates,
+although the form of them is different. But the writings of Plato,
+unlike the writings of Aristotle, seem never to have been confused with
+the writings of his disciples: this was probably due to their definite
+form, and to their inimitable excellence. The three dialogues which
+we have offered in the Appendix to the criticism of the reader may
+be partly spurious and partly genuine; they may be altogether
+spurious;--that is an alternative which must be frankly admitted. Nor
+can we maintain of some other dialogues, such as the Parmenides, and
+the Sophist, and Politicus, that no considerable objection can be urged
+against them, though greatly overbalanced by the weight (chiefly)
+of internal evidence in their favour. Nor, on the other hand, can
+we exclude a bare possibility that some dialogues which are usually
+rejected, such as the Greater Hippias and the Cleitophon, may be
+genuine. The nature and object of these semi-Platonic writings require
+more careful study and more comparison of them with one another, and
+with forged writings in general, than they have yet received, before we
+can finally decide on their character. We do not consider them all as
+genuine until they can be proved to be spurious, as is often maintained
+and still more often implied in this and similar discussions; but
+should say of some of them, that their genuineness is neither proven nor
+disproven until further evidence about them can be adduced. And we are
+as confident that the Epistles are spurious, as that the Republic, the
+Timaeus, and the Laws are genuine.
+
+On the whole, not a twentieth part of the writings which pass under
+the name of Plato, if we exclude the works rejected by the ancients
+themselves and two or three other plausible inventions, can be fairly
+doubted by those who are willing to allow that a considerable change
+and growth may have taken place in his philosophy (see above). That
+twentieth debatable portion scarcely in any degree affects our judgment
+of Plato, either as a thinker or a writer, and though suggesting some
+interesting questions to the scholar and critic, is of little importance
+to the general reader.
+
+
+
+
+LESSER HIPPIAS
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+The Lesser Hippias may be compared with the earlier dialogues of Plato,
+in which the contrast of Socrates and the Sophists is most strongly
+exhibited. Hippias, like Protagoras and Gorgias, though civil, is vain
+and boastful: he knows all things; he can make anything, including his
+own clothes; he is a manufacturer of poems and declamations, and also of
+seal-rings, shoes, strigils; his girdle, which he has woven himself, is
+of a finer than Persian quality. He is a vainer, lighter nature than
+the two great Sophists (compare Protag.), but of the same character
+with them, and equally impatient of the short cut-and-thrust method of
+Socrates, whom he endeavours to draw into a long oration. At last, he
+gets tired of being defeated at every point by Socrates, and is with
+difficulty induced to proceed (compare Thrasymachus, Protagoras,
+Callicles, and others, to whom the same reluctance is ascribed).
+
+Hippias like Protagoras has common sense on his side, when he argues,
+citing passages of the Iliad in support of his view, that Homer intended
+Achilles to be the bravest, Odysseus the wisest of the Greeks. But he is
+easily overthrown by the superior dialectics of Socrates, who pretends
+to show that Achilles is not true to his word, and that no similar
+inconsistency is to be found in Odysseus. Hippias replies that Achilles
+unintentionally, but Odysseus intentionally, speaks falsehood. But is it
+better to do wrong intentionally or unintentionally? Socrates, relying
+on the analogy of the arts, maintains the former, Hippias the latter
+of the two alternatives...All this is quite conceived in the spirit of
+Plato, who is very far from making Socrates always argue on the side
+of truth. The over-reasoning on Homer, which is of course satirical, is
+also in the spirit of Plato. Poetry turned logic is even more ridiculous
+than 'rhetoric turned logic,' and equally fallacious. There were
+reasoners in ancient as well as in modern times, who could never receive
+the natural impression of Homer, or of any other book which they
+read. The argument of Socrates, in which he picks out the apparent
+inconsistencies and discrepancies in the speech and actions of Achilles,
+and the final paradox, 'that he who is true is also false,' remind us
+of the interpretation by Socrates of Simonides in the Protagoras, and of
+similar reasonings in the first book of the Republic. The discrepancies
+which Socrates discovers in the words of Achilles are perhaps as great
+as those discovered by some of the modern separatists of the Homeric
+poems...
+
+At last, Socrates having caught Hippias in the toils of the voluntary
+and involuntary, is obliged to confess that he is wandering about in the
+same labyrinth; he makes the reflection on himself which others would
+make upon him (compare Protagoras). He does not wonder that he should be
+in a difficulty, but he wonders at Hippias, and he becomes sensible
+of the gravity of the situation, when ordinary men like himself can no
+longer go to the wise and be taught by them.
+
+It may be remarked as bearing on the genuineness of this dialogue: (1)
+that the manners of the speakers are less subtle and refined than in
+the other dialogues of Plato; (2) that the sophistry of Socrates is more
+palpable and unblushing, and also more unmeaning; (3) that many turns
+of thought and style are found in it which appear also in the other
+dialogues:--whether resemblances of this kind tell in favour of or
+against the genuineness of an ancient writing, is an important question
+which will have to be answered differently in different cases. For that
+a writer may repeat himself is as true as that a forger may imitate; and
+Plato elsewhere, either of set purpose or from forgetfulness, is full
+of repetitions. The parallelisms of the Lesser Hippias, as already
+remarked, are not of the kind which necessarily imply that the dialogue
+is the work of a forger. The parallelisms of the Greater Hippias with
+the other dialogues, and the allusion to the Lesser (where Hippias
+sketches the programme of his next lecture, and invites Socrates to
+attend and bring any friends with him who may be competent judges), are
+more than suspicious:--they are of a very poor sort, such as we cannot
+suppose to have been due to Plato himself. The Greater Hippias more
+resembles the Euthydemus than any other dialogue; but is immeasurably
+inferior to it. The Lesser Hippias seems to have more merit than the
+Greater, and to be more Platonic in spirit. The character of Hippias is
+the same in both dialogues, but his vanity and boasting are even more
+exaggerated in the Greater Hippias. His art of memory is specially
+mentioned in both. He is an inferior type of the same species as
+Hippodamus of Miletus (Arist. Pol.). Some passages in which the Lesser
+Hippias may be advantageously compared with the undoubtedly genuine
+dialogues of Plato are the following:--Less. Hipp.: compare Republic
+(Socrates' cunning in argument): compare Laches (Socrates' feeling about
+arguments): compare Republic (Socrates not unthankful): compare Republic
+(Socrates dishonest in argument).
+
+The Lesser Hippias, though inferior to the other dialogues, may be
+reasonably believed to have been written by Plato, on the ground (1)
+of considerable excellence; (2) of uniform tradition beginning with
+Aristotle and his school. That the dialogue falls below the standard of
+Plato's other works, or that he has attributed to Socrates an unmeaning
+paradox (perhaps with the view of showing that he could beat the
+Sophists at their own weapons; or that he could 'make the worse appear
+the better cause'; or merely as a dialectical experiment)--are not
+sufficient reasons for doubting the genuineness of the work.
+
+
+
+
+PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Eudicus, Socrates, Hippias.
+
+
+EUDICUS: Why are you silent, Socrates, after the magnificent display
+which Hippias has been making? Why do you not either refute his words,
+if he seems to you to have been wrong in any point, or join with us in
+commending him? There is the more reason why you should speak, because
+we are now alone, and the audience is confined to those who may fairly
+claim to take part in a philosophical discussion.
+
+SOCRATES: I should greatly like, Eudicus, to ask Hippias the meaning
+of what he was saying just now about Homer. I have heard your father,
+Apemantus, declare that the Iliad of Homer is a finer poem than the
+Odyssey in the same degree that Achilles was a better man than Odysseus;
+Odysseus, he would say, is the central figure of the one poem and
+Achilles of the other. Now, I should like to know, if Hippias has no
+objection to tell me, what he thinks about these two heroes, and which
+of them he maintains to be the better; he has already told us in the
+course of his exhibition many things of various kinds about Homer and
+divers other poets.
+
+EUDICUS: I am sure that Hippias will be delighted to answer anything
+which you would like to ask; tell me, Hippias, if Socrates asks you a
+question, will you answer him?
+
+HIPPIAS: Indeed, Eudicus, I should be strangely inconsistent if I
+refused to answer Socrates, when at each Olympic festival, as I went up
+from my house at Elis to the temple of Olympia, where all the Hellenes
+were assembled, I continually professed my willingness to perform any of
+the exhibitions which I had prepared, and to answer any questions which
+any one had to ask.
+
+SOCRATES: Truly, Hippias, you are to be congratulated, if at every
+Olympic festival you have such an encouraging opinion of your own wisdom
+when you go up to the temple. I doubt whether any muscular hero would be
+so fearless and confident in offering his body to the combat at Olympia,
+as you are in offering your mind.
+
+HIPPIAS: And with good reason, Socrates; for since the day when I first
+entered the lists at Olympia I have never found any man who was my
+superior in anything. (Compare Gorgias.)
+
+SOCRATES: What an ornament, Hippias, will the reputation of your wisdom
+be to the city of Elis and to your parents! But to return: what say you
+of Odysseus and Achilles? Which is the better of the two? and in what
+particular does either surpass the other? For when you were exhibiting
+and there was company in the room, though I could not follow you, I did
+not like to ask what you meant, because a crowd of people were present,
+and I was afraid that the question might interrupt your exhibition. But
+now that there are not so many of us, and my friend Eudicus bids me ask,
+I wish you would tell me what you were saying about these two heroes, so
+that I may clearly understand; how did you distinguish them?
+
+HIPPIAS: I shall have much pleasure, Socrates, in explaining to you more
+clearly than I could in public my views about these and also about other
+heroes. I say that Homer intended Achilles to be the bravest of the men
+who went to Troy, Nestor the wisest, and Odysseus the wiliest.
+
+SOCRATES: O rare Hippias, will you be so good as not to laugh, if I find
+a difficulty in following you, and repeat my questions several times
+over? Please to answer me kindly and gently.
+
+HIPPIAS: I should be greatly ashamed of myself, Socrates, if I, who
+teach others and take money of them, could not, when I was asked by you,
+answer in a civil and agreeable manner.
+
+SOCRATES: Thank you: the fact is, that I seemed to understand what you
+meant when you said that the poet intended Achilles to be the bravest
+of men, and also that he intended Nestor to be the wisest; but when you
+said that he meant Odysseus to be the wiliest, I must confess that I
+could not understand what you were saying. Will you tell me, and then I
+shall perhaps understand you better; has not Homer made Achilles wily?
+
+HIPPIAS: Certainly not, Socrates; he is the most straight-forward of
+mankind, and when Homer introduces them talking with one another in the
+passage called the Prayers, Achilles is supposed by the poet to say to
+Odysseus:--
+
+'Son of Laertes, sprung from heaven, crafty Odysseus, I will speak out
+plainly the word which I intend to carry out in act, and which will,
+I believe, be accomplished. For I hate him like the gates of death who
+thinks one thing and says another. But I will speak that which shall be
+accomplished.'
+
+Now, in these verses he clearly indicates the character of the two men;
+he shows Achilles to be true and simple, and Odysseus to be wily and
+false; for he supposes Achilles to be addressing Odysseus in these
+lines.
+
+SOCRATES: Now, Hippias, I think that I understand your meaning; when you
+say that Odysseus is wily, you clearly mean that he is false?
+
+HIPPIAS: Exactly so, Socrates; it is the character of Odysseus, as he is
+represented by Homer in many passages both of the Iliad and Odyssey.
+
+SOCRATES: And Homer must be presumed to have meant that the true man is
+not the same as the false?
+
+HIPPIAS: Of course, Socrates.
+
+SOCRATES: And is that your own opinion, Hippias?
+
+HIPPIAS: Certainly; how can I have any other?
+
+SOCRATES: Well, then, as there is no possibility of asking Homer what
+he meant in these verses of his, let us leave him; but as you show a
+willingness to take up his cause, and your opinion agrees with what you
+declare to be his, will you answer on behalf of yourself and him?
+
+HIPPIAS: I will; ask shortly anything which you like.
+
+SOCRATES: Do you say that the false, like the sick, have no power to do
+things, or that they have the power to do things?
+
+HIPPIAS: I should say that they have power to do many things, and in
+particular to deceive mankind.
+
+SOCRATES: Then, according to you, they are both powerful and wily, are
+they not?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And are they wily, and do they deceive by reason of their
+simplicity and folly, or by reason of their cunning and a certain sort
+of prudence?
+
+HIPPIAS: By reason of their cunning and prudence, most certainly.
+
+SOCRATES: Then they are prudent, I suppose?
+
+HIPPIAS: So they are--very.
+
+SOCRATES: And if they are prudent, do they know or do they not know what
+they do?
+
+HIPPIAS: Of course, they know very well; and that is why they do
+mischief to others.
+
+SOCRATES: And having this knowledge, are they ignorant, or are they
+wise?
+
+HIPPIAS: Wise, certainly; at least, in so far as they can deceive.
+
+SOCRATES: Stop, and let us recall to mind what you are saying; are you
+not saying that the false are powerful and prudent and knowing and wise
+in those things about which they are false?
+
+HIPPIAS: To be sure.
+
+SOCRATES: And the true differ from the false--the true and the false are
+the very opposite of each other?
+
+HIPPIAS: That is my view.
+
+SOCRATES: Then, according to your view, it would seem that the false are
+to be ranked in the class of the powerful and wise?
+
+HIPPIAS: Assuredly.
+
+SOCRATES: And when you say that the false are powerful and wise in so
+far as they are false, do you mean that they have or have not the power
+of uttering their falsehoods if they like?
+
+HIPPIAS: I mean to say that they have the power.
+
+SOCRATES: In a word, then, the false are they who are wise and have the
+power to speak falsely?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: Then a man who has not the power of speaking falsely and is
+ignorant cannot be false?
+
+HIPPIAS: You are right.
+
+SOCRATES: And every man has power who does that which he wishes at the
+time when he wishes. I am not speaking of any special case in which he
+is prevented by disease or something of that sort, but I am speaking
+generally, as I might say of you, that you are able to write my name
+when you like. Would you not call a man able who could do that?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And tell me, Hippias, are you not a skilful calculator and
+arithmetician?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, Socrates, assuredly I am.
+
+SOCRATES: And if some one were to ask you what is the sum of 3
+multiplied by 700, you would tell him the true answer in a moment, if
+you pleased?
+
+HIPPIAS: certainly I should.
+
+SOCRATES: Is not that because you are the wisest and ablest of men in
+these matters?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And being as you are the wisest and ablest of men in these
+matters of calculation, are you not also the best?
+
+HIPPIAS: To be sure, Socrates, I am the best.
+
+SOCRATES: And therefore you would be the most able to tell the truth
+about these matters, would you not?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, I should.
+
+SOCRATES: And could you speak falsehoods about them equally well? I
+must beg, Hippias, that you will answer me with the same frankness and
+magnanimity which has hitherto characterized you. If a person were to
+ask you what is the sum of 3 multiplied by 700, would not you be the
+best and most consistent teller of a falsehood, having always the power
+of speaking falsely as you have of speaking truly, about these same
+matters, if you wanted to tell a falsehood, and not to answer truly?
+Would the ignorant man be better able to tell a falsehood in matters
+of calculation than you would be, if you chose? Might he not sometimes
+stumble upon the truth, when he wanted to tell a lie, because he did
+not know, whereas you who are the wise man, if you wanted to tell a lie
+would always and consistently lie?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, there you are quite right.
+
+SOCRATES: Does the false man tell lies about other things, but not about
+number, or when he is making a calculation?
+
+HIPPIAS: To be sure; he would tell as many lies about number as about
+other things.
+
+SOCRATES: Then may we further assume, Hippias, that there are men who
+are false about calculation and number?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: Who can they be? For you have already admitted that he who is
+false must have the ability to be false: you said, as you will remember,
+that he who is unable to be false will not be false?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, I remember; it was so said.
+
+SOCRATES: And were you not yourself just now shown to be best able to
+speak falsely about calculation?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes; that was another thing which was said.
+
+SOCRATES: And are you not likewise said to speak truly about
+calculation?
+
+HIPPIAS: Certainly.
+
+SOCRATES: Then the same person is able to speak both falsely and truly
+about calculation? And that person is he who is good at calculation--the
+arithmetician?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: Who, then, Hippias, is discovered to be false at calculation?
+Is he not the good man? For the good man is the able man, and he is the
+true man.
+
+HIPPIAS: That is evident.
+
+SOCRATES: Do you not see, then, that the same man is false and also true
+about the same matters? And the true man is not a whit better than the
+false; for indeed he is the same with him and not the very opposite, as
+you were just now imagining.
+
+HIPPIAS: Not in that instance, clearly.
+
+SOCRATES: Shall we examine other instances?
+
+HIPPIAS: Certainly, if you are disposed.
+
+SOCRATES: Are you not also skilled in geometry?
+
+HIPPIAS: I am.
+
+SOCRATES: Well, and does not the same hold in that science also? Is
+not the same person best able to speak falsely or to speak truly about
+diagrams; and he is--the geometrician?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: He and no one else is good at it?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, he and no one else.
+
+SOCRATES: Then the good and wise geometer has this double power in the
+highest degree; and if there be a man who is false about diagrams the
+good man will be he, for he is able to be false; whereas the bad is
+unable, and for this reason is not false, as has been admitted.
+
+HIPPIAS: True.
+
+SOCRATES: Once more--let us examine a third case; that of the
+astronomer, in whose art, again, you, Hippias, profess to be a still
+greater proficient than in the preceding--do you not?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, I am.
+
+SOCRATES: And does not the same hold of astronomy?
+
+HIPPIAS: True, Socrates.
+
+SOCRATES: And in astronomy, too, if any man be able to speak falsely
+he will be the good astronomer, but he who is not able will not speak
+falsely, for he has no knowledge.
+
+HIPPIAS: Clearly not.
+
+SOCRATES: Then in astronomy also, the same man will be true and false?
+
+HIPPIAS: It would seem so.
+
+SOCRATES: And now, Hippias, consider the question at large about all
+the sciences, and see whether the same principle does not always hold.
+I know that in most arts you are the wisest of men, as I have heard you
+boasting in the agora at the tables of the money-changers, when you were
+setting forth the great and enviable stores of your wisdom; and you said
+that upon one occasion, when you went to the Olympic games, all that you
+had on your person was made by yourself. You began with your ring, which
+was of your own workmanship, and you said that you could engrave rings;
+and you had another seal which was also of your own workmanship, and
+a strigil and an oil flask, which you had made yourself; you said also
+that you had made the shoes which you had on your feet, and the cloak
+and the short tunic; but what appeared to us all most extraordinary and
+a proof of singular art, was the girdle of your tunic, which, you said,
+was as fine as the most costly Persian fabric, and of your own weaving;
+moreover, you told us that you had brought with you poems, epic, tragic,
+and dithyrambic, as well as prose writings of the most various kinds;
+and you said that your skill was also pre-eminent in the arts which
+I was just now mentioning, and in the true principles of rhythm and
+harmony and of orthography; and if I remember rightly, there were a
+great many other accomplishments in which you excelled. I have forgotten
+to mention your art of memory, which you regard as your special glory,
+and I dare say that I have forgotten many other things; but, as I was
+saying, only look to your own arts--and there are plenty of them--and to
+those of others; and tell me, having regard to the admissions which
+you and I have made, whether you discover any department of art or any
+description of wisdom or cunning, whichever name you use, in which the
+true and false are different and not the same: tell me, if you can, of
+any. But you cannot.
+
+HIPPIAS: Not without consideration, Socrates.
+
+SOCRATES: Nor will consideration help you, Hippias, as I believe; but
+then if I am right, remember what the consequence will be.
+
+HIPPIAS: I do not know what you mean, Socrates.
+
+SOCRATES: I suppose that you are not using your art of memory, doubtless
+because you think that such an accomplishment is not needed on the
+present occasion. I will therefore remind you of what you were saying:
+were you not saying that Achilles was a true man, and Odysseus false and
+wily?
+
+HIPPIAS: I was.
+
+SOCRATES: And now do you perceive that the same person has turned out to
+be false as well as true? If Odysseus is false he is also true, and if
+Achilles is true he is also false, and so the two men are not opposed to
+one another, but they are alike.
+
+HIPPIAS: O Socrates, you are always weaving the meshes of an argument,
+selecting the most difficult point, and fastening upon details instead
+of grappling with the matter in hand as a whole. Come now, and I will
+demonstrate to you, if you will allow me, by many satisfactory proofs,
+that Homer has made Achilles a better man than Odysseus, and a truthful
+man too; and that he has made the other crafty, and a teller of many
+untruths, and inferior to Achilles. And then, if you please, you shall
+make a speech on the other side, in order to prove that Odysseus is the
+better man; and this may be compared to mine, and then the company will
+know which of us is the better speaker.
+
+SOCRATES: O Hippias, I do not doubt that you are wiser than I am. But I
+have a way, when anybody else says anything, of giving close attention
+to him, especially if the speaker appears to me to be a wise man. Having
+a desire to understand, I question him, and I examine and analyse and
+put together what he says, in order that I may understand; but if the
+speaker appears to me to be a poor hand, I do not interrogate him, or
+trouble myself about him, and you may know by this who they are whom I
+deem to be wise men, for you will see that when I am talking with a wise
+man, I am very attentive to what he says; and I ask questions of him,
+in order that I may learn, and be improved by him. And I could not help
+remarking while you were speaking, that when you recited the verses in
+which Achilles, as you argued, attacks Odysseus as a deceiver, that you
+must be strangely mistaken, because Odysseus, the man of wiles, is
+never found to tell a lie; but Achilles is found to be wily on your own
+showing. At any rate he speaks falsely; for first he utters these words,
+which you just now repeated,--
+
+'He is hateful to me even as the gates of death who thinks one thing and
+says another:'--
+
+And then he says, a little while afterwards, he will not be persuaded by
+Odysseus and Agamemnon, neither will he remain at Troy; but, says he,--
+
+'To-morrow, when I have offered sacrifices to Zeus and all the Gods,
+having loaded my ships well, I will drag them down into the deep; and
+then you shall see, if you have a mind, and if such things are a care
+to you, early in the morning my ships sailing over the fishy Hellespont,
+and my men eagerly plying the oar; and, if the illustrious shaker of the
+earth gives me a good voyage, on the third day I shall reach the fertile
+Phthia.'
+
+And before that, when he was reviling Agamemnon, he said,--
+
+'And now to Phthia I will go, since to return home in the beaked ships
+is far better, nor am I inclined to stay here in dishonour and amass
+wealth and riches for you.'
+
+But although on that occasion, in the presence of the whole army, he
+spoke after this fashion, and on the other occasion to his companions,
+he appears never to have made any preparation or attempt to draw down
+the ships, as if he had the least intention of sailing home; so nobly
+regardless was he of the truth. Now I, Hippias, originally asked you
+the question, because I was in doubt as to which of the two heroes was
+intended by the poet to be the best, and because I thought that both of
+them were the best, and that it would be difficult to decide which was
+the better of them, not only in respect of truth and falsehood, but of
+virtue generally, for even in this matter of speaking the truth they are
+much upon a par.
+
+HIPPIAS: There you are wrong, Socrates; for in so far as Achilles speaks
+falsely, the falsehood is obviously unintentional. He is compelled
+against his will to remain and rescue the army in their misfortune. But
+when Odysseus speaks falsely he is voluntarily and intentionally false.
+
+SOCRATES: You, sweet Hippias, like Odysseus, are a deceiver yourself.
+
+HIPPIAS: Certainly not, Socrates; what makes you say so?
+
+SOCRATES: Because you say that Achilles does not speak falsely from
+design, when he is not only a deceiver, but besides being a braggart,
+in Homer's description of him is so cunning, and so far superior to
+Odysseus in lying and pretending, that he dares to contradict himself,
+and Odysseus does not find him out; at any rate he does not appear to
+say anything to him which would imply that he perceived his falsehood.
+
+HIPPIAS: What do you mean, Socrates?
+
+SOCRATES: Did you not observe that afterwards, when he is speaking to
+Odysseus, he says that he will sail away with the early dawn; but to
+Ajax he tells quite a different story?
+
+HIPPIAS: Where is that?
+
+SOCRATES: Where he says,--
+
+'I will not think about bloody war until the son of warlike Priam,
+illustrious Hector, comes to the tents and ships of the Myrmidons,
+slaughtering the Argives, and burning the ships with fire; and about
+my tent and dark ship, I suspect that Hector, although eager for the
+battle, will nevertheless stay his hand.'
+
+Now, do you really think, Hippias, that the son of Thetis, who had been
+the pupil of the sage Cheiron, had such a bad memory, or would have
+carried the art of lying to such an extent (when he had been assailing
+liars in the most violent terms only the instant before) as to say to
+Odysseus that he would sail away, and to Ajax that he would remain, and
+that he was not rather practising upon the simplicity of Odysseus, whom
+he regarded as an ancient, and thinking that he would get the better of
+him by his own cunning and falsehood?
+
+HIPPIAS: No, I do not agree with you, Socrates; but I believe that
+Achilles is induced to say one thing to Ajax, and another to Odysseus in
+the innocence of his heart, whereas Odysseus, whether he speaks falsely
+or truly, speaks always with a purpose.
+
+SOCRATES: Then Odysseus would appear after all to be better than
+Achilles?
+
+HIPPIAS: Certainly not, Socrates.
+
+SOCRATES: Why, were not the voluntary liars only just now shown to be
+better than the involuntary?
+
+HIPPIAS: And how, Socrates, can those who intentionally err, and
+voluntarily and designedly commit iniquities, be better than those who
+err and do wrong involuntarily? Surely there is a great excuse to be
+made for a man telling a falsehood, or doing an injury or any sort of
+harm to another in ignorance. And the laws are obviously far more severe
+on those who lie or do evil, voluntarily, than on those who do evil
+involuntarily.
+
+SOCRATES: You see, Hippias, as I have already told you, how pertinacious
+I am in asking questions of wise men. And I think that this is the only
+good point about me, for I am full of defects, and always getting wrong
+in some way or other. My deficiency is proved to me by the fact that
+when I meet one of you who are famous for wisdom, and to whose wisdom
+all the Hellenes are witnesses, I am found out to know nothing. For
+speaking generally, I hardly ever have the same opinion about anything
+which you have, and what proof of ignorance can be greater than to
+differ from wise men? But I have one singular good quality, which is my
+salvation; I am not ashamed to learn, and I ask and enquire, and am very
+grateful to those who answer me, and never fail to give them my grateful
+thanks; and when I learn a thing I never deny my teacher, or pretend
+that the lesson is a discovery of my own; but I praise his wisdom, and
+proclaim what I have learned from him. And now I cannot agree in what
+you are saying, but I strongly disagree. Well, I know that this is my
+own fault, and is a defect in my character, but I will not pretend to
+be more than I am; and my opinion, Hippias, is the very contrary of what
+you are saying. For I maintain that those who hurt or injure mankind,
+and speak falsely and deceive, and err voluntarily, are better far
+than those who do wrong involuntarily. Sometimes, however, I am of the
+opposite opinion; for I am all abroad in my ideas about this matter, a
+condition obviously occasioned by ignorance. And just now I happen to be
+in a crisis of my disorder at which those who err voluntarily appear to
+me better than those who err involuntarily. My present state of mind
+is due to our previous argument, which inclines me to believe that in
+general those who do wrong involuntarily are worse than those who do
+wrong voluntarily, and therefore I hope that you will be good to me, and
+not refuse to heal me; for you will do me a much greater benefit if you
+cure my soul of ignorance, than you would if you were to cure my body of
+disease. I must, however, tell you beforehand, that if you make a long
+oration to me you will not cure me, for I shall not be able to follow
+you; but if you will answer me, as you did just now, you will do me a
+great deal of good, and I do not think that you will be any the worse
+yourself. And I have some claim upon you also, O son of Apemantus, for
+you incited me to converse with Hippias; and now, if Hippias will not
+answer me, you must entreat him on my behalf.
+
+EUDICUS: But I do not think, Socrates, that Hippias will require any
+entreaty of mine; for he has already said that he will refuse to answer
+no man.--Did you not say so, Hippias?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, I did; but then, Eudicus, Socrates is always troublesome
+in an argument, and appears to be dishonest. (Compare Gorgias;
+Republic.)
+
+SOCRATES: Excellent Hippias, I do not do so intentionally (if I did,
+it would show me to be a wise man and a master of wiles, as you would
+argue), but unintentionally, and therefore you must pardon me; for, as
+you say, he who is unintentionally dishonest should be pardoned.
+
+EUDICUS: Yes, Hippias, do as he says; and for our sake, and also that
+you may not belie your profession, answer whatever Socrates asks you.
+
+HIPPIAS: I will answer, as you request me; and do you ask whatever you
+like.
+
+SOCRATES: I am very desirous, Hippias, of examining this question, as to
+which are the better--those who err voluntarily or involuntarily? And if
+you will answer me, I think that I can put you in the way of approaching
+the subject: You would admit, would you not, that there are good
+runners?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And there are bad runners?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And he who runs well is a good runner, and he who runs ill is
+a bad runner?
+
+HIPPIAS: Very true.
+
+SOCRATES: And he who runs slowly runs ill, and he who runs quickly runs
+well?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: Then in a race, and in running, swiftness is a good, and
+slowness is an evil quality?
+
+HIPPIAS: To be sure.
+
+SOCRATES: Which of the two then is a better runner? He who runs slowly
+voluntarily, or he who runs slowly involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: He who runs slowly voluntarily.
+
+SOCRATES: And is not running a species of doing?
+
+HIPPIAS: Certainly.
+
+SOCRATES: And if a species of doing, a species of action?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: Then he who runs badly does a bad and dishonourable action in
+a race?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes; a bad action, certainly.
+
+SOCRATES: And he who runs slowly runs badly?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: Then the good runner does this bad and disgraceful action
+voluntarily, and the bad involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: That is to be inferred.
+
+SOCRATES: Then he who involuntarily does evil actions, is worse in a
+race than he who does them voluntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, in a race.
+
+SOCRATES: Well, but at a wrestling match--which is the better wrestler,
+he who falls voluntarily or involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: He who falls voluntarily, doubtless.
+
+SOCRATES: And is it worse or more dishonourable at a wrestling match, to
+fall, or to throw another?
+
+HIPPIAS: To fall.
+
+SOCRATES: Then, at a wrestling match, he who voluntarily does base
+and dishonourable actions is a better wrestler than he who does them
+involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: That appears to be the truth.
+
+SOCRATES: And what would you say of any other bodily exercise--is not he
+who is better made able to do both that which is strong and that which
+is weak--that which is fair and that which is foul?--so that when
+he does bad actions with the body, he who is better made does them
+voluntarily, and he who is worse made does them involuntarily.
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, that appears to be true about strength.
+
+SOCRATES: And what do you say about grace, Hippias? Is not he who is
+better made able to assume evil and disgraceful figures and postures
+voluntarily, as he who is worse made assumes them involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: True.
+
+SOCRATES: Then voluntary ungracefulness comes from excellence of the
+bodily frame, and involuntary from the defect of the bodily frame?
+
+HIPPIAS: True.
+
+SOCRATES: And what would you say of an unmusical voice; would you prefer
+the voice which is voluntarily or involuntarily out of tune?
+
+HIPPIAS: That which is voluntarily out of tune.
+
+SOCRATES: The involuntary is the worse of the two?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And would you choose to possess goods or evils?
+
+HIPPIAS: Goods.
+
+SOCRATES: And would you rather have feet which are voluntarily or
+involuntarily lame?
+
+HIPPIAS: Feet which are voluntarily lame.
+
+SOCRATES: But is not lameness a defect or deformity?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And is not blinking a defect in the eyes?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And would you rather always have eyes with which you might
+voluntarily blink and not see, or with which you might involuntarily
+blink?
+
+HIPPIAS: I would rather have eyes which voluntarily blink.
+
+SOCRATES: Then in your own case you deem that which voluntarily acts
+ill, better than that which involuntarily acts ill?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, certainly, in cases such as you mention.
+
+SOCRATES: And does not the same hold of ears, nostrils, mouth, and of
+all the senses--those which involuntarily act ill are not to be desired,
+as being defective; and those which voluntarily act ill are to be
+desired as being good?
+
+HIPPIAS: I agree.
+
+SOCRATES: And what would you say of instruments;--which are the better
+sort of instruments to have to do with?--those with which a man acts
+ill voluntarily or involuntarily? For example, had a man better have a
+rudder with which he will steer ill, voluntarily or involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: He had better have a rudder with which he will steer ill
+voluntarily.
+
+SOCRATES: And does not the same hold of the bow and the lyre, the flute
+and all other things?
+
+HIPPIAS: Very true.
+
+SOCRATES: And would you rather have a horse of such a temper that you
+may ride him ill voluntarily or involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: I would rather have a horse which I could ride ill voluntarily.
+
+SOCRATES: That would be the better horse?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: Then with a horse of better temper, vicious actions would be
+produced voluntarily; and with a horse of bad temper involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: Certainly.
+
+SOCRATES: And that would be true of a dog, or of any other animal?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And is it better to possess the mind of an archer who
+voluntarily or involuntarily misses the mark?
+
+HIPPIAS: Of him who voluntarily misses.
+
+SOCRATES: This would be the better mind for the purposes of archery?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: Then the mind which involuntarily errs is worse than the mind
+which errs voluntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, certainly, in the use of the bow.
+
+SOCRATES: And what would you say of the art of medicine;--has not the
+mind which voluntarily works harm to the body, more of the healing art?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: Then in the art of medicine the voluntary is better than the
+involuntary?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: Well, and in lute-playing and in flute-playing, and in all
+arts and sciences, is not that mind the better which voluntarily does
+what is evil and dishonourable, and goes wrong, and is not the worse
+that which does so involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: That is evident.
+
+SOCRATES: And what would you say of the characters of slaves? Should we
+not prefer to have those who voluntarily do wrong and make mistakes,
+and are they not better in their mistakes than those who commit them
+involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And should we not desire to have our own minds in the best
+state possible?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And will our minds be better if they do wrong and make
+mistakes voluntarily or involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: O, Socrates, it would be a monstrous thing to say that
+those who do wrong voluntarily are better than those who do wrong
+involuntarily!
+
+SOCRATES: And yet that appears to be the only inference.
+
+HIPPIAS: I do not think so.
+
+SOCRATES: But I imagined, Hippias, that you did. Please to answer once
+more: Is not justice a power, or knowledge, or both? Must not justice,
+at all events, be one of these?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: But if justice is a power of the soul, then the soul which has
+the greater power is also the more just; for that which has the greater
+power, my good friend, has been proved by us to be the better.
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes, that has been proved.
+
+SOCRATES: And if justice is knowledge, then the wiser will be the juster
+soul, and the more ignorant the more unjust?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: But if justice be power as well as knowledge--then will not
+the soul which has both knowledge and power be the more just, and that
+which is the more ignorant be the more unjust? Must it not be so?
+
+HIPPIAS: Clearly.
+
+SOCRATES: And is not the soul which has the greater power and wisdom
+also better, and better able to do both good and evil in every action?
+
+HIPPIAS: Certainly.
+
+SOCRATES: The soul, then, which acts ill, acts voluntarily by power and
+art--and these either one or both of them are elements of justice?
+
+HIPPIAS: That seems to be true.
+
+SOCRATES: And to do injustice is to do ill, and not to do injustice is
+to do well?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: And will not the better and abler soul when it does wrong, do
+wrong voluntarily, and the bad soul involuntarily?
+
+HIPPIAS: Clearly.
+
+SOCRATES: And the good man is he who has the good soul, and the bad man
+is he who has the bad?
+
+HIPPIAS: Yes.
+
+SOCRATES: Then the good man will voluntarily do wrong, and the bad man
+involuntarily, if the good man is he who has the good soul?
+
+HIPPIAS: Which he certainly has.
+
+SOCRATES: Then, Hippias, he who voluntarily does wrong and disgraceful
+things, if there be such a man, will be the good man?
+
+HIPPIAS: There I cannot agree with you.
+
+SOCRATES: Nor can I agree with myself, Hippias; and yet that seems to be
+the conclusion which, as far as we can see at present, must follow from
+our argument. As I was saying before, I am all abroad, and being in
+perplexity am always changing my opinion. Now, that I or any ordinary
+man should wander in perplexity is not surprising; but if you wise men
+also wander, and we cannot come to you and rest from our wandering, the
+matter begins to be serious both to us and to you.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lesser Hippias, by Plato
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