PLATONIC QUESTIONS
m KamoN i I, Wiim-IA did gnU m U tUttd in Lbe ttwirtts.«
b4-l   i*oer*te*   »et u iiiidvifr   U» otWn b*t MtfAl
hin» Évn hin*** begetUn«? tVrUlnl; hr «uuld *ot h*ve —eJ tbc nun« nnd fin in«t) or je*t *; intl  hr«fe]e*  tn  tW   TS**4t**$  Sacrate*  h*t  beeo
t«   Mf   minv   *m>je»nt   *mA   hiUfffafly   thir«**
ihii *;  " F«* «i grrai nwny mc«. my
f Kŕll^it ŕrUnd, hli* pA l*Ui wh a *t*^ c/ »mid
"It d- Int.- vfc*n | rrimnr tkŕirt: u) Ihey do »»t Miete that I tn oVsfcw uW out or beneToWne+t for taey »r* a tiinjf way from krt>vlag uW no gM b m*k-
fo>nt totwd* men ud th*t neltW OŮ | <k> any ii*ffc   «brd out   or nuil«-*i4rno*   hal   that   |t   h *>ull*
Qftdt for ne to teWt hWaood tnd »jqir» ituuV" U  II  theo hlt em oalvrr,  At  *■**"£  »norv Jto-
ing Umu fertile,* that he called god,* as Men-said   "for  our   intelligent   i*  god"*   and bUtUi " the character of a man is hit guardian ft"a \   or did some  truly  divine  *nd  spiritual n * guide  Socrates  to  t Ms  kind  of philosophy which by continually subjecting other* to ex* it ion he made them free of humbug and error prctcntioirtncss and of being burdensome first ihnnsciVes and then to their companions also ? ' .. at that time as if by chance there hapneiied also < have sprung up in Green a crop of SGphbls ; and ■ young men* paving these persons a Urge amount potter* were getting themselves filled full of self-it and sharn-wdom and «ere zealous for dis-
cussion of arguments and for disputations fuüte in wrangling?» and ambitious rivalries but not for any' Ihing fair and serviceable at all. So Socrates with bis rcfutatory discourse like a purgative medicine * by maintaining nothing * claimed the credence of others when he refuted them, and he gni the greater hold on them because lie seemed to be seeking the truth along with them, not himself to be defending ,1:1 opinion of his own,*
2, In the second place, while the exercise of judgment is beneficial, begetting is an obstacle to it, for what loves fs blinded about the thing it loves J and nothing of ones own is so beloved as is an opinion or an argument by its parent- ľor the distribution of offspring that is proverbially most just* is most unjust when applied to argumente, for in the former case one must take what is one's own but in the latter what is best even if it be another's.' For this reason the man who begets his own becomes a poorer judge of others ; and just as one of the sages said that Rleans would be better directors of the Olympic games if not a single Klean were entered in the contest,* so one who is going to be an upright moderator
.1.1 umpire in arguments is
bound not to crave the
bahn himself or to vie with the contenders, tor .ven the generals of the Greeks when easting their ballot for the award of excellence all gave judgment For themselves as best ■ ; and of philosophers there is none to whom this has not happened apart from those who like Socrates admit that they say nothing original» and these alone show themselves to be sound and incorruptible judges of the truth. For as the atr in the cars does not accurately perceive utterances if it be not still and free from sound oľ its own but full of ringing and buzring,* so what judges arguments in philosophy will have poor understanding ot statements coming from without if they are muffled by the clatter and noise <of something) from within.* For personal opinion to which one is wedded will not accept what disagrees with her, as the multitude of systems testifies» of which philosophy, if she is faring her best, involves a single one being right and all the others guessing and being in conflict with the
truth.                                                       ,      ,.,
3. Furthermore, if nothing is apprehensible and
knowahle to man/ it was reasonable for god to have
prevented Socrates from begetting inane and false and baseless notions arid to compel him to refute Hie others who were forming such opinions." For the discourse that liberates from the greatest of evils, deception and vanity, was not a slight but a very great help—
This gift god didn't grant even Asdeplus' «om**
I* or the treatment given by Socrates was not of the Iwdy but was a purgation of the ulcerous and corrupted soul** If however, there is knowledge of what is true and what is true is single/1 he who has learned it from the discoverer docs not possess it less than he who discovered it *; but the one who acquires it is rather he who is not sure that he possesses it/ and he acquires what is best of all, just as he
who is not a parent himself adopts the child that i*
best.
*• Consider too that, while the other things, poetry and mathematics and rhetorical speeches and sophistic doctrines, which the spiritual power * prevented Socrates from begetting, were worth no serious concern, what Socrates held to be alone wisdom, <that>  which  he called  passion   for the
divine and intelligible/1 is for human beings a matter not of generation or of discovery but of reminiscence.* For this reason Socrates was not engaged in teaching anything, but by exciting perplexities as if inducing the inception of labour-pains in young men he would arouse and quicken and help to deliver their innate conceptions * ; and his name for this was obstetric skill/ Muce it does not, as other men pretended to do, implant in those who come upon it intelligence from without but shows that they have it native within themselves but undeveloped and confused and in need of nurture and stabilization»