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Three Millennia of Greek Literature
 

Plato Bilingual Anthology : WISDOM

from the 7th Epistle, * 341b-345a, translated by B. Jowett

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Page 7

In one word, the man who has no natural kinship with this matter cannot be made akin to it by quickness of learning or memory; for it cannot be engendered at all in natures which are foreign to it. Therefore, if men are not by nature kinship allied to justice and all other things that are honourable, though they may be good at learning and remembering other knowledge of various kinds-or if they have the kinship but are slow learners and have no memory-none of all these will ever learn to the full the truth about virtue and vice. For both must be learnt together; and together also must be learnt, by complete and long continued study, as I said at the beginning, the true and the false about all that has real being. After much effort, as names, definitions, sights, and other data of sense, are brought into contact and friction one with another, in the course of scrutiny and kindly testing by men who proceed by question and answer without ill will, with a sudden flash there shines forth understanding about every problem, and an intelligence whose efforts reach the furthest limits of human powers. ἑνὶ δὲ λόγῳ͵ τὸν μὴ συγγενῆ τοῦ πράγματος οὔτ΄ ἂν εὐμάθεια ποιήσειέν ποτε οὔτε μνήμη τὴν ἀρχὴν γὰρ ἐν ἀλλοτρίαις ἕξεσιν οὐκ ἐγγίγνεται - ὥστε ὁπόσοι τῶν δικαίων τε καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα καλὰ μὴ προσφυεῖς εἰσιν καὶ συγγενεῖς͵ ἄλλοι δὲ ἄλλων εὐμαθεῖς ἅμα καὶ μνήμονες͵ οὐδ΄ ὅσοι συγγενεῖς͵ δυσμαθεῖς δὲ καὶ ἀμνήμονες͵ οὐδένες τούτων μήποτε μάθωσιν ἀλήθειαν ἀρετῆς εἰς τὸ δυνατὸν οὐδὲ κακίας. ἅμα γὰρ αὐτὰ ἀνάγκη μανθάνειν καὶ τὸ ψεῦδος ἅμα καὶ ἀληθὲς τῆς ὅλης οὐσίας͵ μετὰ τριβῆς πάσης καὶ χρόνου πολλοῦ͵ ὅπερ ἐν ἀρχαῖς εἶπον· μόγις δὲ τριβόμενα πρὸς ἄλληλα αὐτῶν ἕκαστα͵ ὀνόματα καὶ λόγοι ὄψεις τε καὶ αἰσθήσεις͵ ἐν εὐμενέσιν ἐλέγχοις ἐλεγχόμενα καὶ ἄνευ φθόνων ἐρωτήσεσιν καὶ ἀποκρίσεσιν χρωμένων͵ ἐξέλαμψε φρόνησις περὶ ἕκαστον καὶ νοῦς͵ συντείνων ὅτι μάλιστ΄ εἰς δύναμιν ἀνθρωπίνην.
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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/plato-wisdom.asp?pg=7