ALCIBIADES (I) by Plato - Complete text

Page 26

Soc.: At your fancying that the contest on which you are entering is with people here.

Alc.: Why, what others are there?

Soc.: Is that a question which a magnanimous soul should ask?

Alc.: Do you mean to say that the contest is not with these?

Soc.: And suppose that you were going to steer a ship into action, would you only aim at being the best pilot on board? Would you not, while acknowledging that you must possess this degree of excellence, rather look to your antagonists, and not, as you are now doing, to your fellow combatants? You ought to be so far above these latter, that they will not even dare to be your rivals; and, being regarded by you as inferiors, will do battle for you against the enemy; this is the kind of superiority which you must establish over them, if you mean to accomplish any noble action really worthy of yourself and of the state.

Alc.: That would certainly be my aim.

Soc.: Verily, then, you have good reason to be satisfied, if you are better than the soldiers; and you need not, when you are their superior and have your thoughts and actions fixed upon them, look away to the generals of the enemy.

Alc.: Of whom are you speaking, Socrates?

Soc.: Why, you surely know that our city goes to war now and then with the Lacedaemonians and with the great king?

Alc.: True enough.

Soc.: And if you meant to be the ruler of this city, would you not be right in considering that the Lacedaemonian and Persian king were your true rivals?

Alc.: I believe that you are right.

Soc.: Oh no, my friend, I am quite wrong, and I think that you ought rather to turn your attention to Midias the quail - breeder and others like him, who manage our politics; in whom, as the women would remark, you may still see the slaves' cut of hair, cropping out in their minds as well as on their pates; and they come with their barbarous lingo to flatter us and not to rule us. To these, I say, you should look, and then you need not trouble yourself about your own fitness to contend in such a noble arena: there is no reason why you should either learn what has to be learned, or practise what has to be practised, and only when thoroughly prepared enter on a political career.

Alc.: There, I think, Socrates, that you are right; I do not suppose, however, that the Spartan generals or the great king are really different from anybody else.

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Plato : ALCIBIADES (I)

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