HIPPIAS (major) by Plato - Complete text

Page 7

Soc.: Well, it actually is as those who know think it is, is it not?

Hip.: Certainly.

Soc.: But or the Lacedaemonians, as you say, it is more beneficial to be educated in your education, which is foreign, than in the local education.

Hip.: Yes, and what I say is true.

Soc.: And do you say this also, Hippias, that beneficial things are more lawful?

Hip.: Yes, I said so.

Soc.: Then, according to what you say, it is more lawful for the sons of the Lacedaemonians to be educated by Hippias and less lawful for them to be educated by their fathers, if in reality they will be more benefited by you.

Hip.: But certainly they will be benefited, Socrates.

Soc.: Then the Lacedaemonians in not giving you money and entrusting their sons to you, act contrary to law.

Hip.: I agree to that ; for you seem to be making your argument in my favour, and there is no need of my opposing it.

Soc.: Then my friends, we find that the Lacedaemonians are law-breakers, and that too in the most important affairs — they who are regarded as the most law-abiding of men. But then, for Heaven's sake, Hippias, what sort of discourses are those for which they applaud you and which they enjoy hearing? Or are they evidently those which you understand most admirably, those about the stars and the phenomena of the heavens?

Hip.: Not in the least ; they won't even endure those.

Soc.: But they enjoy hearing about geometry?

Hip.: Not at all, since one might say that many of them do not even know how to count.

Soc.: Then they are far from enduring a lecture by you on the processes of thought.

Hip.: Far from it indeed, by Zeus.

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Plato : HIPPIAS (major)

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