La. No more than the husbandmen who know the dangers of husbandry, or than
other craftsmen, who have a knowledge of that which inspires them with fear or
confidence in their own arts, and yet they are not courageous a whit the more
for that.
Soc. What is Laches saying, Nicias? He appears to be saying something of
importance.
Nic. Yes, he is saying something, but it is not true.
Soc. How so?
Nic. Why, because he does not see that the physician's knowledge only extends
to the nature of health and disease: he can tell the sick man no more than
this. Do you imagine, Laches, that the physician knows whether health or
disease is the more terrible to a man? Had not many a man better never get up
from a sick bed? I should like to know whether you think that life is always
better than death. May not death often be the better of the two?
La. Yes certainly so in my opinion.
Nic. And do you think that the same things are terrible to those who had
better die, and to those who had better live?
La. Certainly not.
Nic. And do you suppose that the physician or any other artist knows this, or
any one indeed, except he who is skilled in the grounds of fear and hope? And
him I call the courageous.
Soc. Do you understand his meaning, Laches?
La. Yes; I suppose that, in his way of speaking, the soothsayers are
courageous. For who but one of them can know to whom to die or to live is
better? And yet Nicias, would you allow that you are yourself a soothsayer, or
are you neither a soothsayer nor courageous?
Nic. What! do you mean to say that the soothsayer ought to know the grounds of
hope or fear?
Plato Search ||| Aristotle
= Note
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