BOOK II
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Xenophon and Dakyns, Henry Graham
Now, if the effect of such discourses was, as I imagine, to deter his hearers from the paths of quackery and false-seeming, (1) so I am sure that language like the following was calculated to stimulate his followers to practise self-control and endurance: self-control in the matters of eating, drinking, sleeping, and the cravings of lust; endurance of cold and heat and toil and pain. He had noticed the undue licence which one of his acquaintances allowed himself in all such matters. (2) Accordingly he thus addressed him:
(1) This sentence in the Greek concludes Bk. I. There is something wrong or very awkward in the text here. (2) Cf. Grote, "Plato," III. xxxviii. p. 530.
Tell me, Aristippus (Socrates said), supposing you had two children entrusted to you to educate, one of them must be brought up with an aptitude for government, and the other without the faintest propensity to rule—how would you educate them? What do you say? Shall we begin our inquiry from the beginning, as it were, with the bare elements of food and nutriment?
Ar. Yes, food to begin with, by all means, being a first principle, (3) without which there is no man living but would perish.
(3) Aristippus plays upon the word {arkhe}.
Soc. Well, then, we may expect, may we not, that a desire to grasp food at certain seasons will exhibit itself in both the children?
Ar. It is to be expected.
Soc. Which, then, of the two must be trained, of his own free will, (4) to prosecute a pressing business rather than gratify the belly?
(4) {proairesis}.
Ar. No doubt the one who is being trained to govern, if we would not have affairs of state neglected during (5) his government.
(5) Lit. "along of."
Soc. And the same pupil must be furnished with a power of holding out against thirst also when the craving to quench it comes upon him?
Ar. Certainly he must.
Soc. And on which of the two shall we confer such self-control in regard to sleep as shall enable him to rest late and rise early, or keep vigil, if the need arise?
Ar. To the same one of the two must be given that endurance also.
Soc. Well, and a continence in regard to matters sexual so great that nothing of the sort shall prevent him from doing his duty? Which of them claims that?
Ar. The same one of the pair again.
Soc. Well, and on which of the two shall be bestowed, as a further gift, the voluntary resolution to face toils rather than turn and flee from them?
Ar. This, too, belongs of right to him who is being trained for government.
Soc. Well, and to which of them will it better accord to be taught all knowledge necessary towards the mastery of antagonists?
Ar. To our future ruler certainly, for without these parts of learning all his other capacities will be merely waste.
Soc. (6)Will not a man so educated be less liable to be entrapped by rival powers, and so escape a common fate of living creatures, some of which (as we all know) are hooked through their own greediness, and often even in spite of a native shyness; but through appetite for food they are drawn towards the bait, and are caught; while others are similarly ensnared by drink?
(6) (SS. 4, 5, L. Dind. ed Lips.)
Ar. Undoubtedly.
Soc. And others again are victims of amorous heat, as quails, for instance, or partridges, which, at the cry of the hen-bird, with lust and expectation of such joys grow wild, and lose their power of computing dangers: on they rush, and fall into the snare of the hunter?
Aristippus assented.
Soc. And would it not seem to be a base thing for a man to be affected like the silliest bird or beast? as when the adulterer invades the innermost sanctum (7) of the house, though he is well aware of the risks which his crime involves, (8) the formidable penalties of the law, the danger of being caught in the toils, and then suffering the direst contumely. Considering all the hideous penalties which hang over the adulterer's head, considering also the many means at hand to release him from the thraldom of his passion, that a man should so drive headlong on to the quicksands of perdition (9)—what are we to say of such frenzy? The wretch who can so behave must surely be tormented by an evil spirit? (10)
(7) {eis as eirktas}. The penetralia. (8) Or, "he knows the risks he runs of suffering those penalties with which the law threatens his crime should he fall into the snare, and being caught, be mutilated." (9) Or, "leap headlong into the jaws of danger." (10) {kakodaimonontos}.
Ar. So it strikes me.
Soc. And does it not strike you as a sign of strange indifference that, whereas the greater number of the indispensable affairs of men, as for instance, those of war and agriculture, and more than half the rest, need to be conducted under the broad canopy of heaven, (11) yet the majority of men are quite untrained to wrestle with cold and heat?
(11) Or, "in the open air."
Aristippus again assented.
Soc. And do you not agree that he who is destined to rule must train himself to bear these things lightly?
Ar. Most certainly.
Soc. And whilst we rank those who are self-disciplined in all these matters among persons fit to rule, we are bound to place those incapable of such conduct in the category of persons without any pretension whatsoever to be rulers?
Ar. I assent.
Soc. Well, then, since you know the rank peculiar to either section of mankind, did it ever strike you to consider to which of the two you are best entitled to belong?
Yes I have (replied Aristippus). I do not dream for a moment of ranking myself in the class of those who wish to rule. In fact, considering how serious a business it is to cater for one's own private needs, I look upon it as the mark of a fool not to be content with that, but to further saddle oneself with the duty of providing the rest of the community with whatever they may be pleased to want. That, at the cost of much personal enjoyment, a man should put himself at the head of a state, and then, if he fail to carry through every jot and tittle of that state's desire, be held to criminal account, does seem to me the very extravagance of folly. Why, bless me! states claim to treat their rulers precisely as I treat my domestic slaves. I expect my attendants to furnish me with an abundance of necessaries, but not to lay a finger on one of them themselves. So these states regard it as the duty of a ruler to provide them with all the good things imaginable, but to keep his own hands off them all the while. (12) So then, for my part, if anybody desires to have a heap of pother himself, (13) and be a nuisance to the rest of the world, I will educate him in the manner suggested, and he shall take his place among those who are fit to rule; but for myself, I beg to be enrolled amongst those who wish to spend their days as easily and pleasantly as possible.
(12) Or, "but he must have no finger in the pie himself." (13) See Kuhner ad loc.