128–129
Socrates
Soc. Then for taking pains over a thing itself and over what belongs to it we use different arts.
Alcibiades
Alc. Apparently.
Socrates
Soc. So when you take pains over your belongings you are not taking pains over yourself.
35
Alcibiades
Alc. Not at all.
Socrates
Soc. For the arts, it seems, that one used for taking pains over oneself and over one’s belongings would not be the same.
Alcibiades
Alc. Apparently not.
Socrates
Soc. Come then, whatever kind of art can we use for taking pains over ourselves?
Alcibiades
Alc. I cannot say.
40
Socrates
Soc. Well, so much at least has been admitted, that it is not one which would help us to make a single one of our possessions better, but one which would help to make ourselves so?
Alcibiades
Alc. That is true.
Socrates
Soc. Now, should we ever have known what art makes a shoe better, if we had not known a shoe?
Alcibiades
Alc. Impossible.
Socrates
Soc. Nor could we know what art makes rings better, if we had no cognizance of a ring.
45
Socrates
Soc. Well then, could we ever know what art makes the man himself better, if we were ignorant of what we are ourselves?
Alcibiades
Alc. Impossible.
Socrates
Soc. Well, and is it an easy thing to know oneself, and was it a mere scamp who inscribed these words on the temple at Delphi; or is it a hard thing, and not a task for anybody?
Alcibiades
Alc. I have often thought, Socrates, that it was for anybody; but often, too, that it was very hard.
Socrates
Soc. But, Alcibiades, whether it is easy or not, here is the fact for us all the same: if we have that knowledge, we are like to know what pains to take over ourselves; but if we have it not, we never can.
Alcibiades
Alc. That is so.
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