Kitap 14
3
But when Xenophon wrote this, they say, The of course refers to Plato, in whose works Socrates discourses on physics, music and geometry. But if anything of this kind was to be believed, or even suspected, in noble and dignified men, I do not believe that the motive was hostility or envy, or a contest for gaining greater glory; for such considerations are wholly alien to the character of philosophers, among whom those two were in all men's judgment pre-eminent. What then is the reason for that opinion? Undoubtedly this: the mere equality and likeness of kindred talents, even though the desire and inclination of contention be absent, nevertheless create an appearance of rivalry. For when two or more men of great intellectual gifts, who have gained distinction in the same pursuit, are of equal or nearly equal fame, then there arises among their various partisans emulation in expressing an estimate of their efforts and merit. Then later, from the contention of others, the contagion of rivalry spreads to the men themselves, and while they are pressing on to the same goal of honour, the race is so even, or almost even, For ambiguus in this sense see Virg. Aen. v. 326. that it comes imperceptibly under a suspicion of rivalry, not from any purpose of their own, but from the zeal of their partisans. They were not rivals, but both equally eager to attain virtue. Thus they seen like competitors in a race, and as they run so that you can hardly tell which leads, their partisans insist on regarding them as rivals. So then Xenophon and Plato, two stars of Socrates' charming philosophy, were believed to contend with and rival each other, because others strove to show that one or the other was the superior, and because two eminent characters, when they are labouring side by side for a lofty aim, beget a kind of appearance of rivalry and competition.
