[27] {philokaloterous}. Cf. Plat. 'Phaedr.' 248 D; 'Criti.' 111 E; Aristot. 'Eth. N.' iv. 4. 4; x. 9. 3.
[28] Lit. 'they feel most awe of what they most desire.'
[29] Cf. 'Mem.' I. iii. 9.
Cease, therefore, your perplexity, O Socrates, abandon fears and doubts, believe and know that this thing of which I make great boast, my beauty, has power to confer some benefit on humankind.
Once more, let no man dare dishonour beauty, merely because the flower of it soon fades, since even as a child has growth in beauty, so is it with the stripling, the grown man, the reverend senior.[30] And this the proof of my contention. Whom do we choose to bear the sacred olive-shoot[31] in honour of Athena?--whom else save beautiful old men? witnessing thereby[32] that beauty walks hand in hand as a companion with every age of life, from infancy to eld.
[30] Cf. ib. III. iii. 12.
[31] Cf. Aristoph. 'Wasps,' 544.
[32] Or, 'beauty steps in attendance lovingly hand in hand at every season of the life of man.' So Walt Whitman, passim.
Or again, if it be sweet to win from willing hearts the things we seek for, I am persuaded that, by the eloquence of silence, I could win a kiss from yonder girl or boy more speedily than ever you could, O sage! by help of half a hundred subtle arguments.
Eh, bless my ears, what's that? (Socrates broke in upon this final flourish of the speaker). So beautiful you claim to rival me, you boaster?
Crit. Why, yes indeed, I hope so, or else I should be uglier than all the Silenuses in the Satyric drama.[33]
[33] The MSS. add ['to whom, be it noted, Socrates indeed bore a marked resemblance']. Obviously a gloss. Cf. Aristoph. 'Clouds,' 224; Plat. 'Symp.' 215 B.
Good! (Socrates rejoined); the moment the programme of discussion is concluded,[34] please remember, we must obtain a verdict on the point of beauty. Judgment shall be given--not at the bar of Alexander, son of Priam-- but of these[35] who, as you flatter yourself, have such a hankering to kiss you.
[34] Lit. 'the arguments proposed have gone the round.'
[35] i.e. 'the boy and girl.' Al. 'the present company, who are so eager to bestow on you their kisses.'
Oh, Socrates (he answered, deprecatingly), will you not leave it to the arbitrament of Cleinias?
Then Socrates: Will you never tire of repeating that one name? It is Cleinias here, there, and everywhere with you.
Crit. And if his name died on my lips, think you my mind would less recall his memory? Know you not, I bear so clear an image of him in my soul, that had I the sculptor's or the limner's skill, I might portray his features as exactly from this image of the mind as from contemplation of his actual self.
But Socrates broke in: Pray, why then, if you bear about this lively image, why do you give me so much trouble, dragging me to this and that place, where you hope to see him?
Crit. For this good reason, Socrates, the sight of him inspires gladness, whilst his phantom brings not joy so much as it engenders longing.
At this point Hermogenes protested: I find it most unlike you, Socrates, to treat thus negligently one so passion-crazed as Critobulus.
Socrates replied: Do you suppose the sad condition of the patient dates from the moment only of our intimacy?
Herm. Since when, then?
Soc. Since when? Why, look at him: the down begins to mantle on his cheeks,[36] and on the nape[37] of Cleinias' neck already mounts. The fact is, when they fared to the same school together, he caught the fever. This his father was aware of, and consigned him to me, hoping I might be able to do something for him. Ay, and his plight is not so sorry now. Once he would stand agape at him like one whose gaze is fixed upon the Gorgons,[38] his eyes one stony stare, and like a stone himself turn heavily away. But nowadays I have seen the statue actually blink.[39] And yet, may Heaven help me! my good sirs, I think, between ourselves, the culprit must have bestowed a kiss on Cleinias, than which love's flame asks no fiercer fuel.[40] So insatiable a thing it is and so suggestive of mad fantasy. [And for this reason held perhaps in higher honour, because of all external acts the close of lip with lip bears the same name as that of soul with soul in love.][41] Wherefore, say I, let every one who wishes to be master of himself and sound of soul abstain from kisses imprinted on fair lips.[42]
[36] Lit. 'creeping down beside his ears.' Cf. 'Od.' xi. 319:
{prin sphoin upo krotaphoisin ioulous anthesai pukasai te genus euanthei lakhne.}
'(Zeus destroyed the twain) ere the curls had bloomed beneath their temples, and darked their chins with the blossom of youth.' --Butcher and Lang. Cf. Theocr. xv. 85: {praton ioulon apo krotaphon kataballon}, 'with the first down upon his cheeks' (Lang); Aesch. 'Theb.' 534.
[37] {pros to opisthen}, perhaps = 'ad posteriorem capitis partem,' which would be more applicable to Critobulus, whose whiskers were just beginning to grow, than to Callias. Possibly we should read (after Pollux, ii. 10) {peri ten upenen}, 'on the upper lip.' See Plat. 'Protag.' 309 B; 'Il.' xxiv. 348; 'Od.' x. 279.
[38] Cf. Pind. 'Pyth.' x. 75.
[39] See 'Cyrop.' I. iv. 28; Shakesp. 'Ven. and Ad.' 89: 'But when her lips were ready for his pay, he winks, and turns his lips another way.'
[40] Or, 'a kiss which is to passion as dry combustious matter is to fire,' Shakesp. ib. 1162.
[41] Or, 'is namesake of the love within the soul of lovers.' The whole passage, involving a play on the words {philein phileisthai}, 'where kisses rain without, love reigns within,' is probably to be regarded as a gloss. Cf. 'Mem.' I. iii. 13.
[42] Cf. 'Mem.' I. iii. 8-14.
Then Charmides: Oh! Socrates, why will you scare your friends with these hobgoblin terrors,[43] bidding us all beware of handsome faces, whilst you yourself--yes, by Apollo, I will swear I saw you at the schoolmaster's[44] that time when both of you were poring over one book, in which you searched for something, you and Critobulus, head to head, shoulder to shoulder bare, as if incorporate?[45]
[43] Cf. Plat. 'Crit.' 46 D; 'Hell.' IV. iv. 17; Arist. 'Birds,' 1245.
[44] 'Grammarian's.' Plat. 'Protag.' 312 B; 326 D; Dem. 315. 8.
[45] Like Hermia and Helena, 'Mids. N. D.' iii. 2. 208.
As yes, alack the day! (he answered); and that is why, no doubt, my shoulder ached for more than five days afterwards, as if I had been bitten by some fell beast, and methought I felt a sort of scraping at the heart.[46] Now therefore, in the presence of these witnesses, I warn you, Critobulus, never again to touch me till you wear as thick a crop of hair[47] upon your chin as on your head.
[46] Reading {knisma}, 'scratching.' Plat. 'Hipp. maj.' 304 A. Al. {knesma}.
[47] See Jebb, 'Theophr. Ch.' xxiv. 16.
So pell-mell they went at it, half jest half earnest, and so the medley ended. Callias here called on Charmides.
Call. Now, Charmides, it lies with you to tell us why you pride yourself on poverty.[48]
[48] Zeune, cf. 'Cyrop.' VIII. iii. 35-50.
Charmides responded: On all hands it is admitted, I believe, that confidence is better than alarm; better to be a freeman than a slave; better to be worshipped than pay court to others; better to be trusted than to be suspected by one's country.
Well now, I will tell you how it fared with me in this same city when I was wealthy. First, I lived in daily terror lest some burglar should break into my house and steal my goods and do myself some injury. I cringed before informers.[49] I was obliged to pay these people court, because I knew that I could injure them far less than they could injure me. Never-ending the claims upon my pocket which the state enforced upon me; and as to setting foot abroad, that was beyond the range of possibility. But now that I have lost my property across the frontier,[50] and derive no income from my lands in Attica itself; now that my very household goods have been sold up, I stretch my legs at ease, I get a good night's rest. The distrust of my fellow-citizens has vanished; instead of trembling at threats, it is now my turn to threaten; at last I feel myself a freeman, with liberty to go abroad or stay at home as suits my fancy. The tables now are turned. It is the rich who rise to give me their seats, who stand aside and make way for me as I meet them in the streets. To-day I am like a despot, yesterday I was literally a slave; formerly it was I who had to pay my tribute[51] to the sovereign people, now it is I who am supported by the state by means
