Dialogues

by disease or something of that sort, but I am speaking generally, as I might say of you, that you are able to write my name when you like. Would you not call a man able who could do that? Hippias Yes. Socrates And tell me, Hippias, are you not a skilful calculator and arithmetician? Hippias Yes, Socrates, assuredly I am. Socrates And if someone were to ask you what is the sum of 3 multiplied by 700, you would tell him the true answer in a moment, if you pleased? Hippias certainly I should. Socrates Is not that because you are the wisest and ablest of men in these matters? Hippias Yes. Socrates And being as you are the wisest and ablest of men in these matters of calculation, are you not also the best? Hippias To be sure, Socrates, I am the best. Socrates And therefore you would be the most able to tell the truth about these matters, would you not? Hippias Yes, I should. Socrates And could you speak falsehoods about them equally well? I must beg, Hippias, that you will answer me with the same frankness and magnanimity which has hitherto characterized you. If a person were to ask you what is the sum of 3 multiplied by 700, would not you be the best and most consistent teller of a falsehood, having always the power of speaking falsely as you have of speaking truly, about these same matters, if you wanted to tell a falsehood, and not to answer truly? Would the ignorant man be better able to tell a falsehood in matters of calculation than you would be, if you chose? Might he not sometimes stumble upon the truth, when he wanted to tell a lie, because he did not know, whereas you who are the wise man, if you wanted to tell a lie would always and consistently lie? Hippias Yes, there you are quite right. Socrates Does the false man tell lies about other things, but not about number, or when he is making a calculation? Hippias To be sure; he would tell as many lies about number as about other things. Socrates Then may we further assume, Hippias, that there are men who are false about calculation and number? Hippias Yes. Socrates Who can they be? For you have already admitted that he who is false must have the ability to be false: you said, as you will remember, that he who is unable to be false will not be false? Hippias Yes, I remember; it was so said. Socrates And were you not yourself just now shown to be best able to speak falsely about calculation? Hippias Yes; that was another thing which was said. Socrates And are you not likewise said to speak truly about calculation? Hippias Certainly. Socrates Then the same person is able to speak both falsely and truly about calculation? And that person is he who is good at calculation⁠—the arithmetician? Hippias Yes. Socrates Who, then, Hippias, is discovered to be false at calculation? Is he not the good man? For the good man is the able man, and he is the true man. Hippias That is evident. Socrates Do you not see, then, that the same man is false and also true about the same matters? And the true man is not a whit better than the false; for indeed he is the same with him and not the very opposite, as you were just now imagining. Hippias Not in that instance, clearly. Socrates Shall we examine other instances? Hippias Certainly, if you are disposed. Socrates Are you not also skilled in geometry? Hippias I am. Socrates Well, and does not the same hold in that science also? Is not the same person best able to speak falsely or to speak truly about diagrams; and he is⁠—the geometrician? Hippias Yes. Socrates He and no one else is good at it? Hippias Yes, he and no one else. Socrates Then the good and wise geometer has this double power in the highest degree; and if there be a man who is false about diagrams the good man will be he, for he is able to be false; whereas the bad is unable, and for this reason is not false, as has been admitted. Hippias True. Socrates Once more⁠—let us examine a third case; that of the astronomer, in whose art, again, you, Hippias, profess to be a still greater proficient than in the preceding⁠—do you not? Hippias Yes, I am. Socrates And does not the same hold of astronomy? Hippias True, Socrates. Socrates And in astronomy, too, if any man be able to speak falsely he will be the good astronomer, but he who is not able will not speak falsely, for he has no knowledge. Hippias Clearly not. Socrates Then in astronomy also, the same man will be true and false? Hippias It would seem so. Socrates And now, Hippias, consider the question at large about all the sciences, and see whether the same principle does not always hold. I know that in most arts you are the wisest of men, as I have heard you boasting in the agora at the tables of the money-changers, when you were setting forth the great and enviable stores of your wisdom; and you said that upon one occasion, when you went to the Olympic games, all that you had on your person was made by yourself. You began with your ring, which was of your own workmanship, and you said that you could engrave rings; and you had another seal which was also of your own workmanship, and a strigil and an oil flask, which you had made yourself; you said also that you had made the shoes which you had on your feet, and the cloak and the short tunic; but what appeared to us all most extraordinary and a proof of singular art, was the girdle of your tunic, which, you said, was as fine as the most costly Persian fabric, and of your own weaving; moreover, you told us that you had brought with you poems, epic, tragic, and dithyrambic, as well as prose writings of the most various kinds; and you said that your skill was also preeminent in the