not wise and good cannot be happy?
| Alcibiades |
He cannot. |
| Socrates |
The bad, then, are miserable? |
| Alcibiades |
Yes, very. |
| Socrates |
And if so, not he who has riches, but he who has wisdom, is delivered from his misery? |
| Alcibiades |
Clearly. |
| Socrates |
Cities, then, if they are to be happy, do not want walls, or triremes, or docks, or numbers, or size, Alcibiades, without virtue?607 |
| Alcibiades |
Indeed they do not. |
| Socrates |
And you must give the citizens virtue, if you mean to administer their affairs rightly or nobly? |
| Alcibiades |
Certainly. |
| Socrates |
But can a man give that which he has not? |
| Alcibiades |
Impossible. |
| Socrates |
Then you or anyone who means to govern and superintend, not only himself and the things of himself, but the state and the things of the state, must in the first place acquire virtue. |
| Alcibiades |
That is true. |
| Socrates |
You have not therefore to obtain power or authority, in order to enable you to do what you wish for yourself and the state, but justice and wisdom. |
| Alcibiades |
Clearly. |
| Socrates |
You and the state, if you act wisely and justly, will act according to the will of God? |
| Alcibiades |
Certainly. |
| Socrates |
As I was saying before, you will look only at what is bright and divine, and act with a view to them? |
| Alcibiades |
Yes. |
| Socrates |
In that mirror you will see and know yourselves and your own good? |
| Alcibiades |
Yes. |
| Socrates |
And so you will act rightly and well? |
| Alcibiades |
Yes. |
| Socrates |
In which case, I will be security for your happiness. |
| Alcibiades |
I accept the security. |
| Socrates |
But if you act unrighteously, your eye will turn to the dark and godless, and being in darkness and ignorance of yourselves, you will probably do deeds of darkness. |
| Alcibiades |
Very possibly. |
| Socrates |
For if a man, my dear Alcibiades, has the power to do what he likes, but has no understanding, what is likely to be the result, either to him as an individual or to the state—for example, if he be sick and is able to do what he likes, not having the mind of a physician—having moreover tyrannical power, and no one daring to reprove him, what will happen to him? Will he not be likely to have his constitution ruined? |
| Alcibiades |
That is true. |
| Socrates |
Or again, in a ship, if a man having the power to do what he likes, has no intelligence or skill in navigation, do you see what will happen to him and to his fellow-sailors? |
| Alcibiades |
Yes; I see that they will all perish. |
| Socrates |
And in like manner, in a state, and where there is any power and authority which is wanting in virtue, will not misfortune, in like manner, ensue? |
| Alcibiades |
Certainly. |
| Socrates |
Not tyrannical power, then, my good Alcibiades, should be the aim either of individuals or states, if they would be happy, but virtue. |
| Alcibiades |
That is true. |
| Socrates |
And before they have virtue, to be commanded by a superior is better for men as well as for children?608 |
| Alcibiades |
That is evident. |
| Socrates |
And that which is better is also nobler? |
| Alcibiades |
True. |
| Socrates |
And what is nobler is more becoming? |
| Alcibiades |
Certainly. |
| Socrates |
Then to the bad man slavery is more becoming, because better? |
| Alcibiades |
True. |
| Socrates |
Then vice is only suited to a slave? |
| Alcibiades |
Yes. |
| Socrates |
And virtue to a freeman? |
| Alcibiades |
Yes. |
| Socrates |
And, O my friend, is not the condition of a slave to be avoided? |
| Alcibiades |
Certainly, Socrates. |
| Socrates |
And are you now conscious of your own state? And do you know whether you are a freeman or not? |
| Alcibiades |
I think that I am very conscious indeed of my own state. |
| Socrates |
And do you know how to escape out of a state which I do not even like to name to my beauty? |
| Alcibiades |
Yes, I do. |
| Socrates |
How? |
| Alcibiades |
By your help, Socrates. |
| Socrates |
That is not well said, Alcibiades. |
| Alcibiades |
What ought I to have said? |
| Socrates |
By the help of God. |
| Alcibiades |
I agree; and I further say, that our relations are likely to be reversed. From this day forward, I must and will follow you as you have followed me; I will be the disciple, and you shall be my master. |
| Socrates |
O that is rare! My love breeds another love: and so like the stork I shall be cherished by the bird whom I have hatched. |
| Alcibiades |
Strange, but true; and henceforward I shall begin to think about justice. |
| Socrates |
And I hope that you will persist; although I have fears, not because I doubt you; but I see the power of the state, which may be too much for both of us. |
Menexenus
Introduction
The “Menexenus” has more the character of a rhetorical exercise than any other of the Platonic works. The writer seems to have wished to emulate Thucydides, and the far slighter work of Lysias. In his rivalry with the latter, to whom in the “Phaedrus” Plato shows a strong antipathy, he is entirely successful, but he is not equal to Thucydides. The “Menexenus,” though not without real Hellenic interest, falls very far short of the rugged grandeur and political insight of the great historian. The fiction of the speech having been invented by Aspasia is well sustained, and is in the manner of Plato, notwithstanding the anachronism which puts into her mouth an allusion to the peace of Antalcidas, an event occurring forty years after the date of the supposed oration. But Plato, like Shakespeare, is careless of such anachronisms, which are not supposed to strike the mind of the reader. The effect produced by these grandiloquent orations on Socrates, who does not recover after having heard one of them for three days and more, is truly Platonic.
Such discourses, if we may form a judgment from the three which are extant (for the so-called “Funeral Oration” of Demosthenes is a bad and spurious imitation of Thucydides and Lysias), conformed to a regular type. They began with Gods and ancestors, and the legendary history of Athens, to which succeeded an almost equally fictitious account of later times. The Persian war usually formed the centre of the narrative; in the age of Isocrates and Demosthenes the Athenians were still living on the glories of Marathon and Salamis. The “Menexenus” veils in panegyric
