Pagina 247 di 1391

(Strange that we should be so precise about trifles, so careless

about the highest truths!) 'And what are the highest?' You to

pretend unconsciousness, when you have so often heard me speak of

the idea of good, about which we know so little, and without

which though a man gain the world he has no profit of it! Some

people imagine that the good is wisdom; but this involves a

circle,-the good, they say, is wisdom, wisdom has to do with the

good. According to others the good is pleasure; but then comes

the absurdity that good is bad, for there are bad pleasures as

well as good. Again, the good must have reality; a man may desire

the appearance of virtue, but he will not desire the appearance

of good. Ought our guardians then to be ignorant of this supreme

principle, of which every man has a presentiment, and without

which no man has any real knowledge of anything? 'But, Socrates,

what is this supreme principle, knowledge or pleasure, or what?