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PLATO'S REPUBLIC, BOOK ONE.

I went down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon, the son of Ariston, to offer my prayers to the goddess, and at the same time I wanted to observe how they would celebrate the festival, since they were holding it for the first time. The procession of the local inhabitants seemed to me indeed beautiful, yet the one which the Thracians were conducting appeared no less appropriate. After praying and watching, we were departing for the city. Now Polemarchus, the son of Cephalus, having caught sight of us from a distance as we were hurrying homeward, ordered his slave to run and bid us wait for him. And the slave, having taken hold of me from behind by the cloak, said, "Polemarchus bids you wait." And I turned around and asked where he was. "He is coming up behind," he said; "but do wait." "We shall wait," said Glaucon. And a little later, Polemarchus arrived, and Adeimantus, the brother of Glaucon, and Niceratus, the son of Nicias, and some others as if from the procession. Polemarchus then said, "Socrates, you seem to me to be setting off for the city as if to leave." "Your guess is not bad," I said. "Do you see then," he said, "how many we are?" "How could I not?" "Either, then, prove yourselves stronger than these," he said, "or stay here." "Is there not," I said, "still another alternative, that we persuade you that you must let us go?" "And could you," he said, "persuade us if we do not listen?" "Certainly not," said Glaucon. "Then think of us as not going to listen," he said. And Adeimantus added, "Do you not know that there will be a torchlight race this evening on horseback in honor of the goddess?" "On horseback?" I said. "That is a novelty. Will they carry torches and pass them to one another while racing their horses, or how do you mean?" "Just so," said Polemarchus, "and furthermore, they will hold an all-night festival, which is worth seeing. For we shall rise after dinner and see the all-night festival, and we shall be together with many of the young men there and hold conversation. But stay, and do not do otherwise." And Glaucon said, "It seems we must stay." "Well, if it seems so," I said, "then we must do it." We went, therefore, to the house of Polemarchus, and there we found Lysias and Euthydemus, the brothers of Polemarchus, and indeed Thrasymachus the Chalcedonian, and Charmantides the Paeanian, and Cleitophon, the son of Aristonymus. Cephalus, the father of Polemarchus, was also inside. He seemed to me to be a very old man, for I had not seen him for a long time. He was sitting crowned with a wreath upon a certain cushion and stool, for he happened to have been offering a sacrifice in the courtyard. We sat down, therefore, beside him, for some stools were set there in a circle. Immediately upon seeing me, Cephalus greeted me and said, "Socrates, you do not visit us often by coming down to the Piraeus. Yet you ought to. For if I were still strong enough to walk easily to the city, there would be no need for you to come here, but we would be with you. But now you must come here more often; for know well that for me, in proportion as the other pleasures of the body wither away, so do the desires and pleasures associated with discourse increase. Do not, therefore, do otherwise, but keep company with these young men and come here to us, as to friends and those very close to you." "And indeed, Cephalus," I said, "I enjoy conversing with those who are very old. For it seems to me that one must inquire from them, as from those who have traveled a path which perhaps we also will need to travel, what sort of path it is: whether it is rough and difficult, or easy and passable. And indeed I would gladly learn from you what appears to you to be the case, since you are now already at that age which the poets call the 'threshold of old age.' Is it a difficult part of life, or how do you report it?" "I will tell you, by Zeus," he said, "Socrates, what it appears to be to me. For often some of us come together, having a similar age, preserving the old proverb. The majority of us, therefore, lament upon meeting, longing for the pleasures in youth and remembering...