Works of Plato, Volume 13

on the flesh of one another, and taught them to make a legitimate use of the flesh of animals. I ask pardon of the men of those distant centuries; but those of whom we have just spoken are not the wise men we are seeking. The process for reducing wheat or barley into flour and making it into food, although beautiful and useful in itself, will never make its inventor a complete wise man; the very word process expresses nothing other than the difficulty of what has been done. One must say about as much of every kind of agriculture. For it is not by art, but naturally and by divine inspiration, that it seems men were moved to cultivate the earth. The construction of houses and all architecture, the art of working all sorts of furniture, in bronze, in wood, in clay, in the form of weaving, and also of manufacturing tools of every kind, these diverse processes are without doubt useful to society, but do not relate to virtue. Likewise, the art of hunting, which embraces so many objects and supposes so much industry, gives neither greatness of soul nor wisdom, any more than the art of diviners and interpreters; they conceive uniquely the meaning of their words, but they are ignorant of their truth. We have seen until here art effect the acquisition of what is necessary for life, without in any case rendering wise the one who exercises it. It remains for us to consider the arts of pure pleasure, of which the majority are imitative, and have nothing serious about them. They imitate by means of a crowd of instruments, they give to the body different attitudes which are not entirely decent. These employ prose or every kind of verse; those are children of drawing and express an infinity of different figures with dry or soft materials. None of these arts of imitation has brought forth wisdom in the soul of those who have cultivated them with