Works of Plato, Volume 13

the most care. After all these arts, we still have others, whose object is to be useful to man in an infinity of encounters. The most important and the most extensive is the art of war. The exercise of it is very honorable; it demands much fortune; but success in it is naturally attached to courage rather than to wisdom. Without doubt, the art that bears the name of medicine is of a sufficiently great help against the ravages that seasons make among living beings through untimely cold or heat and other similar accidents; but neither the one nor the other contributes to true wisdom; for without fixed rule, they rely hardly more than on uncertain conjectures. We will also admit that pilots and sailors are of some help to men; but let no one seek to deceive us by announcing a wise man among all these men, since not one of them knows the cause which irritates or which appeases the winds, knowledge essential to navigation. It is the same with those who put themselves forward to defend the rights of others before the tribunals by the talent of speech. All their skill consists in memory and in a certain routine, skilled at discerning what passes for just in the opinion of men, but very far from knowing the truth touching justice in itself.

There is also a faculty of the soul, quite singular, which contributes to giving the reputation of wise; but it is more ordinary to call it a gift of nature than a fruit of wisdom. It consists in learning with ease, in possessing a vast and sure memory, in remembering at the right time what is convenient to do in each circumstance, and this with much promptitude. Several give to this faculty the name of natural talent, others of wisdom, others of sharpness of spirit; but