ÉPINOMIS.

a truly prudent man will never consent to call the skill of such people wisdom. However, we must discover some science that gives its possessor real wisdom, not apparent wisdom. Let us see. The inquiry we are about to enter has a certain difficulty, since it is a matter of finding, outside of everything we have reviewed, a science that truly and rightfully deserves the name of wisdom: a science, finally, that elevates anyone who has acquired it from the class of artisans and common people and makes him a wise and virtuous man, a just and orderly citizen in all his conduct, whether he commands or obeys. And first, let us see which of all the sciences is the one that, if it were to be lacking to man, or if he had never known it, would make him the most stupid and senseless of animals. It is not very difficult to find; for if we compare them one by one, none would more surely produce this effect than the one that gives the human race the knowledge of number; and I believe that a God, rather than chance, has gifted us with this science for our preservation. But I must explain to you of which God I am speaking—strange in one sense, and in another sense not strange at all. How, indeed, could we not regard as the author of the greatest of all goods, wisdom, the one from whom we hold all the others? But who is this God, Megillus and Clinias, of whom I speak with such praise? It is the heaven: it is to him that it is supremely just to address our homage and our prayers in particular, as do all the other gods and spirits. By everyone's admission, we are indebted to his liberality for all other goods; and, according to our thought, it is he who has discovered the science of number to men, and will discover it again to anyone who will listen to his lessons.