The Lovers

"insomniac and fasting, with a withered neck and thin from worries?" And when he said this, the boys sensed it, and the other one laughed and blushed. And I said, "Why then do you concede that neither many nor few labors make the bodies of human beings be in a good state, but moderate ones? Or are you fighting against the argument for the sake of the two of us?" And he said, "Towards this man, I would very gladly compete, and I do not know if I would be capable of helping the hypothesis I put forward, even if I had put forward one even more trivial than this. For there is nothing against you; towards you, I have no need to contend contrary to my opinion, but I agree that not many, but moderate exercises bring good health to human beings." "What about food? Moderate, or much?" I said. And he agreed about the food. I continued to force him to agree that all other things regarding the body benefit most from moderation, and not from too much, nor too little. And he agreed with me about the moderate things. "What about things regarding the soul? Do moderate things benefit, or things that are excessive? The moderate ones," he said. "Are not teachings one of the things offered to the soul?" He agreed. "And therefore moderate ones benefit, and not the many?" He agreed. "Whom then, if we were to ask, could we rightly ask: what labors are moderate, and what food is for the body? Do we agree on either a painter, or a doctor, or a physical trainer?" "What about the sowing of seed, how much is moderate?" And to this we agree on the farmer. "But whom should we ask regarding the planting and sowing of teachings into the soul, so that we could rightly ask..."