ERASTAE

as those artisans do; but rather, as befits a free and educated man, that he be able to perceive what is brought forth by each artisan, and that [he be] before the others who are present at that time; furthermore, to conjecture all things with his mind in such a way that he always appears the most elegant and the wisest of all in each of those things which is brought forward by anyone. And I (for I was still doubting what he was aiming at) said, "Do I understand what kind of man you say the philosopher is? For you seem to me to speak of such as are in a contest, the pentathli athletes competing in five contests, compared to the runners or the peltasts light-armed skirmishers. For they are inferior to the runners or peltasts in their own contests, and hold the second place, but are the first and winners among the rest of the athletes. Perhaps you say that the study of philosophy confers something similar upon philosophers, so that they are surpassed in understanding by those who are supreme in any art, and hold the second place, but precede the rest, so that the philosopher exists as a man of second-rate strength in individual faculties. You seem to show a man philosophizing of the same kind." "You rightly," he said, "take what was said about the philosopher, having compared him to the pentathlo pentathlete. For he is without doubt such that he does not wish to serve any business at all, nor to labor up to the highest point in any one thing, lest, through the exact diligence of one, he should grow old and be consumed in all other things like some kind of manual laborer, but that he should touch upon all things moderately and temperately." After this answer, desiring to know more plainly what he meant, I asked, "Do you judge good men to be useful, or..."