With these views and thus nerved to the task, I sailed from home, in
the spirit which some imagined, but principally through a feeling of
shame with regard to myself, lest I might some day appear to myself
wholly and solely a mere man of words, one who would never of his
own will lay his hand to any act. Also there was reason to think
that I should be betraying first and foremost my friendship and
comradeship with Dion, who in very truth was in a position of
considerable danger. If therefore anything should happen to him, or if
he were banished by Dionysios and his other enemies and coming to us
as exile addressed this question to me: "Plato, I have come to you
as a fugitive, not for want of hoplites, nor because I had no
cavalry for defence against my enemies, but for want of words and
power of persuasion, which I knew to be a special gift of yours,
enabling you to lead young men into the path of goodness and
justice, and to establish in every case relations of friendship and
comradeship among them. It is for the want of this assistance on
your part that I have left Syracuse and am here now. And the
disgrace attaching to your treatment of me is a small matter. But
philosophy-whose praises you are always singing, while you say she
is held in dishonour by the rest of mankind-must we not say that
philosophy along with me has now been betrayed, so far as your
action was concerned? Had I been living at Megara, you would certainly
have come to give me your aid towards the objects for which I asked
it; or you would have thought yourself the most contemptible of
mankind.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25