SOCRATES.-HOW! do you think that a rhapsodist knows better than a pilot what the captain of a ship in a tempest ought to say?

ION.-In such a circumstance I allow that the pilot would know best.

SOCRATES. Has the rhapsodist or the physician the clearest knowledge of what ought to be said to a sick man?

ION.-In that case the physician.

SOCRATES.-But you assert that he knows what a slave ought to say? ION.-Certainly.

SOCRATES.-To take for example, in the driving of cattle; a rhapsodist would know much better than the herdsman what ought to be said to a slave engaged in bringing back a herd of oxen run wild? ION. No, indeed.

[SOCRATES.-But what a woman should say concerning spinning wool?

ION. Of course not.

SOCRATES.-He would know, however, what a man, who is a general, should say when exhorting his troops?

ION.-Yes; a rhapsodist would know that. SOCRATES.-HOW! is rhapsody and strategy the

same art?

ION. I know what it is fitting for a general to say.

SOCRATES.-Probably because you are learned in war, O Ion. For if you are equally expert in horsemanship and playing on the harp, you would know whether a man rode well or ill. But if I should ask you which understands riding best, a horseman or a harper, what would you answer?

ION. A horseman, of course.

SOCRATES. And if you knew a good player on the harp, you would in the same way say that he understood harp-playing and not riding? ION.-Certainly.

SOCRATES. Since you understand strategy, you can tell me which is the most excellent, the art of war or rhapsody?

ION.-One does not appear to me to excel the

other.

SOCRATES.-One is not better than the other, say you? Do you say that tactics and rhapsody are two arts or one?

ION. They appear to me to be the same. SOCRATES.-Then a good rhapsodist is also a good

SOCRATES.—And a good general is a good rhap

sodist?

ION.-I do not say that.

SOCRATES.-You said that a good rhapsodist was also a good general.

ION-I did.

SOCRATES.-Are you not the best rhapsodist in

Greece?

ION.-By far, O Socrates.

SOCRATES. And you are also the most excellent general among the Greeks?

ION.-I am. I learned the art from Homer. SOCRATES.-How is it then, by Jupiter, that being both the best general and the best rhapsodist among us, that you continually go about Greece rhapsodising, and never lead our armies? Does it seem to you that the Greeks greatly need golden-crowned rhapsodists, and have no want of generals?

ION.-My native town, O Socrates, is ruled by yours, and requires no general for her wars;-and neither will your city nor the Lacedemonians elect me to lead their armies-you think your own generals sufficient.

SOCRATES. My good Ion, are you acquainted with Apollodorus the Cyzicenian?

ION. Who do you mean?

SOCRATES.-He whom, though a stranger, the Athenians often elected general; and Phanosthenes the Andrian, and Heraclides the Clazomenian, all foreigners, but whom this city has chosen, as being great men, to lead its armies, and to fill other high

offices. Would not, therefore, Ion the Ephesian be elected and honoured if he were esteemed capable? Were not the Ephesians originally from Athens, and is Ephesus the least of cities? But if you spoke true, Ion, and praise Homer according to art and knowledge, you have deceived me,— since you declared that you were learned on the subject of Homer, and would communicate your knowledge to me—but you have disappointed me, and are far from keeping your word. For you will not explain in what you are so excessively clever, though I greatly desire to learn; but, as various as Proteus, you change from one thing to another, and to escape at last, you disappear in the form of a general, without disclosing your Homeric wisdom. If therefore, you possess the learning which you promised to expound on the subject of Homer, you deceive me and are false. But if you are eloquent on the subject of this Poet, not through knowledge, but by inspiration, being possessed by him, ignorant the while of the wisdom and beauty you display, then I allow that you are no deceiver. Choose then whether you will be considered false or inspired? ION.-It is far better, O Socrates, to be thought inspired.

SOCRATES.-It is better both for you and for us, O Ion, to say that you are the inspired, and not the learned, eulogist of Homer.

MENEXENUS,

OR

THE FUNERAL ORATION.

A Fragment.

SOCRATES and MENEXENUS.

SOCRATES.-Whence comest thou, O Menexenus? from the forum?

MENEXENUS.-Even so; and from the senate

house.

SOCRATES.-What was thy business with the senate? Art thou persuaded that thou hast attained to that perfection of discipline and philosophy, from which thou mayest aspire to undertake greater matters? Wouldst thou, at thine age, my wonderful friend, assume to thyself the government of us who are thine elders, lest thy family should at any time fail in affording us a protector?

MENEXENUS.-Thou, O Socrates, shouldst permit and counsel me to enter into public life. I would