Page:The Dialogues of Plato v. 1.djvu/142
Laches.
La. Certainly, he should.
Soc. And shall we invite Nicias to join us? he may be better at the sport than we are. What do you say?
La. I should like that.
Nicias in invited to join the inquiry. Soc. Come then, Nicias, and do what you can to help your friends, who are tossing on the waves of argument, and at the last gasp: you see our extremity, and may save us and also settle your own opinion, if you will tell us what you think about courage.
He suggests that courage is a sort of wisdom. Nic. I have been thinking, Socrates, that you and Laches are not defining courage in the right way; for you have forgotten an excellent saying which I have heard from your own lips.
Soc. What is it, Nicias?
Nic. I have often heard you say that 'Every man is good in that in which he is wise, and bad in that in which he is unwise.'
Soc. That is certainly true, Nicias.
Nic. And therefore if the brave man is good, he is also wise.
Soc. Do you hear him. Laches?
La. Yes, I hear him, but I do not very well understand him.
Soc. I think that I understand him; and he appears to me to mean that courage is a sort of wisdom.
La. What can he possibly mean, Socrates?
Soc. That is a question which you must ask of himself.
La. Yes.
Soc. Tell him then, Nicias, what you mean by this wisdom; for you surely do not mean the wisdom which plays the flute?
Nic. Certainly not.
Soc. Nor the wisdom which plays the lyre?
Nic. No.
Courage is the knowledge which inspires fear or confidence in war, or in anything. Soc. But what is this knowledge then, and of what?
La. I think that you put the question to him very well, Socrates; and I would like him to say what is the nature of this knowledge or wisdom.
Nic. I mean to say. Laches, that courage is the knowledge of that which inspires fear or confidence in war, 195 or in anything.