Page:The Dialogues of Plato v. 1.djvu/143
Laches.
La. How strangely he is talking, Socrates.
Soc. Why do you say so, Laches?
La. Why, surely courage is one thing, and wisdom another.
Soc. That is just what Nicias denies.
La. Yes, that is what he denies; but he is so silly.
Soc. Suppose that we instruct instead of abusing him?
Nic. Laches does not want to instruct me, Socrates; but having been proved to be talking nonsense himself, he wants to prove that I have been doing the same.
What is disease? La. Very true, Nicias; and you are talking nonsense, as I shall endeavour to show. Are the physicians the same as the courageous? Let me ask you a question: Do not physicians know the dangers of disease? or do the courageous know them? or are the physicians the same as the courageous?
Nic. Not at all.
La. No more than the husbandmen who know the dangers of husbandry, or than other craftsmen, who have a knowledge of that which inspires them with fear or confidence in their own arts, and yet they are not courageous a whit the more for that.
Soc. What is Laches saying, Nicias? He appears to be saying something of importance.
Nic. Yes, he is saying something, but it is not true.
Soc. How so?
The physicians can only tell the nature of disease, not whether health is better than disease, life than death. Nic. Why, because he does not see that the physician's knowledge only extends to the nature of health and disease: he can tell the sick man no more than this. Do you imagine, Laches, that the physician knows whether health or disease is the more terrible to a man? Had not many a man better never get up from a sick bed? I should like to know whether you think that life is always better than death. May not death often be the better of the two?
La. Yes certainly so in my opinion.
Nic. And do you think that the same things are terrible to those who had better die, and to those who had better live?
La. Certainly not.
Nic. And do you suppose that the physician or any other artist knows this, or any one indeed, except he who is skilled