Thus I spoke, Crito, and was all attention to what was coming. I wanted to see how they would approach the question, and where they would start in their exhortation to the young man that he should practise wisdom and virtue. Dionysodorus, who was the elder, spoke first. Everybody’s eyes were directed towards him, perceiving that something wonderful might shortly be expected. And certainly they were not far wrong ; for the man, Crito, began a remarkable discourse well worth hearing, and wonderfully persuasive regarded as an exhortation to virtue.
Tell me, he said, Socrates and the rest of you who say that you want this young man to become wise, are you in jest or in real earnest ?
I was led by this to imagine that they fancied us to have been jesting when we asked them to converse with the youth, and that this made them jest and play, and being under this impression, I was the more decided in saying that we were in profound earnest. Dionysodorus said :
Reflect, Socrates ; you may have to deny your words.
I have reflected, I said ; and I shall never deny my words.
Well, said he, and so you say that you wish Cleinias to become wise ?
Undoubtedly.
And he is not wise as yet ?
At least his modesty will not allow him to say that he is.
You wish him, he said, to become wise and not, to be ignorant ?
That we do.
You wish him to be what he is not, and no longer to be what he is ?
I was thrown into consternation at this.
Taking advantage of my consternation he added : You wish him no longer to be what he is, which can only mean that you wish him to perish. Pretty lovers and friends they must be who want their favourite not to be, or to perish !
When Ctesippus heard this he got very angry (as a lover well might) and said : Stranger of Thurii — if politeness would allow me I should say, A plague upon you ! What can make you tell such a lie about me and the others, which I hardly like to repeat, as that I wish Cleinias to perish ?
Euthydemus replied : And do you think, Ctesippus, that it is possible to tell a lie ?
Yes, said Ctesippus ; I should be mad to say anything else.
And in telling a lie, do you tell the thing of which you speak or not ?
You tell the thing of which you speak.
And he who tells, tells that thing which he tells, and no other ?
Yes, said Ctesippus.
And that is a distinct thing apart from other things ?
Certainly.
And he who says that thing says that which is ?
Yes.
And he who says that which is, says the truth. And therefore Dionysodorus, if he says that which is, says the truth of you and no lie.
Yes, Euthydemus, said Ctesippus ; but in saying this, he says what is not.
Euthydemus answered : And that which is not is not ?
True.
And that which is not is nowhere ?
Nowhere.
And can any one do anything about that which has no existence, or do to Cleinias that which is not and is nowhere ?
I think not, said Ctesippus.
Well, but do rhetoricians, when they speak in the assembly, do nothing ?
Nay, he said, they do something.
And doing is making ?
Yes.
And speaking is doing and making ?
He agreed.
Then no one says that which is not, for in saying what is not he would be doing something ; and you have already acknowledged that no one can do what is not. And therefore, upon your own showing, no one says what is false ; but if Dionysodorus says anything, he says what is true and what is.
Yes, Euthydemus, said Ctesippus ; but he speaks of things in a certain way and manner, and not as they really are.
Why, Ctesippus, said Dionysodorus, do you mean to say that any one speaks of things as they are ?
Yes, he said — all gentlemen and truth-speaking persons.
And are not good things good, and evil things evil ?
He assented.
And you say that gentlemen speak of things as they are ?
Yes.
Then the good speak evil of evil things, if they speak of them as they are ?
Yes, indeed, he said ; and they speak evil of evil men. And if I may give you a piece of advice, you had better take care that they do not speak evil of you, since I can tell you that the good speak evil of the evil.
And do they speak great things of the great, rejoined Euthydemus, and warm things of the warm ?
To be sure they do, said Ctesippus ; and they speak coldly of the insipid and cold dialectician.
You are abusive, Ctesippus, said Dionysodorus, you are abusive !
Indeed, I am not, Dionysodorus, he replied ; for I love you and am giving you friendly advice, and, if I could, would persuade you not like a boor to say in my presence that I desire my beloved, whom I value above all men, to perish.