Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-01-22

not know shoe?
AL. Impossible.
Soc. Nor should we know what art
makes a ring better if we did not know a
ring?
AL. That is true.
Soc. And can we ever know what art
makes a man better, if we do not know
what we are ourselves?
AL. Impossible.
Soc. And is self knowledge an easy
thing, and was he to be lightly esteemed
who inscribed the text on the temple of
of Delphia9 Or is self knowledge diff
cult thing, which few are able to attain?
AL. AT times, fancy, Socrates, that
anybody can know himself; at other
times, the task appears to be very diff
cult.
Soc. But whether easy or difficult,
Alcibiades, still there is no other way:
knowing what we are, we shall know how
to take care of ourselves, and if we are
ignorant we shall not know.
AL. That is true.
Soc. Well, then, let us see in what
way the self-existent can be discovered
by us; that will give us a chance of dis
covering our own existence, which with
out that we can never know.
AL. You say truly.
Soc. Come, now, beseech you, tell
me with whom you are conversng with
whom but with me?
AL. Yes.
Soc. As am with you?
AL. Yes.
Soc. That is to say, l Socrates, am
talking?
AL. Yes.
Soc. And l in talking use words?
AL. Certainly.
Soc. And talking and using words
are, as you would say, the same?
AL. Very true.
Soc. And the user is not the same as
the thing he uses?
AL. What do you mean?
Soc. l will explain: the shoemaker,
for example, uses square tool, and a
circular tool, and other tools for cutting ?
AL. Yes.
Soc. But the tool is not the same as
the cutter and user of the tool?
AL. OF course not.
Soc. And in the same way the instru-
ment of the harper is to be distinguished
from the harper himself!
AL. 1t is.
Soc. Now the question which asked
was whether you conceive the user to be
always different from that which he uses
AL. do.
Soc. Then what shall we say of the
shoemaker? Does he cut with his tools
only or with his hands?
AL. With his hands as well.
Soc. He uses his hands, too?
AL. Yes.
Soc. And does he use his eyes in cut
ting leather?
AL. He does.
Soc. And we admit that the user is
not the same with the things which he
uses?
: AL. Yes.
= Soc. Then the shoemaker and the
harper are to be distinguished from the
hands and feet which they use?
} AL. That is clear.
Soc. And does not man use the
whole body?
: AL. Certainly.
Soc. And that which uses is different
from that which is used?
J AL. True.
Soc. Then a man is not the same as
his own body?
; AL. That is the inference.
Soc. What is he, then?
AL. | cannot say.
: Soc. Nay,you can say that he is the
user of the body.
AL. Yes.
? Soc. And the user of the body is the
soul:
AL. Yes, the soul.
= Soc. And the soul rules?
l AL. Yes.
Soc. Let me make an assertion which
Will, NC duilllttCu.
: AL. What is that?
Soc. That man is one of three things
AL. What are they?
Soc. Soul, body, or the union of the
two.
, AL. Certainly.
Soc. But did we not say that the ac-
tual ruling principle. of the body is mani
AL. Yes, we did.
, Soc. And does the body rule over it.
self?
? AL. Certainly not.
Soc. 1t is subject, we were saying?
, AL. Yes.
Soc. Then that is not what we are
, seeking?
AL. 1t would seem not.
Soc. But may we say that the
f union of the two rules over the body, and
, that consequently that this is man?