Charmides

172e“Then weren’t we right to agree to that?” he said.

“I don’t think we were,” I said.

“You’re saying some truly strange things, Socrates,” he said.

“By the dog,” I said, “I think so too;¹ and it was with my eye on this very point that I said just now that some strange things were coming to light for me, and that I was afraid we were not looking into it correctly. For truly, even if temperance is entirely of this kind, it does not seem at all 173a clear to me that it does us any good.”

“How so?” said he. “Tell us, so that we too may know what you mean.”

“I think I’m talking nonsense,” I said. “All the same, one must look into what comes to light and not let it go by at random, if one cares for oneself even a little.”

“Yes, you’re right,” he said.

“Hear my dream, then,” I said, “whether it has come through horn or through ivory.² If temperance ruled us as fully as could be, being such as we are now defining it, wouldn’t everything be done according to the 173b kinds of knowledge? No one who claimed to be a pilot, but was not, would deceive us, nor would any doctor or general or anyone else escape our notice who pretended to know what he did not know. With things so, what else would happen to us than that we would be healthier in body than we are now, and come through safe when in danger at sea and in war, and that our equipment and clothing and our footwear, 173c all of it, and all our possessions would be expertly made for us, and much else besides, because we would be using genuine craftsmen? And if you like, let us grant that prophecy too is