Epinomis

the beginning, coming into being is hard for every living being: first, to share in the state of those carried in the womb, then again to be born, and further to be nourished and educated; through countless labors 974a all these things come about, as we all say. And the time would be short, in the reckoning — not, certainly, the worthless part of it, but what anyone would take as moderate. This seems to make very nearly a kind of breathing space somewhere about the middle of human life; but old age, quickly overtaking anyone, would make him never willing to come back to life again, once he has reckoned up the life he has lived, whoever is not in fact full of a childish opinion. And what, then, is all this evidence of, for me? That what is now being sought 974b in the argument is by nature of this sort. We are seeking in what way we shall become wise, supposing that this power exists for each of us; but it runs away in flight at those times when someone goes toward some intelligence among the so-called crafts, or intelligences, or any other such kinds of knowledge,¹ as we think them, since none of these deserves to be called by the name of wisdom about these things, the human things; while the soul is very confident, and divines, that it has 974c this power by some nature, but what it is, and when, and how, it is not at all able to discover. Does not our perplexity and search about wisdom very much resemble this, turning out greater than the hope of each of those among us who prove able to examine themselves and others intelligently and concordantly, through arguments of every kind, spoken in every way? Shall we not concur that these things are so, or thereabouts?

Clin. We shall concur with you on them, stranger, perhaps, in the hope (one that 974d may come to pass with you in time) of forming about them, hereafter, the truest opinion.