Lysis

209einto the broth, or us, if we came to him and showed him that we understand the preparing of a dish better than his son does?” — “Us, obviously,” he said. — “And him, at least, he would not let throw in even a little; but us, even if we wanted to grab a handful of the salt, he would let throw it in.” — “Of course.” — “And what if his son’s eyes were ailing: would he let him touch his own 210a eyes, not believing him a doctor, or would he stop him?” — “He would stop him.” — “But us, if he took us to be skilled in medicine, even if we wanted to open the eyes wide and sprinkle ash into them, I think he would not stop, believing that we understand rightly.” — “What you say is true.” — “Then would he also entrust everything else to us rather than to himself and his son, whatever we seemed to him to be wiser in than they are?” — “Necessarily, Socrates,” he said.

“So that is how it is, my friend Lysis,” I said: “in the things 210b in which we come to have understanding, everyone will entrust them to us, Greeks and barbarians, men and women, and in these we shall do whatever we want, and no one will willingly get in our way; but we ourselves will be free in them, and rulers of others, and these things will be ours, for we shall profit from them. But in the things in which we do not acquire sense, no one will entrust us with doing in them what seems good to us, but 210c everyone will get in our way as far as they can, not only strangers but our father and mother too, and anything more akin to us than they are; and we ourselves will be subject to others in them, and they will belong to others, for we shall profit nothing from them. Do you grant that it is so?” — “I grant it.” — “Then shall we be friends to anyone, and will anyone love us, in the things in which we are of no benefit?”