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"You say true," said Euthydemus, "but you see, too, that men who are in health are present in fortunate occasions, while they who are confined to their beds cannot be there." "It must therefore be granted," said Socrates, "that these things which are sometimes useful and sometimes hurtful are not rather good than bad."
But if you have a mind to such questions, Euthydemus will presently desire you to give an account of smallage and cummin; one of the which, if trodden down as it springs, will grow the better, and the other men curse and blaspheme whilst they sow it.
This, friends, is my praise of Socrates. I have added my blame of him for his ill-treatment of me; and he has ill-treated not only me, but Charmides the son of Glaucon, and Euthydemus the son of Diocles, and many others in the same way beginning as their lover he has ended by making them pay their addresses to him.
At any rate, whether Euthydemus had to meet the attack of Syria only, or of Syria and Parthia in combination, the result was, that Bactria, like Parthia, proved strong enough to maintain her ground, and that the Syrian King, after a while, grew tired of the struggle, and consented to terms of accommodation.
"This character, then," pursued Socrates, "must be given to those who are ignorant of the noble sciences, and who know not what is just nor what is honourable?" "I believe so." "We ought, therefore, Euthydemus, to do all we can to avoid falling into that ignominious ignorance that sinks us down so low."
"It is a very excellent thing," answered Euthydemus. "And who is a pious man?" said Socrates. "A man who serves the gods." "Is it lawful," added Socrates, "to serve the gods in what manner we please?" "By no means," said Euthydemus; "there are laws made for that purpose, which must be kept." "He, then, who keeps these laws will know how he ought to serve the gods?" "I think so."
After supper Euthydemus bringing the question into play again, Moschio the physician said, that putrefaction was a colliquation of the flesh, and that everything that putrefied grew moister than before, and that all heat, if gentle, did stir the humors, though not force them out, but if strong, dry the flesh; and that from these considerations an answer to the question might be easily deduced.
Upon this, Socrates asked him whether he had ever been at Delphi, and Euthydemus answered that he had been there twice. "Did you not take notice," said Socrates, "that somewhere on the front of the temple there is this inscription, 'KNOW THYSELF'?" "I remember," answered he, "I have read it there." "It is not enough," replied Socrates, "to have read it.
"What would you say, then, of a master who should hinder you from applying yourself to what is honest, and force you to undertake some infamous occupation?" "I would say he was a very wicked master," answered Euthydemus. "And which is the worst of all slaveries?" added Socrates. "To serve ill masters," said Euthydemus. "Therefore," inferred Socrates, "the debauched are in a miserable slavery."
Socrates perceiving that this man had an unnatural passion for Euthydemus, and that the violence of it would precipitate him so far a length as to make him transgress the bounds of nature, shocked at his behaviour, he exerted his utmost strength of reason and argument to dissuade him from so wild a desire.
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