[608c]
“And
yet,” said I, “the greatest rewards of virtue and the
prizes proposed for her we have not set forth.” “You
must have in mind an inconceivable1 magnitude,” he replied, “if there are
other things greater than those of which we have spoken.2? For surely the whole time from the
boy to the old man would be small compared with all time.3” “Nay, it is nothing,” he said.
“What then? Do you think that an immortal thing4 ought to be seriously concerned for such a
little time,
1 Cf. 404 C, 509 A, 548 B, 588 a, Apol. 41 C, Charm. 155 D.
2 Clement, Strom. iv. p. 496 Bὁθούνεκ᾽ ἀρετὴ τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις μόνη οὐκ ἐκ θυραίων τἀπίχειρα λαμβάνει, αὐτὴ δ᾽ ἑαυτὴν ἆθλα τῶν πόνων ἔχει.
3 Cf. on 496 A, p. 9, mote f and 498 D.
4 For the colorless use of πρᾶγμα see What Plato Said, p. 497, on Protag. 330 C-D. Cf. Shakes.Hamlet,I. iv. 67 “being a thing immortal as itself.”
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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