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to turn his eyes downward upon the
petty affairs of men, and so engaging in strife with them to be filled with
envy and hate, but he fixes his gaze upon the things of the eternal and
unchanging order, and seeing that they neither wrong nor are wronged by one
another, but all abide in harmony as reason bids, he will endeavor to
imitate them and, as far as may be, to fashion himself in their likeness and
assimilate1 himself to them. Or do you think it
possible not to imitate the things to which anyone attaches himself with
admiration?” “Impossible,” he said.
“Then the lover of wisdom
1 ἀφομοιοῦσθαι suggests the ὁμοίωσις θέῳTheaet. 176 B. Cf. What Plato Said, p. 578.
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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