[527e]
by such studies when it has been destroyed and
blinded by our ordinary pursuits, a faculty whose preservation outweighs ten
thousand eyes1; for by it only is reality beheld. Those who share this
faith will think your words superlatively2 true. But those who have and have had
no inkling of it will naturally think them all moonshine.3 For they can see no
other benefit from such pursuits worth mentioning. Decide, then, on the spot, to
which party you address yourself.
1 Another instance of Plato's “unction.” Cf. Tim. 47 A-B, Eurip.Orest. 806μυρίων κρείσσων, and Stallbaum ad loc. for imitations of this passage in antiquity.
2 For ἀμηχάνως ὡς Cf. Charm. 155 Dἀμήχανόν τι οἷον. Cf. 588 A, Phaedo 80 C, 95 C, Laws 782 A, also Rep. 331 Aθαυμάστος ὡς, Hipp. Maj. 282 C, Epin. 982 C-E, Aristoph.Birds 427, Lysist. 198, 1148.
3 This is the thought more technically expressed in the “earlier” work, Crito 49 D. Despite his faith in dialectics Plato recognizes that the primary assumptions on which argument necessarily proceeds are irreducible choices of personality. Cf. What Plato Said, p. 478, Class. Phil. ix. (1914) p. 352.
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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