[536c]
“I
forgot,” said I, “that we were jesting,1 and I spoke with
too great intensity.2 For, while speaking, I turned
my eyes upon philosophy,3 and when I saw how she is undeservedly
reviled, I was revolted, and, as if in anger, spoke too earnestly to those who
are in fault.” “No, by Zeus, not too earnestly for me4 as a hearer.” “But
too much so for me as a speaker,” I said. “But this we must
not forget, that in our former selection we chose old men, but in this one that
will not do. For we must not take Solon's5 word for it
1 Jest and earnest are never far apart in Plato. Fabling about justice is an old man's game, Laws 685 A, 769 A. Life itself is best treated as play, Laws 803 C. Science in Tim. 59 D is παιδιά, like literature in the Phaedrus 276 D-E, ibid. 278 B. Cf. Friedländer, Platon, i. pp. 38 and 160, and What Plato Said, pp. 553 and 601.
2 For similar self-checks Cf. Laws 804 B, 832 B, 907 B-C, Phaedr. 260 D, 279 B. For ἐντεινάμενος cf. Blaydes on Aristoph.Clouds 969.
3 Cf. Isoc.Busiris 49. Whatever the difficulties of the chronology it is hard to believe that this is not one of Isocrates' many endeavors to imitate Platonic effects.
4 Cf. Soph. 226 C, Sophocles, Ajax 397.
5 γηράσκω δ᾽ ἀεὶ πολλὰ διδασκόμενος, “I grow old ever learning many things.” Cf. Laches 188 A-B; Otto, p. 317.
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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