[531d]
of all these studies goes far enough to
bring out their community and kinship1 with one another, and to infer their
affinities, then to busy ourselves with them contributes to our desired end, and
the labor taken is not lost; but otherwise it is vain.” “I
too so surmise,” said he; “but it is a huge task of which
you speak, Socrates.” “Are you talking about the
prelude,2” I said, “or what? Or do
we not know that all this is but the preamble of the law itself, the prelude of
the strain that we have to apprehend? For you surely do not suppose that experts
in these matters are reasoners
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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