(Strange that we should be so precise about trifles, so careless about the highest truths!) 'And what are the highest ?' You to pretend unconsciousness, when you have so often heard me speak of the idea of good, about which we know so little, and without which though a man gain the world he has no profit of it! Some people imagine that the good is wisdom; but this involves a circle,--the good, they say, is wisdom, wisdom has to do with the good.

According to others the good is pleasure; but then comes the absurdity that good is bad, for there are bad pleasures as well as good.

Again, the good must have reality; a man may desire the appearance of virtue, but he will not desire the appearance of good.

Ought our guardians then to be ignorant of this supreme principle, of which every man has a presentiment, and without which no man has any real knowledge of anything?
'But, Socrates, what is this supreme principle, knowledge or pleasure, or what?
You may think me troublesome, but I say that you have no business to be always repeating the doctrines of others instead of giving us your own.' Can I say what I do not know?
'You may offer an opinion.' And will the blindness and crookedness of opinion content you when you might have the light and certainty of science?
'I will only ask you to give such an explanation of the good as you have given already of temperance and justice.' I wish that I could, but in my present mood I cannot reach to the height of the knowledge of the good.

To the parent or principal I cannot introduce you, but to the child begotten in his image, which I may compare with the interest on the principal, I will.