[10]
But Socrates, aware that he was pleased with his approbation, went on to say: “Tell me, Euthydemus, what kind of goodness do you want to get by collecting these books?”And as Euthydemus was silent, considering what answer to give, “Possibly you want to be a doctor?” he guessed: “Medical treatises alone make a large collection.”“Oh no, not at all.”“But perhaps you wish to be an architect? One needs a well-stored mind for that too.”“No, indeed I don't.”“Well, perhaps you want to be a good mathematician, like Theodorus?”1“No, not that either.”“Well, perhaps you want to be an astronomer?” And as he again said no, “Perhaps a rhapsodist, then? They tell me you have a complete copy of Homer.”“Oh no, not at all; for your rhapsodists, I know, are consummate as reciters, but they are very silly fellows themselves.”Then Socrates exclaimed:
1 Theodorus of Cyrene, who is one of the characters in the Theaetetus of Plato.
Xenophon. Xenophon in Seven Volumes, 4. E. C. Marchant. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA; William Heinemann, Ltd., London. 1923.
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