[283c]
Hippias
Why, I never made anything at all.Socrates
That is a prodigious marvel that you tell, Hippias; and say now: is not your wisdom such as to make those who are in contact with it and learn it, better men in respect to virtue?Hippias
Yes, much better, Socrates.Socrates
But you were able to make the sons of the Inycenes better, and had no power to improve the sons of the Spartans?Hippias
That is far from true.Socrates
Well, then, the Siceliotes desire to become better, and the Lacedaemonians do not?
Why, I never made anything at all.Socrates
That is a prodigious marvel that you tell, Hippias; and say now: is not your wisdom such as to make those who are in contact with it and learn it, better men in respect to virtue?Hippias
Yes, much better, Socrates.Socrates
But you were able to make the sons of the Inycenes better, and had no power to improve the sons of the Spartans?Hippias
That is far from true.Socrates
Well, then, the Siceliotes desire to become better, and the Lacedaemonians do not?