[606b]
inasmuch as this is contemplating the woes of others and
it is no shame to it to praise and pity another who, claiming to be a good
man, abandons himself to excess in his grief; but it thinks this vicarious
pleasure is so much clear gain,1 and would not
consent to forfeit it by disdaining the poem altogether. That is, I think,
because few are capable of reflecting that what we enjoy in others will
inevitably react upon ourselves.2 For
after feeding fat3 the
emotion of pity there, it is not easy to restrain it in our own
sufferings.”
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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