[374d]
takes in hand a shield or any other
instrument of war springs up on that very day a competent combatant in heavy
armor or in any other form of warfare—though no other tool will
make a man be an artist or an athlete by his taking it in hand, nor will it
be of any service to those who have neither acquired the science1 of it nor sufficiently practised
themselves in its use?” “Great indeed,” he
said, “would be the value of tools in that case.2““Then,” said I, “in the same degree that the
task of our guardians3 is the greatest of all,
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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