[426a]
“By all means.” And truly,” said I,
“these latter go on in a most charming1
fashion. For with all their doctoring they accomplish nothing except to
complicate and augment their maladies. And2 they are always
hoping that some one will recommend a panacea that will restore their
health.” “A perfect description,” he said,
“of the state of such invalids.” “And isn't
this a charming trait in them, that they hate most in all the world him who
tells them the truth that until a man stops drinking and gorging and
wenching
1 Ironical. Quite fanciful is Dümmler's supposition (Kleine Schriften, i, p. 99) that this passage was meant as destructive criticism of Isocrates Panegyricus and that Antidosis 62 is a reply. Plato is obviously thinking of practical politicians rather than of Isocrates.
2 πλήν γε etc., is loosely elliptical, but emendations are superfluous.
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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