[499e]
said I, “do not thus absolutely
condemn the multitude.1 They will surely be of
another mind if in no spirit of contention but soothingly and endeavoring to
do away with the dispraise of learning you point out to them whom you mean
by philosophers, and define as we recently did their nature
1 It is uncritical to find “contradictions” in variations of mood, emphasis, and expression that are broadly human and that no writer can avoid. Any thinker may at one moment and for one purpose defy popular opinion and for another conciliate it; at one time affirm that it doesn't matter what the ignorant people think or say, and at another urge that prudence bids us be discreet. So St. Paul who says (Gal. i. 10) “Do I seek to please men? for if I yet please men I should not be the servant of Christ,” says also (Rom xiv. 16) “Let no then your good be evil spoken of.” Cf. also What Plato Said, p. 646 on Laws 950 B.
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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