[518b]
whether the passage
from the deeper dark of ignorance into a more luminous world and the greater
brightness had dazzled its vision.1
And so2 he would deem the one happy in its
experience and way of life and pity the other, and if it pleased him to laugh at
it, his laughter would be less laughable than that at the expense of the soul
that had come down from the light above.” “That is a very
fair statement,” he said.“Then, if this is true, our view of these matters must be this, that
education is not in reality what some people proclaim it to be in their
professions.3
1 Lit. “or whether coming from a deeper ignorance into a more luminous world, it is dazzled by the brilliance of a greater light.”
2 i.e. only after that. For οὕτω δή in this sense cf. 484 D, 429 D, 443 E, Charm. 171 E.
3 ἐπαγγελλόμενοι connotes the boastfulness of their claims. Cf. Protag. 319 A, Gorg. 447 c, Laches 186 C, Euthyd. 273 E, Isoc.Soph. 1, 5, 9, 10, Antid. 193, Xen.Mem. iii. 1. 1, i. 2. 8, Aristot.Rhet. 1402 a 25.
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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