[526b]
indispensable for us, since it plainly compels the soul to employ pure thought
with a view to truth itself.” “It most emphatically
does.” “Again, have you ever noticed this, that natural
reckoners are by nature quick in virtually all their studies? And the slow, if
they are trained and drilled in this, even if no other benefit results, all
improve and become quicker than they were1?” “It is
so,” he said.
1 Cf. Isoc.Antid. 267αὐτοὶ δ᾽ αὑτῶν εὐμαθέστεροι. For the idiom αὐτοὶ αὑτῶν cf. also 411 C. 421 D, 571 D, Prot. 350 A and D, Laws 671 B, Parmen. 141 A, Laches 182 C. “Educators” have actually cited him as authority for the opposite view. On the effect of Mathematical studies cf. also Laws 747 B, 809 C-D, 810 C, Isoc.Antid. 276. Cf. Max Tyr. 37 7ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν εἴη ἄν τι ἐν γεωμετρίᾳ τὸ φαυλότατον. Mill on Hamilton ii. 311 “If the Practice of mathematical reasoning gives nothing else it gives wariness of mind.” Ibid. 312.
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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