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astronomy , and the other arts , the very things which they had previously fled from . I teach them what they come to learn , viz ., how they may best manage their own families , and how best to speak and act in the affairs of the state . —You teach politics then , and profess to make men good citizens—I do so . —You possess an admirable art , if you do indeed possess it , which I know not how to disbelieve . But
hitherto I had imagined that what you profess to teach is not capable of being taught , or delivered from men to men . For the Athenians , who are a wise people , if in their assembly they are deliberating on ship-building , send for the ship-builders to advise them , and will hear nobody else ; if about building a house , they will listen to nobody but architects ; and if any one else , however noble or rich , attempt to speak , they scoff and drive him away . But when the discussion is upon
anything which concerns the general management of the state , they listen to persons of all ranks and professions without distinction , and never think of reproaching any man for presuming to advise on the subject when he has never studied' it , or learned it of a master . It is evident , therefore , that they do not think it capable of being taught ; and the
best and wisest citizen , as Pericles for example , though he teaches his sons excellently whatever a master can teach , cannot succeed in teaching them the wisdom and virtue in which he himself excels ; in this they are no better than ordinary individuals . For these reasons , says Socrates , I have hitherto doubted that virtue can be taught ; but if Protagoras , can prove the possibility , I beseech him to do so .
Protagoras consents , and asks whether he shall teach by a jjlvOo ? , ( which I am inclined to translate a legend , ) like an old man instructing the young * , or by a discourse ( Xo ' yo ? . ) They give him his choice , and he prefers to tell them a story . If , as this circumstance would indicate , it was a frequent mode with the Sophists to deliver their doctrines in this way , it would account for the fxvdoi which are scattered through the writings of Plato , and which , appearing to be related half in jest , half in earnest , it is not very easy otherwise to explain .
The story is , that when the gods made men and animals , they gave it in charge to Prometheus and Epimetheus to endow them ; that Epimetheus solicited the task from his brother , and having obtained it , proceeded to distribute the endowments of strength , swiftness , &c , among the various animals , on the principle of compensation ; but when he had exhausted all the endowments which he had to give , he found that man was left unprovided for . Prometheus , to remedy this blunder , stole rfiy
ivrtyyov tro < j ) £ av ( scientific wisdom ) from heaven , and with it fire , without which it was of no use , and bestowed these upon man . On this account was it that man , being akin to the gods , alone of all animals acknowledged their existence ; and , by means of art , acquired the faculty of speech , made to himself clothes and houses , and procured food . But as there were no towns , and no human society , for want of the art of
Polity , the human race were in danger of being extirpated by wild beasts ; when Jupiter , in compassion , sent Mercury from heaven to make a present to mankind of Shame and Justice , in order that there might be mutual bonds among men , and that society might be possible . Mercury asked whether he should confer these gifts upon all mankind , or whether , like Medicine and the other arts , they should be given to a few only , for the
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96 Plato ' s Dialogues ; the Protagoras .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1834, page 96, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2630/page/8/
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