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[20]
Do you think there is a doctrine and science of the just, as there is of letters?
Yes.
Which, in your judgment, is the more literate, the man who intentionally blunders in writing and reading, or the man who blunders unintentionally?
The one who blunders intentionally, I presume; for he can always be accurate when he chooses.
May we not say, then, that the intentional blunderer is literate and the unintentional is illiterate?
Indeed we must.
And which knows what is just, the intentional liar and deceiver, or the unintentional?
The intentional, clearly.
You say, then, as I understand, that he who knows letters is more literate than he who is ignorant of them?
Yes
And he who knows what is just is more just than he who does not know?
Apparently; but here again I don’t feel sure of my own meaning.
Do you think there is a doctrine and science of the just, as there is of letters?
Yes.
Which, in your judgment, is the more literate, the man who intentionally blunders in writing and reading, or the man who blunders unintentionally?
The one who blunders intentionally, I presume; for he can always be accurate when he chooses.
May we not say, then, that the intentional blunderer is literate and the unintentional is illiterate?
Indeed we must.
And which knows what is just, the intentional liar and deceiver, or the unintentional?
The intentional, clearly.
You say, then, as I understand, that he who knows letters is more literate than he who is ignorant of them?
Yes
And he who knows what is just is more just than he who does not know?
Apparently; but here again I don’t feel sure of my own meaning.
Memorabilia. Xenophon. Edgar Carew Marchant (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1923.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.