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Consider the Beautiful: can we define it in any other way? Or is it possible to name a beautiful body, for instance, or vessel, or anything else that you know to be beautiful for all purposes?
Of course not.
Then does the beauty in using anything consist in using it for just that purpose for which that particular thing is useful?
Certainly.
And is a thing beautiful for any other purpose than that for which it is beautiful to use that particular thing?
For no other purpose whatever.
The useful, then, is beautiful for any purpose for which it is useful?
I think so.
Next comes Courage, Euthydemus.
Consider the Beautiful: can we define it in any other way? Or is it possible to name a beautiful body, for instance, or vessel, or anything else that you know to be beautiful for all purposes?
Of course not.
Then does the beauty in using anything consist in using it for just that purpose for which that particular thing is useful?
Certainly.
And is a thing beautiful for any other purpose than that for which it is beautiful to use that particular thing?
For no other purpose whatever.
The useful, then, is beautiful for any purpose for which it is useful?
I think so.
Next comes Courage, Euthydemus.
Memorabilia. Xenophon. Edgar Carew Marchant (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1923.
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Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.