156a
Then I will take down the charm, said he, from you in writing.
Do you prefer, I asked, to get my consent first, or to do without it?
This made him laugh, and he said: To get your consent, Socrates.
Very well, I said; and are you certain of my name?
Unless I misjudge, he replied; for there is no little talk of you. among the set of our age, and I remember as a mere child the sight of you in company with Critias here.
That is a good thing, I said: for I shall speak more freely to you 156b about the charm, and its real nature; just now I was at a loss for the way to apprise you of its power. For it is of such a nature, Charmides, that it cannot cure the head alone; I daresay you have yourself sometimes heard good doctors say, you know, when a patient comes to them with a pain in his eyes, that it is not possible for them to attempt a cure of his eyes alone, but that it is necessary to treat his head too at the same time, 156c if he is to have his eyes in good order; and so again, that to expect ever to treat the head by itself, apart from the body as a whole, is utter folly. And on this principle they apply their regimen to the whole body, and attempt to treat and heal the part along with the whole; or have you not observed that this is what they say, and is done in fact?
Certainly I have, he said.
And you consider it well said, and accept the principle?
Most assuredly, he said. 156d Then I, on hearing his approval, regained my courage; and little by little I began to muster up my confidence again, and my spirit began to rekindle. So I said,—Such, then, Charmides, is the nature of this charm. I learnt it on campaign over there, from one of the Thracian physicians of Zalmoxis, 1 who are said even to make one immortal. This Thracian said that the Greeks were right in advising as I told you just now: but Zalmoxis, he said, 156e our king, who is a god, says that as you ought not to attempt to cure eyes without head, or head without body, so you should not treat body without soul; and this was the reason why most maladies evaded the physicians of Greece—that they neglected the whole, on which they ought to spend their pains, for if this were out of order it was impossible for the part to be in order.
Then I will take down the charm, said he, from you in writing.
Do you prefer, I asked, to get my consent first, or to do without it?
This made him laugh, and he said: To get your consent, Socrates.
Very well, I said; and are you certain of my name?
Unless I misjudge, he replied; for there is no little talk of you. among the set of our age, and I remember as a mere child the sight of you in company with Critias here.
That is a good thing, I said: for I shall speak more freely to you 156b about the charm, and its real nature; just now I was at a loss for the way to apprise you of its power. For it is of such a nature, Charmides, that it cannot cure the head alone; I daresay you have yourself sometimes heard good doctors say, you know, when a patient comes to them with a pain in his eyes, that it is not possible for them to attempt a cure of his eyes alone, but that it is necessary to treat his head too at the same time, 156c if he is to have his eyes in good order; and so again, that to expect ever to treat the head by itself, apart from the body as a whole, is utter folly. And on this principle they apply their regimen to the whole body, and attempt to treat and heal the part along with the whole; or have you not observed that this is what they say, and is done in fact?
Certainly I have, he said.
And you consider it well said, and accept the principle?
Most assuredly, he said. 156d Then I, on hearing his approval, regained my courage; and little by little I began to muster up my confidence again, and my spirit began to rekindle. So I said,—Such, then, Charmides, is the nature of this charm. I learnt it on campaign over there, from one of the Thracian physicians of Zalmoxis, 1 who are said even to make one immortal. This Thracian said that the Greeks were right in advising as I told you just now: but Zalmoxis, he said, 156e our king, who is a god, says that as you ought not to attempt to cure eyes without head, or head without body, so you should not treat body without soul; and this was the reason why most maladies evaded the physicians of Greece—that they neglected the whole, on which they ought to spend their pains, for if this were out of order it was impossible for the part to be in order.
Charmides. Plato. Walter Rangeley Maitland Lamb (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1927.
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