Soc.
Indeed I do. Now, Nicias, please go back to the beginning
1
and answer us:
198a
you know we started our discussion by considering courage as a part of virtue?
Nic.
Quite so.
Soc.
And you joined in this answer,—that it is a part, there being also other parts, which taken all together have received the name of virtue.
Nic.
Why, of course.
Soc.
Now, do you mean the same as I do by these? Besides courage, I refer to temperance, justice, and other similar qualities. And you also, do you not?
198b
Nic.
Certainly I do.
Soc.
So much for that; thus far we agree: but let us pass on to what is to be dreaded and what to be dared, and make sure that you and we do not take two different views of these. Let me tell you our view of them, and if you do not agree with it, you shall instruct us. We hold that the dreadful are things that cause fear, and the safely ventured are those that do not; and fear is caused not by past or present, but by expected evils: for fear is expectation of coming evil. You are of the same mind with us in this, are you not, Laches?
198c
Lach.
Yes, entirely so, Socrates.
Soc.
So there you have our view, Nicias,—that coming evils are to be dreaded, and things not evil, or good things, that are to come are to be safely dared. Would you describe them in this way, or in some other?
Nic.
I would describe them in this way.
Soc.
And the knowledge of these things is what you term courage?
Nic.
Precisely.
Soc.
There is still a third point on which we must see if you are in agreement with us.
198d
Nic.
What point is that?
Soc.
I will tell you. It seems to your friend and me that, to take the various subjects of knowledge, there is not one knowledge of how a thing has happened in the past, another of how things are happening in the present, and another of how a thing that has not yet happened might or will happen most favorably in the future, but it is the same knowledge throughout. For example, in the case of health, it is medicine always and alone that surveys present, past, and future processes alike;
198e
and farming is in the same position as regards the productions of the earth.
Laches. Plato. Walter Rangeley Maitland Lamb (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1924.
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