LYSIMACHUS:That is very high praise which is accorded to you,Socrates,by faithful witnesses and for actions like those which they praise.Let me tell you the pleasure which I feel in hearing of your fame;and I hope that you will regard me as one of your warmest friends.You ought to have visited us long ago,and made yourself at home with us;but now,from this day forward,as we have at last found one another out,do as I say--come and make acquaintance with me,and with these young men,that I may continue your friend,as I was your father's.I shall expect you to do so,and shall venture at some future time to remind you of your duty.But what say you of the matter of which we were beginning to speak--the art of fighting in armour?Is that a practice in which the lads may be advantageously instructed?
SOCRATES:I will endeavour to advise you,Lysimachus,as far as I can in this matter,and also in every way will comply with your wishes;but as Iam younger and not so experienced,I think that I ought certainly to hear first what my elders have to say,and to learn of them,and if I have anything to add,then I may venture to give my opinion to them as well as to you.Suppose,Nicias,that one or other of you begin.
NICIAS:I have no objection,Socrates;and my opinion is that the acquirement of this art is in many ways useful to young men.It is an advantage to them that among the favourite amusements of their leisure hours they should have one which tends to improve and not to injure their bodily health.No gymnastics could be better or harder exercise;and this,and the art of riding,are of all arts most befitting to a freeman;for they only who are thus trained in the use of arms are the athletes of our military profession,trained in that on which the conflict turns.Moreover in actual battle,when you have to fight in a line with a number of others,such an acquirement will be of some use,and will be of the greatest whenever the ranks are broken and you have to fight singly,either in pursuit,when you are attacking some one who is defending himself,or in flight,when you have to defend yourself against an assailant.Certainly he who possessed the art could not meet with any harm at the hands of a single person,or perhaps of several;and in any case he would have a great advantage.Further,this sort of skill inclines a man to the love of other noble lessons;for every man who has learned how to fight in armour will desire to learn the proper arrangement of an army,which is the sequel of the lesson:and when he has learned this,and his ambition is once fired,he will go on to learn the complete art of the general.There is no difficulty in seeing that the knowledge and practice of other military arts will be honourable and valuable to a man;and this lesson may be the beginning of them.Let me add a further advantage,which is by no means a slight one,--that this science will make any man a great deal more valiant and self-possessed in the field.And I will not disdain to mention,what by some may be thought to be a small matter;--he will make a better appearance at the right time;that is to say,at the time when his appearance will strike terror into his enemies.My opinion then,Lysimachus,is,as I say,that the youths should be instructed in this art,and for the reasons which I have given.But Laches may take a different view;and I shall be very glad to hear what he has to say.
LACHES:I should not like to maintain,Nicias,that any kind of knowledge is not to be learned;for all knowledge appears to be a good:and if,as Nicias and as the teachers of the art affirm,this use of arms is really a species of knowledge,then it ought to be learned;but if not,and if those who profess to teach it are deceivers only;or if it be knowledge,but not of a valuable sort,then what is the use of learning it?I say this,because I think that if it had been really valuable,the Lacedaemonians,whose whole life is passed in finding out and practising the arts which give them an advantage over other nations in war,would have discovered this one.And even if they had not,still these professors of the art would certainly not have failed to discover that of all the Hellenes the Lacedaemonians have the greatest interest in such matters,and that a master of the art who was honoured among them would be sure to make his fortune among other nations,just as a tragic poet would who is honoured among ourselves;which is the reason why he who fancies that he can write a tragedy does not go about itinerating in the neighbouring states,but rushes hither straight,and exhibits at Athens;and this is natural.