with questions; if he really has the science, and is
not lost to all sense of shame, he will blush to have taken your money
and then to have sent you away empty.

II

At another time he fell in with a man who had been chosen general and
minister of war, and thus accosted him.

Soc. Why did Homer, think you, designate Agamemnon "shepherd of the
peoples"? (1) Was it possibly to show that, even as a shepherd must care
for his sheep and see that they are safe and have all things needful,
and that the objects of their rearing be secured, so also must a general
take care that his soldiers are safe and have their supplies, and attain
the objects of their soldiering? Which last is that they may get the
mastery of their enemies, and so add to their own good fortune and
happiness; or tell me, what made him praise Agamemnon, saying--

He is both a good king and a warrior bold? (2)

Did he mean, perhaps, to imply that he would be a 'warrior bold,' not
merely in standing alone and bravely battling against the foe, but as
inspiring the whole of his host with like prowess; and by a 'good king,'
not merely one who should stand forth gallantly to protect his own life,
but who should be the source of happiness to all over whom he reigns?
Since a man is not chosen king in order to take heed to himself, albeit
nobly, but that those who chose him may attain to happiness through him.
And why do men go soldiering except to ameliorate existence? (3) and to
this end they choose their generals that they may find in them guides to
the goal in question. He, then, who undertakes that office is bound to
procure for those who choose him the thing they seek for. And indeed it
were not easy to find any nobler ambition than this, or aught ignobler
than its opposite.

(1) "Il." ii. 243. "The People's Paster," Chapman.

(2) "Il." iii. 179; cf. "Symp." iv. 6. A favourite line of Alexander
the Great's, it is said.

(3) Of, "that life may reach some flower of happiness."

After such sort he handled the question, what is the virtue of a good
leader? and by shredding off all superficial qualities, laid bare as
the kernel of the matter that it is the function of every leader to make
those happy whom he may be called upon to lead. (4)

(4) Cf. Plat. "Rep." 342.

III

The following conversation with a youth who had just been elected
hipparch (1) (or commandant of cavalry), I can also vouch for. (2)

(1) Cf. "Hipparch."

(2) Lit