hird kind--the class of people who are persuaded that
they have received the best education, and are proud of their wisdom:
his manner of dealing with these I will now describe.

Euthydemus (1) "the beautiful" had (Socrates was given to understand)
collected a large library, consisting of the most celebrated poets and
philosophers, (2) by help of which he already believed himself to be
more than a match for his fellows in wisdom, and indeed might presently
expect to out-top them all in capacity of speech and action. (3) At
first, as Socrates noted, the young man by reason of his youth had not
as yet set foot in the agora, (4) but if he had anything to transact,
his habit was to seat himself in a saddler's shop hard by. Accordingly
to this same saddler's shop Socrates betook himself with some of those
who were with him. And first the question was started by some one: "Was
it through consorting with the wise, (5) or by his own unaided talent,
that Themistocles came so to surpass his fellow-citizens that when the
services of a capable man were needed the eyes of the whole community
instinctively turned to him?" Socrates, with a view to stirring (6)
Euthydemus, answered: There was certainly an ingenuous simplicity in the
belief that superiority in arts of comparatively little worth could only
be attained by aid of qualified teachers, but that the leadership of the
state, the most important concern of all, was destined to drop into the
lap of anybody, no matter whom, like an accidental windfall. (7)

(1) Euthydemus, the son of Diocles perhaps. See Plat. "Symp." 222 B,
and Jowet ad loc.; Cobet, "Prosop. Xen." s.n.; K. Joel, op. cit.
p. 372 foll. For {ton kalon} cf. "Phaedr." 278 E, "Isocrates the
fair." For the whole chapter cf. Plat. "Alc." i.; "Lys." 210 E.
See above, "Mem." I. ii. 29; Grote, "Plato," i. ch. x. passim.

(2) Lit. "sophists." See Grote, "H. G." viii. p. 480, note. For
private libraries see Becker, "Char." p. 272 foll. (Eng. tr.)

(3) See "Hipparch," i. 24; "Cyrop." V. v. 46.

(4) See above, III. vi. 1; Schneid. cf. Isocr. "Areop." 149 C.

(5) Cf. Soph. fr. 12, {sophoi turannoi ton sophon xunousia}.

(6) L. and S. cf. Plat. "Lys." 223 A; "Rep." 329 B: "Wishing to draw
him out."

(7) Cf. Plat. "Alc." i. 118 C: "And Pericles is said not to have got
his wisdom by the light of nature, but to have associated with
several of the philosophers" (Jowett).

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