irmed that they were two natures, and declared that
knowledge was more akin to the good than pleasure. I said that the two
together were more eligible than either taken singly; and to this we
adhere. Reason intimates, as at first, that we should seek the good not
in the unmixed life, but in the mixed.

The cup is ready, waiting to be mingled, and here are two fountains,
one of honey, the other of pure water, out of which to make the fairest
possible mixture. There are pure and impure pleasures--pure and impure
sciences. Let us consider the sections of each which have the most of
purity and truth; to admit them all indiscriminately would be
dangerous. First we will take the pure sciences; but shall we mingle the
impure--the art which uses the false rule and the false measure? That
we must, if we are any of us to find our way home; man cannot live upon
pure mathematics alone. And must I include music, which is admitted to
be guess-work? 'Yes, you must, if human life is to have any humanity.'
Well, then, I will open the door and let them all in; they shall mingle
in an Homeric 'meeting of the waters.' And now we turn to the pleasures;
shall I admit them? 'Admit first of all the pure pleasures; secondly,
the necessary.' And what shall we say about the rest? First, ask the
pleasures--they will be too happy to dwell with wisdom. Secondly, ask
the arts and sciences--they reply that the excesses of intemperance are
the ruin of them; and that they would rather only have the pleasures of
health and temperance, which are the handmaidens of virtue. But still we
want truth? That is now added; and so the argument is complete, and may
be compared to an incorporeal law, which is to hold fair rule over a
living body. And now we are at the vestibule of the good, in which there
are three chief elements--truth, symmetry, and beauty. These will be the
criterion of the comparative claims of pleasure and wisdom.

Which has the greater share of truth? Surely wisdom; for pleasure is the
veriest impostor in the world, and the perjuries of lovers have passed
into a proverb.

Which of symmetry? Wisdom again; for nothing is more immoderate than
pleasure.

Which of beauty? Once more, wisdom; for pleasure is often unseemly, and
the greatest pleasures are put out of sight.

Not pleasure, then, ranks first in the scale of good, but measure, and
eternal harmony.

Second comes the symmetrical and beautiful and perfect.

Third, mind and wisdom.