s to
opinion which is devoid of intelligence. In such a case should we not
be right if we said that the state would be full of anarchy and
lawlessness?

ALCIBIADES: Decidedly.

SOCRATES: But ought we not then, think you, either to fancy that we know
or really to know, what we confidently propose to do or say?

ALCIBIADES: Yes.

SOCRATES: And if a person does that which he knows or supposes that he
knows, and the result is beneficial, he will act advantageously both for
himself and for the state?

ALCIBIADES: True.

SOCRATES: And if he do the contrary, both he and the state will suffer?

ALCIBIADES: Yes.

SOCRATES: Well, and are you of the same mind, as before?

ALCIBIADES: I am.

SOCRATES: But were you not saying that you would call the many unwise
and the few wise?

ALCIBIADES: I was.

SOCRATES: And have we not come back to our old assertion that the many
fail to obtain the best because they trust to opinion which is devoid of
intelligence?

ALCIBIADES: That is the case.

SOCRATES: It is good, then, for the many, if they particularly desire to
do that which they know or suppose that they know, neither to know nor
to suppose that they know, in cases where if they carry out their ideas
in action they will be losers rather than gainers?

ALCIBIADES: What you say is very true.

SOCRATES: Do you not see that I was really speaking the truth when I
affirmed that the possession of any other kind of knowledge was more
likely to injure than to benefit the possessor, unless he had also the
knowledge of the best?

ALCIBIADES: I do now, if I did not before, Socrates.

SOCRATES: The state or the soul, therefore, which wishes to have a
right existence must hold firmly to this knowledge, just as the sick
man clings to the physician, or the passenger depends for safety on the
pilot. And if the soul does not set sail until she have obtained this
she will be all the safer in the voyage through life. But when she
rushes in pursuit of wealth or bodily strength or anything else, not
having the knowledge of the best, so much the more is she likely to
meet with misfortune. And he who has the love of learning (Or, reading
polumatheian, 'abundant learning.'), and is skilful in many arts, and
does not possess the knowledge of the best, but is under some other
guidance, will make, as he deserves, a sorry voyage:--he will, I
believe, hurry through the brief space of human life, pilotless in
mid-ocean, and the words will a