he does not know. But
this is contrary to analogy; there is no vision of vision, but only of
visible things; no love of loves, but only of beautiful things; how then
can there be a knowledge of knowledge? That which is older, heavier,
lighter, is older, heavier, and lighter than something else, not than
itself, and this seems to be true of all relative notions--the object of
relation is outside of them; at any rate they can only have relation to
themselves in the form of that object. Whether there are any such cases
of reflex relation or not, and whether that sort of knowledge which we
term Temperance is of this reflex nature, has yet to be determined by
the great metaphysician. But even if knowledge can know itself, how
does the knowledge of what we know imply the knowledge of what we do not
know? Besides, knowledge is an abstraction only, and will not inform us
of any particular subject, such as medicine, building, and the like. It
may tell us that we or other men know something, but can never tell us
what we know.

Admitting that there is a knowledge of what we know and of what we do
not know, which would supply a rule and measure of all things, still
there would be no good in this; and the knowledge which temperance gives
must be of a kind which will do us good; for temperance is a good. But
this universal knowledge does not tend to our happiness and good: the
only kind of knowledge which brings happiness is the knowledge of good
and evil. To this Critias replies that the science or knowledge of
good and evil, and all the other sciences, are regulated by the higher
science or knowledge of knowledge. Socrates replies by again dividing
the abstract from the concrete, and asks how this knowledge conduces to
happiness in the same definite way in which medicine conduces to health.

And now, after making all these concessions, which are really
inadmissible, we are still as far as ever from ascertaining the nature
of temperance, which Charmides has already discovered, and had therefore
better rest in the knowledge that the more temperate he is the happier
he will be, and not trouble himself with the speculations of Socrates.

In this Dialogue may be noted (1) The Greek ideal of beauty and
goodness, the vision of the fair soul in the fair body, realised in the
beautiful Charmides; (2) The true conception of medicine as a science
of the whole as well as the parts, and of the mind as well as the body,
which is playfully int