d grace which is
wanting in the later ones. (v) Their resemblance to one another; in all
the three boyhood has a great part. These reasons have various degrees
of weight in determining their place in the catalogue of the Platonic
writings, though they are not conclusive. No arrangement of the Platonic
dialogues can be strictly chronological. The order which has been
adopted is intended mainly for the convenience of the reader; at the
same time, indications of the date supplied either by Plato himself or
allusions found in the dialogues have not been lost sight of. Much may
be said about this subject, but the results can only be probable;
there are no materials which would enable us to attain to anything like
certainty.

The relations of knowledge and virtue are again brought forward in the
companion dialogues of the Lysis and Laches; and also in the Protagoras
and Euthydemus. The opposition of abstract and particular knowledge in
this dialogue may be compared with a similar opposition of ideas and
phenomena which occurs in the Prologues to the Parmenides, but seems
rather to belong to a later stage of the philosophy of Plato.

CHARMIDES, OR TEMPERANCE

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Socrates, who is the narrator, Charmides,
Chaerephon, Critias.

SCENE: The Palaestra of Taureas, which is near the Porch of the King
Archon.

Yesterday evening I returned from the army at Potidaea, and having been
a good while away, I thought that I should like to go and look at my old
haunts. So I went into the palaestra of Taureas, which is over against
the temple adjoining the porch of the King Archon, and there I found
a number of persons, most of whom I knew, but not all. My visit was
unexpected, and no sooner did they see me entering than they saluted me
from afar on all sides; and Chaerephon, who is a kind of madman, started
up and ran to me, seizing my hand, and saying, How did you escape,
Socrates?--(I should explain that an engagement had taken place at
Potidaea not long before we came away, of which the news had only just
reached Athens.)

You see, I replied, that here I am.

There was a report, he said, that the engagement was very severe, and
that many of our acquaintance had fallen.

That, I replied, was not far from the truth.

I suppose, he said, that you were present.

I was.

Then sit down, and tell us the whole story, which as yet we have only
heard imperfectly.

I took the place which he assigned to m