me to lose my virtue to you the other day.

Socrates: Meno, my friend, it is my opinion, and I hope it will
soon be yours, that your virtue was increased the other day,
rather than decreased.

Meno: I fail to see how, when I was humiliated by seeing
this young boy, of modest education, arrive in minutes at the
highest mystic levels of the magic of the Pythagoreans.
Most of all when I wagered as many dinners as you could eat
at my house that this could not be the case.

Socrates: First, friend Meno, let me assure you that I will
promise never to eat you out of house and home, not that I could
if I tried, for my tastes are simple and your wallet is large.
Nevertheless, Meno, my friend, I would hasten to add that I will
promise, if you like, not to ever come to your table uninvited.

As a second reason you and your virtue should feel better after
the events of the other day, because you were in error before,
but are less in error now. And the path to virtue, at least one
aspect of the path to virtue, is in finding and correcting error.

Meno: Socrates, you know you are always welcome at my table,
except when I am suffering from my ulcer, which you aggravate
greatly, or at times when I am entertaining the highest nobles
of the land, and you would appear out of place in your clothing.
(Socrates was known for his simple attire, and for wearing his
garments over and over till they wore out. However, the only
surviving example of his writing is a laundry list, so we know he
kept his clothes clean and somewhat presentable, though simple)

Socrates: I would hope you would have me over because I was
a good influence on your development, than for any other reason.
I notice you did not respond to my claim to have increased
your virtue, through the exorcism of your error.

Meno: Well Socrates, you know that it is not always the
easiest thing to give up one's ways, even though one has found
them to be in error. Therefore, please forgive me if I am not
sounding as grateful as you would like for your lessons.

Socrates: The easier one finds it to give up the ways of error,
the easier it is to replace the error with that which we hope
is not in error. Is this not the way to virtue?

Meno: Yes, Socrates, and you know the path is hard,
and that we often stumble and fall.

Socrates: Yes, but is it not true that we stumble and fall
over the obstacles which we make for ourselves to trip over?

Meno: Certainly that