te all
this, you make your statues approach very near the life." "You say
true," said Clito. "Is it not true likewise," replied Socrates, "that it
is a great satisfaction to beholders to see all the passions of a man who
is in action well expressed? Thus, in the statue of a gladiator who is
fighting, you must imitate the sternness of look with which he threatens
his enemy; on the contrary, you must give him, when victor, a look of
gaiety and content." "There is no doubt of what you say." "We may then
conclude," said Socrates, "that it is the part of an excellent statuary
to express the various affections and passions of the soul, by
representing such-and-such motions and postures of the body as are
commonly exerted in real life whenever the mind is so-and-so affected."

Another time, Socrates being in the shop of Pistias the armourer, who
showed him some corselets that were very well made: "I admire," said
Socrates to him, "the invention of these arms that cover the body in the
places where it has most need of being defended, and nevertheless are no
hindrance to the motions of the hands and arms; but tell me why you sell
the suits of armour you make dearer than the other workmen of the city,
since they are not stronger nor of better-tempered or more valuable
metal?" "I sell them dearer than others," answered Pistias, "because
they are better made than theirs." "In what does this make consist?"
said Socrates, "in the weight, or in the largeness of the arms? And yet
you make them not all of the same weight nor of the same size, but to fit
every man." "They must be fit," said Pistias, "otherwise they would be
of no use." "But do you not know," replied Socrates, "that some bodies
are well-shaped and others not?" "I know it well." "How, then,"
continued Socrates, "can you make a well-shaped suit of armour for an ill-
shaped body?" "It will be sufficient if they are fit for him," answered
Pistias; "for what is fit is well made." "You are of opinion, then,"
added Socrates, "that one cannot judge whether a thing be well made,
considering it merely in itself, but in regard to the person who is to
use it; as if you said that a buckler is well made for him whom it fits,
and in like manner of a suit of clothes and any other thing whatsoever.
But I think there is another convenience in having a suit of armour well
made." "What do you take that to be?" said Pistias. "I think," answered
Socrates, "a suit of armour that