2 Living Teachers
Phil. But pray tell me, who are those living people from whom this wisdom and soundness of mind can be learned?
Soph. If you were about to undertake any journey, from whom would you earnestly inquire the road? Would it be from those who had never seen the road, or from those who had at some time accomplished the journey?
Phil. From those, forsooth, who had travelled on that journey!
Soph. Is not this life even as a journey, and is it not a perpetual starting out?
Phil. So it seems.
Soph. Who, therefore, have performed this journey the most thoroughly? Old men or youths?
Phil. Old men.
Soph. Old men, then, should be consulted.
Phil. All indifferently?
Soph. That is an acute question; not all promiscuously. But in the same manner as it is with the journey, so it is with life. Do those know the way of life, who have gone along it without reflecting on it, busying themselves with something else, their minds wandering no less than their body; or those who have noted things diligently and attended to them, one by one, and committed what they have observed to their memory?
Phil. To be sure it is the latter.
Soph. Therefore, in taking counsel concerning the method of leading our life, it is not young men to whom we should listen, for they have not been over the journey, much less youths, and, what is most foolish and inappropriate, boys. Nor is counsel to be sought from foolish, lascivious, demented old men, worse than boys, whom the divine oracles execrate, because they are boys of a hundred years of age. Ears should be open to old men of great judgment, experienced in things, and prudent in mind.
Phil. By what sign shall I know them?
Soph. To be sure, at thy age, my son, thou canst not as yet distinguish them by any sign; but when a greater and stronger judgment has developed in thee, thou wilt easily recognise them by their words and deeds, as affording the clearest of signs. In the meantime, whilst thou hast not strength in this power of judgment, trust thyself entirely, and commit the direction, to thy father, and to those whom thy father has appointed as instructors and teachers and governors of thy early years—those who, as it were, lead thee by the hand, along that road on which thou hast not yet journeyed. For there is a greater care over thee exercised by thy father (to whom thou art dearer than he is to thee) than thou couldst have for thyself, and, in this matter, not only has he his own experience to guide him, but he makes use of the counsel of wise men.
Morob. For too long I have been silent.
Soph. Quite so, though contrary to your custom. For some time I have felt keen astonishment at the fact.