Socrates: Ive thought, friend, how natural it is for those who have spent lots of time in the study of

philosophy to be perceived as ridiculous orators when they present themselves at the tribunals.

Theodorus: How so?

Socrates: Seems to me that men who have been educated since their youth in the activities of the forum
and business, compared to those devoted to philosophy and other studies of similar nature, are like slaves
when compared to free men.

Theodorus: Why?

Socrates: Because, as you said, those (the ones not devoted to such matters such as business or the
forum) always have the time to conversate in peace, relieved. And, in the same way you and I have
changed the topic of conversation for the third time, they do so likewise when a point or topic pleases
them more than the previous one, as it happened to us; it is indifferent to them if a particular matter is
thoroughly examined or quickly discussed, as long as they discover the truth.

The others, on the other hand, they cannot waste any time during their talks and they are not allowed to
discuss those things that would please them the most. Their pleas are with or against slaves like them, and
they direct themselves to a seated lord that holds justice in his hand. Their disputes are never left without
result; there always mediates a certain interest to them, and in many occasions a life is in their hands,
making them fervent, harsh and skillful talkers when it comes to flattering the judge with words and
please him with their actions. Otherwise, they have small souls, lacking integrity, because this long
lasting servitude since their youth has impeded it from elevating and has deprived it of any uprightness
forcing it to act on crooked paths and exposing it, during its most tender years, to great dangers and great
fears.

Since they lack the strength to confront these dangers through the path of justice and truth, they choose to
use lies and take on the art of hurting each other; they bend and go from adolescence to maturity with a
corrupted spirit, imagining that they have acquired great abilities and wisdom. This is, Theodorus, a
portrait of these men. Would you like if I made one for those that compose our circle ? (in here
Socrates refers to the philosopher).

Theodorus: Youve said, and rightfully so, that those that are part of circles similar to ours are not
slaves to speeches but, conversely, speeches are submitted to our orders, as many other listeners who
await for us to finish them. Truly, we have no judge, nor a spectator.
Socrates: True philosophers ignore since their youth the pathway that leads to the agora. The
tribunals, where justice is administered, the places on which the senate makes its reunions and the sites on
which public assemblies are held, they do not know. They have no eyes and no ears to hear the laws and
decrees that are announced or published; regarding the factions and intrigues surrounding the public
positions, secret reunions, banquets and distractions with flute players, not even in dreams they imagine
themselves attending. Whether high or low born, whether they suffer or thrive due to the acts of an
ancestor, men or women, the philosopher does not bother either with such predicaments for he does not
know of them either, not out of vanity, but because, in truth, *it is only his body that is present in the
city*. His soul, looking at all of these worthless objects and not paying them any attention, travels from
place to place, measuring, as Pindar said, whats below and above the earth; it elevates to the skies to
contemplate from there the movement of the stars and, directing his penetrating gaze to all beings in the
universe, it never comes down to those objects immediate to it.

Theodorus: What do you mean by this, Socrates?

Socrates: There is a tale, Theodorus, of how one time Thales was absorbed by the matter of astronomy
looking at the stars, he fell on a pit and one of his servants, a woman from Thrace, mocked him by saying
that he so desperately wants to know of the happenings in the sky, yet he completely forgets what he
has in front of him at his feet. This story, or joke, applies to everybody who practices the art and
profession of philosophers. They not only ignore what their neighbor does, but they do place all their
efforts in inquiring and discovering what man is and what suits their nature to do or not. Do you
understand now, Theodorus?

Theodorus: Yes, Socrates, you tell the truth.

Socrates: This is the reason why, my dear friend, in any relations, be personal, be public, that a man of
this character holds, and even when he is required to speak in front of a tribunal or in any other place
about those things that are at his feet or at his gaze, as I said, he will be laughed at, not only by those
servants from Thrace, but by all the people, because the man falls at each instant due to his lack of
experience in pits and in all sort of perplexities and conflicts that make him look like an imbecile. If he is
insulted, *since he ignores the shortcomings of others*, as he never wished to inform himself, he cannot
respond back to the offender, making him look like a ridiculous character. And when he hears others
praising each other, or praising themselves, he laughs, not out of rudeness, but with sane intention, as he
takes this practice for something extravagant. If in his presence a king or a tyrant is praised, he hears
differently, as if people were praising a shepherd, a swineherd or a keeper, and believes that kings are in
charge of grazing and milking a different species of animals that are more difficult to control and far more
treacherous; but he never sees the tyrant or the king as less ignorant or gross as the shepherd, for they lack
the time to educate themselves due to them always being between their walls.
If in his presence it is said that a man has immense riches because he possesses vast lands or more, he
thinks of this as a little thing, because he is used to directing his vision to the entire world. And when
those who praise nobility and say that they come from a great House, because they can count up to seven
rich grandfathers, he thinks such praises belong to people who have a low and short view, because their
ignorance impedes them from fixing their eyes on the human itself in its entirety ,incapable of realizing
that each one of us have a myriad of ancestors, poor and rich, kings and slaves, Hellenistic or barbarian;
look how small their spirit is for they boast themselves due to having an ancestry that goes all the way
back to Heracles. And so the philosopher laughs, *because he realizes he cant break free from ideas as
silly as these*. Yet in all occasions the common people laughs at the philosopher, judging him as proud
and ignorant and, on top of that, on all common things, useless.

Theodorus: What you say, Socrates, is seen every day.

Socrates: But, dear friend, when a philosopher can attract one of these men to this superior region and
that man who was attracted puts aside such questions (those discussed above). Look at his behaviour, for
that man will now consider that which is just and unjust, its nature and what distinguishes one from the
other and everything else related to it, leaving behind if a king, or any other man who acquires great
riches, is happy, blissful, or not; he now takes on the examination of the true matter of happiness and
misfortune in men, and what composes them, and how one could aspire to acquire one and flee from the
other. When such a rude man of small soul takes on such matters he yields to the philosopher and,
floating in the sky, unaccustomed to contemplating from such heights these objects, he cannot control his
thoughts, losing all sense, not knowing what hes saying and it is then that hes laughed at but this time
not by the servants from Thrace, nor the ignorants, but by those whose education wasnt that of slaves.

And that is, Theodorus, the portrait of the other, the philosopher, educated by the hand of freedom and
leisure, who does not see any shame in being considered naive nor worthless, when it comes to occupying
a place in servitude (such as fixing an object, preparing something, or making a speech).

The other carries these jobs with perfection, but he does not know how to wear his robe like a free man,
and he has no idea of the inherent harmony in speech, making him incapable of singing about the lives of
the Gods and of fortunate men.