Even Socrates is incredulous, and indulges in a little raillery at the
expense of the brothers. But he restrains himself, remembering that if the
men who are to be his teachers think him stupid they will take no pains
with him. Another fallacy is produced which turns on the absoluteness of
the verb 'to know.' And here Dionysodorus is caught 'napping,' and is
induced by Socrates to confess that 'he does not know the good to be
unjust.' Socrates appeals to his brother Euthydemus; at the same time he
acknowledges that he cannot, like Heracles, fight against a Hydra, and even
Heracles, on the approach of a second monster, called upon his nephew
Iolaus to help. Dionysodorus rejoins that Iolaus was no more the nephew of
Heracles than of Socrates. For a nephew is a nephew, and a brother is a
brother, and a father is a father, not of one man only, but of all; nor of
men only, but of dogs and sea-monsters. Ctesippus makes merry with the
consequences which follow: 'Much good has your father got out of the
wisdom of his puppies.'
'But,' says Euthydemus, unabashed, 'nobody wants much good.' Medicine is a
good, arms are a good, money is a good, and yet there may be too much of
them in wrong places. 'No,' says Ctesippus, 'there cannot be too much
gold.
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