young men may attain this quality by the help of studies and pursuits.
Tell me, if you can, what is courage.
La. Indeed, Socrates, I see no difficulty in answering; he is a man of
courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights
against the enemy; there can be no mistake about that.
Soc. Very good, Laches; and yet I fear that I did not express myself
clearly; and therefore you have answered not the question which I
intended to ask, but another.
La. What do you mean, Socrates?
Soc. I will endeavour to explain; you would call a man courageous who
remains at his post, and fights with the enemy?
La. Certainly I should.
Soc. And so should I; but what would you say of another man, who
fights flying, instead of remaining?
La. How flying?
Soc. Why, as the Scythians are said to fight, flying as well as
pursuing; and as Homer says in praise of the horses of Aeneas, that
they knew "how to pursue, and fly quickly hither and thither"; and he
passes an encomium on Aeneas himself, as having a knowledge of fear or
flight, and calls him "an author of fear or flight."
La. Yes, Socrates, and there Homer is right: for he was speaking of
chariots, as you were speaking of the Scythian cavalry, who have that
way of fighting; but the heavy-armed Greek fights, as I say, remaining
in his rank.
Soc. And yet, Laches, you must except the Lacedaemonians at Plataea,
who, when they came upon the light shields of the Persians, are said
not to have been willing to stand and fight, and to have fled; but
when the ranks of the Persians were broken, they turned upon them like
cavalry, and won the battle of Plataea.
La. That is true.
Soc. That was my meaning when I said that I was to blame in having put
my question badly, and that this was the reason of your answering
badly. For I meant to ask you not only about the courage of
heavy-armed soldiers, but about the courage of cavalry and every other
style of soldier; and not only who are courageous in war, but who are
courageous in perils by sea, and who in disease, or in poverty, or
again in politics, are courageous; and not only who are courageous
against pain or fear, but mighty to contend against desires and
pleasures, either fixed in their rank or turning upon their enemy.
There is this sort of courage-is there not, Laches?
La. Certainly, Socrates.
Soc. And all these are courageous, but some have courage in pleasures,
and some in pains: some in desires, and some in fears, and some are
cowards under the same conditions, as I should imagine.
La. Very true.
Soc. Now I was asking about courage and cowardice in general. And I
will begin with courage, and once more ask, What is that common
quality, which is the same in all these cases, and which is called
courage? Do you now understand what I mean?
La. Not over well.
Soc. I mean this: As I might ask what is that quality which is called
quickness, and which is found in running, in playing the lyre, in
speaking, in learning, and in many other similar actions, or rather
which we possess in nearly every action that is worth mentioning of
arms, legs, mouth, voice, mind;-would you not apply the term quickness
to all of them?
La. Quite true.
Soc. And suppose I were to be asked by some one: What is that common
quality, Socrates, which, in all these uses of the word, you call
quickness? I should say the quality which accomplishes much in a
little time-whether in running, speaking, or in any other sort of
action.
La. You would be quite correct.
Soc. And now, Laches, do you try and tell me in like manner, What is