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protagoras 
Hippias as he said this); but if he comes to me, he will learn that
which he comes to learn. And this is prudence in affairs private as
well as public; he will learn to order his own house in the best
manner, and he will be able to speak and act for the best in the
affairs of the state.
Do I understand you, I said; and is your meaning that you teach
the art of politics, and that you promise to make men good citizens?
That, Socrates, is exactly the profession which I make.
Then, I said, you do indeed possess a noble art, if there is no
mistake about this; for I will freely confess to you, Protagoras, that
I have a doubt whether this art is capable of being taught, and yet
I know not how to disbelieve your assertion. And I ought to tell you
why I am of opinion that this art cannot be taught or communicated
by man to man. I say that the Athenians are an understanding people,
and indeed they are esteemed to be such by the other Hellenes. Now I
observe that when we are met together in the assembly, and the
matter in hand relates to building, the builders are summoned as
advisers; when the question is one of shipbuilding, then the
ship-wrights; and the like of other arts which they think capable of
being taught and learned. And if some person offers to give them
advice who is not supposed by them to have any skill in the art,
even though he be good-looking, and rich, and noble, they will not
listen to him, but laugh and hoot at him, until either he is clamoured
down and retires of himself; or if he persist, he is dragged away or
put out by the constables at the command of the prytanes. This is
their way of behaving about professors of the arts. But when the
question is an affair of state, then everybody is free to have a
say-carpenter, tinker, cobbler, sailor, passenger; rich and poor, high
and low-any one who likes gets up, and no one reproaches him, as in
the former case, with not having learned, and having no teacher, and
yet giving advice; evidently because they are under the impression
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