protagoras   

justice and the laws, not concealing them as he would conceal the

other arts, but imparting them-for all of us have a mutual interest in

the justice and virtue of one another, and this is the reason why

every one is so ready to teach justice and the laws;-suppose, I say,

that there were the same readiness and liberality among us in teaching

one another flute-playing, do you imagine, Socrates, that the sons

of good flute players would be more likely to be good than the sons of

bad ones? I think not. Would not their sons grow up to be

distinguished or undistinguished according to their own natural

capacities as flute-players, and the son of a good player would

often turn out to be a bad one, and the son of a bad player to be a

good one, all flute-players would be good enough in comparison of

those who were ignorant and unacquainted with the art of

flute-playing? In like manner I would have you consider that he who

appears to you to be the worst of those who have been brought up in

laws and humanities, would appear to be a just man and a master of

justice if he were to be compared with men who had no education, or

courts of justice, or laws, or any restraints upon them which

compelled them to practise virtue-with the savages, for example,

whom the poet Pherecrates exhibited on the stage at the last year's

Lenaean festival. If you were living among men such as the

man-haters in his Chorus, you would be only too glad to meet with

Eurybates and Phrynondas, and you would sorrowfully long to revisit

the rascality of this part of the world. you, Socrates, are

discontented, and why? Because all men are teachers of virtue, each

one according to his ability; and you say, Where are the teachers? You

might as well ask, Who teaches Greek? For of that too there will not

be any teachers found. Or you might ask, Who is to teach the sons of

our artisans this same art which they have learned of their fathers?

He and his fellow-workmen have taught them to the best of their

ability,-but who will carry them further in their arts? And you

would certainly have a difficulty, Socrates, in finding a teacher of