Reader

Socrates: And what is love of gain? What can it be, and who are the lovers of gain? Friend: In my opinion, they are those who think it worth while to make gain out of things of no worth. Socrates: Is it your opinion that they know those things to be of no worth, or do not know? For if they do not know, you mean that the lovers of gain are fools. Friend: No, I do not mean they are fools, but rascals who wickedly yield to gain, because they know that the things out of which they dare to make their gain are worthless,

and yet they dare to be lovers of gain from mere shamelessness. Socrates: Well now, do you mean by the lover of gain such a man, for instance, as a farmer who plants something which he knows is a worthless herb, and thinks fit to make gain out of it when he has reared it up? Is that the sort of man you mean? Friend: The lover of gain, as such, Socrates, thinks he ought to make gain from everything. Socrates: Please do not speak so recklessly, as though you had been wronged by someone,

but give me your attention and answer just as you would if I were beginning my questions over again. Do you not admit that the lover of gain has knowledge of the worth of the thing from which he thinks it worth while to make gain? Friend: I do. Socrates: Then who has knowledge of the worth of plants, and of the sort of season and soil in which they are worth planting— if we too may throw in one of those artful phraseswhich adroit pleaders use to trick out their speeches in the law courts?

Friend: For my part, I should say a farmer. Socrates: And by“ think it worth while to make gain” do you mean aught but“ thinking one ought to make gain”? Friend: I mean that. Socrates: Then do not attempt to deceive me, who am now quite an elderly person,

Friend: To all appearance, no. Socrates: Then whoever can they be, your lovers of gain? For I presume they are not the people whom we have successively mentioned, but people who know their worthless things, and yet think they are to make gain from them. But in that case, by what you say, remarkable sir, no man alive is a lover of gainFriend: Well, Socrates, I should like to call those lovers of gain who from insatiable greed consumedly long for things that are even quite petty and of little or no worth,