The Sale of Lives (1-5)

(to his assistants) Set the benches in order, and get the place ready for visitors; and you, range the lives in order and usher them in, but tidy them up first so that they may make a good appearance and attract a crowd. You, Hermes, make a proclamation, and, by the grace of heaven, summon the buyers to the sale-room forthwith. We are going to announce for sale philosophic lives of every description and varied principles, and if any one is not able to lay down his money on the nail he can pay up next year if he gives security.

A crowd is gathering, so we must not waste time nor keep them waiting.

Then let us proceed to sell.

Which of them shall we put up first?

This one with the long hair, the Ionian, for he seems to be a reverend person.

Let the Pythagorean there show his points to the company.

Announce him, pray.

I offer the noblest life, the most reverend. Who will buy? Who wishes to be more

He is not bad to look at, but just what does he know?

Arithmetic, astronomy, magic, geometry, music, jugglery. A finished fortune-teller is before you.

May one question him?

With all my heart.

What country are you of?

Samos.

Where were you educated?

In Egypt, among the sages there.

Well, then, if I buy you what will you teach me?

I will not teach you anything. I will remind you.

How will you remind me?

By first making your soul clean, and washing off the filth that is on it.

Now, suppose me already purified, what is your method of reminding?

The first step is a long, speechless silence; you must not say a word for five whole years.

You ought to teach mutes, my friend. But I am a talker with no desire to become a graven image. All the same, what comes after the silence and the five-year term?

Practise in music and geometry.

That is a nice statement! If I am to become a philosopher I must first learn to play the harp!

In addition to these, counting.

I can count now.

How do you do it?

One, two, three, four.

Look, now; what you deem four is really ten, and a perfect triangle, and what we swear by.

Hear me swear a mighty oath: by Four, I never heard diviner or more holy words.

And after that, stranger, you will have knowledge concerning earth and air and water and fire-the mass of each, and what form it has, and what motion by consequence.

Then has fire form, or air, or water?

Very clear forms, for the formless and shapeless is immovable; and besides these things you will know that God is number and mind and harmony.

This is startling!

Beyond what I have already said, you will know that you yourself, who seem to be a unit, are one person in appearance and another in reality.

What do you say? Am I somebody else and not this person now talking to you?

Now you are he, but formerly you appeared in another body and with another name; and in time you will change again into another.

You mean this: that I shall be immortal, changing into one form after another? But that is enough on this subject.