HERMOTIMUS You see then, Lycinus, that my labour is not in vain or for trifles, if I desire to be myself a citizen of a city so fair and happy. LYCINUS Yes, Hermotimus, and I myself am in love with the same things and there is nothing I would pray for more. If the city had been near at hand and visible to everyone, you can be sure that long since, without a moment’s hesitation, I myself should have entered in and been a citizen this long time, but, since, as you say, you and the poet Hesiod, it has been built at a very




 


great distance, we must look for the path that leads there and the best guide to follow. Don’t you agree that we must do this? HERMOTIMUS How else could one go there? LYCINUS Well, as regards making promises and saying that they know, there are plenty of would-be guides. Many are standing ready, each one saying he is a native of that city. But no one and the same road is to be seen. There are many different ones not at all like each other: one seems to lead to the west, another to the east, another to the north, a fourth straight towards the south; one goes through meadows and gardens and shady spots—a well-watered, pleasant road with nothing to block the way or make hard-going; another is rocky and rough, promising much sun and thirst and exhaustion. Nevertheless all these roads are said to lead to the city, although there is but one city, while they have their ends in the opposite parts of the globe.