in an abundance of all he needs, while the operations of another fail
to make husbandry a profitable employment. I would gladly hear from
you an explanation of both these points, so that I may adopt the right
and avoid the harmful course.[10]

[10] Lincke conceives the editor's interpolation as ending here.

Soc. Well, Critobulus, suppose I narrate to you from the beginning how
I cam in contact with a man who of all men I ever met seemed to me to
deserve the appellation of a gentleman. He was indeed a "beautiful and
good" man.[11]

[11] Or, "a man 'beautiful and good,' as the phrase goes."

Crit. There is nothing I should better like to hear, since of all
titles this is the one I covet most the right to bear.

Soc. Well, then, I will tell you how I came to subject him to my
inquiry. It did not take me long to go the round of various good
carpenters, good bronze-workers, painters, sculptors, and so forth. A
brief period was sufficient for the contemplation of themselves and of
their most admired works of art. But when it came to examining those
who bore the high-sounding title "beautiful and good," in order to
find out what conduct on their part justified their adoption of this
title, I found my soul eager with desire for intercourse with one of
them; and first of all, seeing that the epithet "beautiful" was
conjoined with that of "good," every beautiful person I saw, I must
needs approach in my endeavour to discover,[12] if haply I might
somewhere see the quality of good adhering to the quality of beauty.
But, after all, it was otherwise ordained. I soon enough seemed to