to ask any one else about himself? — Aristotle: Even as the sick man asks the physician about himself, and even as the blind man might ask those about him of his own colour. — Simmias: How can the self be blind about the self, when the self is the source of all sight? — Aristotle: When wisdom is secreted and concealed in the self, that is the soul, it is blind to itself, and to others alike: even as the eye without the light of a lamp is blind both to itself and others. — Simmias: Then the learner can only learn through wisdom, and the seer can only see with a lamp. — Aristotle: The soul becomes capable of receiving wisdom only by its natural correctness, and the sight of the seer becomes penetrating only through a lamp. When the two come together, it can penetrate. — Simmias: If the soul and the eyes cannot attain brightness in their functions by their own virtue, unaided by wisdom and the lamplight, then nothing is nearer akin to the soul than wisdom. — Aristotle: How can anything be nearer akin to that which it takes in than its own source? Do you not see that the teacher has a better right to the name of knowledge than the taught? and that the possessor of force has a better title to the name of force than one who is acquiring it? For the teacher is the source of knowledge, seeing that knowledge flows from him, and the strong is the source of strength. — When the discourse reached this point, Lysias said: This subject is finished, and I will now begin afresh. Tell me how it is that knowledge of the soul is the worthiest thing for the acquirer to acquire first? — Aristotle: Because knowledge is an essential property of teacher and taught. — Lysias: How am I to know that knowledge is a property of the soul? — Aristotle said: Because knowledge is in the body only so long as the soul is in it; and when the soul is separated from the body, knowledge disappears from it. — Lysias: It may come from the body rather than the soul. — Aristotle: If it were of the body, it would appear in the dead body as much as in the living body. — Lysias: We are as ignorant of the knowledge of the dead, as we are of their ignorance. May it be that the ignorance of it which we do not know may come from
