The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: wealth himself, a science of economy exists; and that being so, what
hinders you from being its professor?
Soc. Nothing, to be sure,[10] except what would hinder a man from
knowing how to play the flute, supposing he had never had a flute of
his own and no one had supplied the defect by lending him one to
practise on: which is just my case with regard to economy,[11] seeing
I never myself possessed the instrument of the science which is
wealth, so as to go through the pupil stage, nor hitherto has any one
proposed to hand me over his to manage. You, in fact, are the first
person to make so generous an offer. You will bear in mind, I hope,
that a learner of the harp is apt to break and spoil the instrument;
|