Soph. These very names and many others like them, already departed from this life, will talk with you as often and as much as you like.
Phil. How?
Soph. In books, which they have left behind for the benefit of posterity.
Phil. How is it that these are not already in my hand?
Soph. They shall be given to you soon, after you have learned that language, in which you will be able to understand what they say. Only wait a little, and go through with the short burden which must be endured in receiving the elementary basis of instruction; after that follow incredible delights. It is no wonder that without such a preparation the idea of literary studies is abhorrent. But those who have enjoyed them would sooner be plucked from life itself than be torn away from books and intellectual interests.
2. Living Teachers
Phil. But pray tell me, who are those living people from whom this wisdom and soundness of mind can be learned?
Soph. If you were about to undertake any journey, from whom would you earnestly inquire the road? Would it be from those who had never seen the road, or from those who had at some time accomplished the journey?
Phil. From those, forsooth, who had travelled on that journey!
Soph. Is not this life even as a journey, and is it not a perpetual starting out?