Euth. No, nor yet ignorance of carpentering.
Soc. Well, ignorance of shoemaking?
Euth. No, nor ignorance of any of these: rather the reverse, for the majority of those who do know just these matters are "little better than slaves."
Soc. You mean it is a title particularly to those who are ignorant of the beautiful, the good, the just? (40)
(40) Cf. Goethe's "Im Ganzen Guten Schonen resolut zu leben."
It is, in my opinion (he replied).
Soc. Then we must in every way strain every nerve to avoid the imputation of being slaves?
Euth. Nay, Socrates, by all that is holy, I did flatter myself that at any rate I was a student of philosophy, and on the right road to be taught everything essential to one who would fain make beauty and goodness his pursuit. (41) So that now you may well imagine my despair when, for all my pains expended, I cannot even answer the questions put to me about what most of all a man should know; and there is no path of progress open to me, no avenue of improvement left.
(41) {tes kalokagathias}, the virtue of the {kalos te kagathos}—
nobility of soul. Cf. above, I. vi. 14.
Thereupon Socrates: Tell me, Euthydemus, have you ever been to Delphi?