136
And again, if you were in a ship that was making rough weather, to which would you rather entrust yourself and yours, the pilot or the philosopher?
136
I should choose the pilot.
136
And so it will be in everything else: so long as there is some craftsman, the philosopher will not be useful?
136
Apparently, he replied. So now we find that the philosopher is a useless person? For I suppose we always have craftsmen; and we have agreed that good men are useful, and bad ones useless.
136
He was obliged to agree to this.
136
Then what follows? Am I to ask you, or will it be too ill-mannered?
136
Ask whatever you please.
137
Well, my aim, I said, is merely to recall our agreements upon what has been stated. The matter stands somewhat like this. We agreed that philosophy is an honorable thing, and that philosophers are good; and that good men are useful, and wicked men useless: but then again we agreed that philosophers, so long as we have craftsmen, are useless, and that we always do have craftsmen. Has not all this been agreed?
137
Yes, to be sure, he replied.