Kitap 11
3
Why, no; these things were superfluities to me—and to yourself, indeed. The real necessities you inherited from Antisthenes, and I from you; and in those necessities was more grandeur and majesty than in the Persian Empire.
3
You allude to—.
3
Wisdom, independence, truth, frankness, freedom.
3
To be sure; now I think of it, I did inherit all this from Antisthenes, and left it to you with some addition.
4
Others, however, were not interested in such property; no one paid us the attentions of an expectant heir; they all had their eyes on gold, instead.
4
Of course; they had no receptacle for such things as we could give; luxury had made them so leaky—as full of holes as a worn-out purse. Put wisdom, frankness, or truth into them, and it would have dropped out; the bottom of the bag would have let them through, like the perforated cask into which those poor Danaids are always pouring. Gold, on the other hand, they could grip with tooth or nail or somehow.
4
Result: our wealth will still be ours down here; while they will arrive with no more than one penny, and even that must be left with the ferryman.
