SOCRATES: And of all the virtues, is not wisdom the one which the mass of mankind are always claiming, and which most arouses in them a spirit of contention and lying conceit of wisdom? PROTARCHUS: Certainly. SOCRATES: And may not all this be truly called an evil condition? PROTARCHUS: Very evil. SOCRATES: But we must pursue the division a step further, Protarchus, if we would see in envy of the childish sort a singular mixture of pleasure and pain. PROTARCHUS: How can we make the further division which you suggest? SOCRATES: All who are silly enough to entertain this lying conceit of themselves may of course be divided, like the rest of mankind, into two classes--one having power and might; and the other the reverse. PROTARCHUS: Certainly. SOCRATES: Let this, then, be the principle of division; those of them who are weak and unable to revenge themselves, when they are laughed at, may be truly called ridiculous, but those who can defend themselves may be more truly described as strong and formidable; for ignorance in the powerful is hateful and horrible, because hurtful to others both in reality and in fiction, but powerless ignorance may be reckoned, and in truth is, ridiculous. PROTARCHUS: That is very true, but I do not as yet see where is the admixture of pleasures and pains. SOCRATES: Well, then, let us examine the nature of envy. PROTARCHUS: Proceed. SOCRATES: Is not envy an unrighteous pleasure, and also an unrighteous pain? PROTARCHUS: Most true. SOCRATES: There is nothing envious or wrong in rejoicing at the misfortunes of enemies? PROTARCHUS: Certainly not. SOCRATES: But to feel joy instead of sorrow at the sight of our friends' misfortunes--is not that wrong? PROTARCHUS: Undoubtedly. SOCRATES: Did we not say that ignorance was always an evil? PROTARCHUS: True. SOCRATES: And the three kinds of vain conceit in our friends which we enumerated--the vain conceit of beauty, of wisdom, and of wealth, are ridiculous if they are weak, and detestable when they are powerful: May we not say, as I was saying before, that our friends who are in this state of mind, when harmless to others, are simply ridiculous? PROTARCHUS: They are ridiculous. SOCRATES: And do we not acknowledge this ignorance of theirs to be a misfortune? PROTARCHUS: Certainly. SOCRATES: And do we feel pain or pleasure in laughing at it? PROTARCHUS: Clearly we feel pleasure. SOCRATES: And was not envy the source of this pleasure which we feel at the misfortunes of friends? PROTARCHUS: Certainly. SOCRATES: Then the argument shows that when we laugh at the folly of our friends, pleasure, in mingling with envy, mingles with pain, for envy has been acknowledged by us to be mental pain, and laughter is pleasant; and so we envy and laugh at the same instant. PROTARCHUS: True.