And the body is compelled by reason of disease to court and make friends of the art of medicine? Yes. Then that which is neither good nor evil becomes the friend of good, by reason of the presence of evil? So we may infer. And clearly this must have happened before that which was neither good nor evil had become altogether corrupted with the element of evil--if itself had become evil it would not still desire and love the good; for, as we were saying, the evil cannot be the friend of the good. Impossible. Further, I must observe that some substances are assimilated when others are present with them; and there are some which are not assimilated: take, for example, the case of an ointment or colour which is put on another substance. Very good. In such a case, is the substance which is anointed the same as the colour or ointment? What do you mean? he said. This is what I mean: Suppose that I were to cover your auburn locks with white lead, would they be really white, or would they only appear to be white? They would only appear to be white, he replied. And yet whiteness would be present in them? True. But that would not make them at all the more white, notwithstanding the presence of white in them--they would not be white any more than black? No. But when old age infuses whiteness into them, then they become assimilated, and are white by the presence of white. Certainly. Now I want to know whether in all cases a substance is assimilated by the presence of another substance; or must the presence be after a peculiar sort? The latter, he said. Then that which is neither good nor evil may be in the presence of evil, but not as yet evil, and that has happened before now? Yes. And when anything is in the presence of evil, not being as yet evil, the presence of good arouses the desire of good in that thing; but the presence of evil, which makes a thing evil, takes away the desire and friendship of the good; for that which was once both good and evil has now become evil only, and the good was supposed to have no friendship with the evil? None. And therefore we say that those who are already wise, whether Gods or men, are no longer lovers of wisdom; nor can they be lovers of wisdom who are ignorant to the extent of being evil, for no evil or ignorant person is a lover of wisdom. There remain those who have the misfortune to be ignorant, but are not yet hardened in their ignorance, or void of understanding, and do not as yet fancy that they know what they do not know: and therefore those who are the lovers of wisdom are as yet neither good nor bad. But the bad do not love wisdom any more than the good; for, as we have already seen, neither is unlike the friend of unlike, nor like of like. You remember that? Yes, they both said.