_Sokr._--How is this? How do you know, or where have you learnt, to distinguish just from unjust? Have you frequented some master, without my knowledge, to teach you this? If you have, pray introduce me to him, that I also may learn it from him. _Alk._--You are jesting. _Sokr._--Not at all: I love you too well to jest. _Alk._--But what if I had no master? Cannot I know about justice and injustice, without a master? _Sokr._--Certainly: you might find out for yourself, if you made search and investigated. But this you would not do, unless you were under the persuasion that you did not already know. _Alk._--Was there not a time when I really believed myself not to know it? _Sokr._--Perhaps there may have been: tell me _when_ that time was. Was it last year? _Alk._--No: last year I thought that I knew. _Sokr._--Well, then two years, three years, &c., ago? _Alk._--No: the case was the same then, also, I thought that I knew. _Sokr._--But before that, you were a mere boy; and during your boyhood you certainly believed yourself to know what was just and unjust; for I well recollect hearing you then complain confidently of other boys, for acting unjustly towards you. _Alk._--Certainly: I was not then ignorant on the point: I knew distinctly that they were acting unjustly towards me. _Sokr._--You knew, then, even in your boyhood, what was just and what was unjust? _Alk._--Certainly: I knew even then. _Sokr._--At what moment did you first find it out? Not when you already believed yourself to know: and what time was there when you did not believe yourself to know? _Alk._--Upon my word, I cannot say. [Side-note: Answer amended. Alkibiades learnt it from the multitude, as he learnt to speak Greek.--The multitude cannot teach just and unjust, for they are at variance among themselves about it. Alkibiades is going to advise the Athenians about what he does not know himself.]