Socrates urged him yet further, and asked him: "Have you ever heard say that some men have abject and servile minds?" "I have." "Is it said of them because they are learned or because they are ignorant?" "Surely because they are ignorant." "Perhaps," said Socrates, "it is because they understand not the trade of a smith?" "Not in the least for that." "Is it because they know not how to build a house, or to make shoes?" "By no means," said Euthydemus; "for most who are skilled in such professions have likewise abject and servile minds." "This character, then," pursued Socrates, "must be given to those who are ignorant of the noble sciences, and who know not what is just nor what is honourable?" "I believe so." "We ought, therefore, Euthydemus, to do all we can to avoid falling into that ignominious ignorance that sinks us down so low." "Alas, Socrates!" cried he out, "I will not lie for the matter; I thought I knew something in philosophy, and that I had learnt whatever was requisite to be known by a man who desired to make a practice of virtue; but judge how much I am afflicted to see that, after all my labours, I am not able to answer you concerning things which I ought chiefly to know; and yet I am at a loss what method to pursue in order to render myself more capable and knowing in the things I desire to understand." Upon this, Socrates asked him whether he had ever been at Delphi, and Euthydemus answered that he had been there twice. "Did you not take notice," said Socrates, "that somewhere on the front of the temple there is this inscription, 'KNOW THYSELF'?" "I remember," answered he, "I have read it there." "It is not enough," replied Socrates, "to have read it. Have you been the better for this admonition? Have you given yourself the trouble to consider what you are?" "I think I know that well enough," replied the young man, "for I should have found it very difficult to have known any other thing if I had not known myself." "But for a man to know himself well," said Socrates, "it is not enough that he knows his own name; for, as a man that buys a horse cannot be certain that he knows what he is before he has ridden him, to see whether he be quiet or restive, whether he be mettlesome or dull, whether he be fleet or heavy--in short, before he has made trial of all that is good and bad in him--in like manner, a man cannot say that he knows himself before he has tried what he is fit for, and what he is able to do." "It is true," said Euthydemus, "that whoever knows not his own strength knows not himself." "But," continued Socrates, "who sees not of how great advantage this knowledge is to man, and how dangerous it is to be mistaken in this affair? for he who knows himself knows likewise what is good for himself. He sees what he is able to do, and what he is not able to do; by applying himself to things that he can do, he gets his bread with pleasure, and is happy; and by not