CHAPTER IV. A DISCOURSE OF SOCRATES WITH NICOMACHIDES, IN WHICH HE
SHOWETH THAT A MAN SKILFUL IN HIS OWN PROPER BUSINESS, AND WHO MANAGES
HIS AFFAIRS WITH PRUDENCE AND SAGACITY, MAY MAKE, WHEN OCCASION OFFERS, A
GOOD GENERAL.


Another time, Socrates meeting Nicomachides, who was coining from the
assembly where they had chosen the magistrates, asked him, "of whom they
had made choice to command the army?" Nicomachides answered: "Alas! the
Athenians would not chose me; me! who have spent all my life in arms, and
have gone through all the degrees of a soldier; who have been first a
private sentinel, then a captain, next a colonel of horse, and who am
covered all over with wounds that I have received in battles" (at these
words he bared his breast, and showed the large scars which were
remaining in several places of his body); "but they have chosen
Antisthenes, who has never served in the infantry, who even in the
cavalry never did anything remarkable, and whose only talent consists in
knowing how to get money." "So much the better," said Socrates, "for
then the army will be well paid." "A merchant," replied Nicomachides,
"knows how to get money as well as he; and does it follow from thence
that he is fit to be a general?" "You take no notice," replied Socrates,
"that Antisthenes is fond of honour, and desirous to excel all others in
whatever he undertakes, which is a very necessary qualification in a
general. Have you not observed, that whenever he gave a comedy to the
people, he always gained the prize?" "There is a wide difference,"
answered Nicomachides, "between commanding an army and giving orders
concerning a comedy." "But," said Socrates, "though Antisthenes
understands not music, nor the laws of the stage, yet he found out those
who were skilful in both, and by their means succeeded extremely well."
"And when he is at the head of the army," continued Nicomachides, "I