And if your father and mother love you, and desire that you should
be happy, no one can doubt that they are very ready to promote your
happiness.
Certainly, he replied.
And do they then permit you to do what you like, and never rebuke you or
hinder you from doing what you desire?
Yes, indeed, Socrates; there are a great many things which they hinder
me from doing.
What do you mean? I said. Do they want you to be happy, and yet hinder
you from doing what you like? for example, if you want to mount one
of your father's chariots, and take the reins at a race, they will not
allow you to do so--they will prevent you?
Certainly, he said, they will not allow me to do so.
Whom then will they allow?
There is a charioteer, whom my father pays for driving.
And do they trust a hireling more than you? and may he do what he likes
with the horses? and do they pay him for this?
They do.
But I dare say that you may take the whip and guide the mule-cart if you
like;--they will permit that?
Permit me! indeed they will not.
Then, I said, may no one use the whip to the mules?
Yes, he said, the muleteer.
And is he a slave or a free man?
A slave, he said.
And do they esteem a slave of more value than you who are their son? And
do they entrust their property to him rather than to you? and allow him
to do what he likes, when they prohibit you? Answer me now: Are you your
own master, or do they not even allow that?
Nay, he said; of course they do not allow it.
Then you have a master?
Yes, my tutor; there he is.
And is he a slave?
To be sure; he is our slave, he replied.
Surely, I said, this is a strange thing, that a free man should be
governed by a slave. And what does he do with you?
He takes me to my teachers.
You do not mean to say that your teachers also rule over you?
Of course they do.
Then I must say that your father is pleased to inflict many lords and
masters on you. But at any rate when you go home to your mother,
she will let you have your own way, and will not interfere with your
happiness; her wool, or the piece of cloth which she is weaving, are
at your disposal: I am sure that there is nothing to hinder you from
touching her wooden spathe, or her comb, or any other of her spinning
implements.
Nay, Socrates, he replied, laughing; not only does she hinder me, but I
should be beaten if I were to touch one of them.
Well, I said, this is amazing. And did you ever behave ill to your
father or your mother?
No, indeed, he replied.
But why then are they so terribly anxious to prevent you from being
happy, and doing as you like?--keeping you all day long in subjection
to another, and, in a word, doing nothing which you desire; so that you
have no good, as would appear, out of their great possessions, which are
under the control of anybody rather than of you, and have no use of your
own fair person, which is tended and taken care of by another; while
you, Lysis, are master of nobody, and can do nothing?
Why, he said, Socrates, the reason is that I am not of age.
I doubt whether that is the real reason, I said; for I should imagine
that your father Democrates, and your mother, do permit you to do many
things already, and do not wait until you are of age: for example, if
they want anything read or written, you, I presume, would be the first
person in the house who is summoned by them.
Very true.
And you would be allowed to write or read the letters in any order which
you please, or to take up the lyre and tune the notes, and play with the
fingers, or strike with the plectrum, exactly as you please, and neither
father nor mother would interfere with you.
That is true, he said.
Then what can be the reason, Lysis, I said, why they allow you to do the
one and not the other?