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Crit. You seem to say, Socrates, that money itself in the pockets of a man who does not know how to use it is not wealth?

Soc. And I understand you to concur in the truth of our proposition so far: wealth is that, and that only, whereby a man may be benefited. Obviously, if a man used his money to buy himself a mistress, to the grave detriment of his body and soul and whole estate, how is that particular money going to benefit him now? What good will he extract from it?

Crit. None whatever, unless we are prepared to admit that hyoscyamus, (12) as they call it, is wealth, a poison the property of which is to drive those who take it mad.

(12) "A dose of henbane, 'hogs'-bean,' so called." Diosc. 4. 69; 6.

15; Plut. "Demetr." xx. (Clough, v. 114).

Soc. Let money then, Critobulus, if a man does not know how to use it aright—let money, I say, be banished to the remote corners of the earth rather than be reckoned as wealth. (13) But now, what shall we say of friends? If a man knows how to use his friends so as to be benefited by them, what of these?