Eryxias | Page 9

no
value because they have no use for a house, nor would a Scythian set so
much store on the finest house in the world as on a leather coat,
because he could use the one and not the other. Or again, the
Carthaginian coinage is not wealth in our eyes, for we could not
employ it, as we can silver, to procure what we need, and therefore it is
of no use to us.
ERASISTRATUS: True.
SOCRATES: What is useful to us, then, is wealth, and what is useless
to us is not wealth?
But how do you mean, Socrates? said Eryxias, interrupting. Do we not
employ in our intercourse with one another speech and violence (?) and
various other things? These are useful and yet they are not wealth.
SOCRATES: Clearly we have not yet answered the question, What is
wealth? That wealth must be useful, to be wealth at all,--thus much is
acknowledged by every one. But what particular thing is wealth, if not
all things? Let us pursue the argument in another way; and then we
may perhaps find what we are seeking. What is the use of wealth, and
for what purpose has the possession of riches been invented,--in the
sense, I mean, in which drugs have been discovered for the cure of
disease? Perhaps in this way we may throw some light on the question.
It appears to be clear that whatever constitutes wealth must be useful,
and that wealth is one class of useful things; and now we have to
enquire, What is the use of those useful things which constitute wealth?
For all things probably may be said to be useful which we use in
production, just as all things which have life are animals, but there is a
special kind of animal which we call 'man.' Now if any one were to ask
us, What is that of which, if we were rid, we should not want medicine
and the instruments of medicine, we might reply that this would be the
case if disease were absent from our bodies and either never came to
them at all or went away again as soon as it appeared; and we may

therefore conclude that medicine is the science which is useful for
getting rid of disease. But if we are further asked, What is that from
which, if we were free, we should have no need of wealth? can we give
an answer? If we have none, suppose that we restate the question
thus:--If a man could live without food or drink, and yet suffer neither
hunger nor thirst, would he want either money or anything else in order
to supply his needs?
ERYXIAS: He would not.
SOCRATES: And does not this apply in other cases? If we did not
want for the service of the body the things of which we now stand in
need, and heat and cold and the other bodily sensations were
unperceived by us, there would be no use in this so-called wealth, if no
one, that is, had any necessity for those things which now make us wish
for wealth in order that we may satisfy the desires and needs of the
body in respect of our various wants. And therefore if the possession of
wealth is useful in ministering to our bodily wants, and bodily wants
were unknown to us, we should not need wealth, and possibly there
would be no such thing as wealth.
ERYXIAS: Clearly not.
SOCRATES: Then our conclusion is, as would appear, that wealth is
what is useful to this end?
Eryxias once more gave his assent, but the small argument
considerably troubled him.
SOCRATES: And what is your opinion about another
question:--Would you say that the same thing can be at one time useful
and at another useless for the production of the same result?
ERYXIAS: I cannot say more than that if we require the same thing to
produce the same result, then it seems to me to be useful; if not, not.
SOCRATES: Then if without the aid of fire we could make a brazen
statue, we should not want fire for that purpose; and if we did not want
it, it would be useless to us? And the argument applies equally in other
cases.
ERYXIAS: Clearly.
SOCRATES: And therefore conditions which are not required for the
existence of a thing are not useful for the production of it?
ERYXIAS: Of course not.
SOCRATES: And if without gold or silver or anything else which we

do not use directly for the body in the way that we do food and drink
and bedding and houses,--if without these we could satisfy the wants of
the body, they would be of no use to us for that purpose?
ERYXIAS: They would not.
SOCRATES: