O Meno, there was a time when the Thessalians
were famous among the other Hellenes only for their riches and their riding;
but now, if I am not mistaken, they are equally famous for their wisdom,
especially at Larisa, which is the native city of your friend Aristippus.
And this is Gorgias' doing; for when he came there, the flower of the Aleuadae,
among them your admirer Aristippus, and the other chiefs of the Thessalians,
fell in love with his wisdom. And he has taught you the habit of answering
questions in a grand and bold style, which becomes those who know, and
is the style in which he himself answers all comers; and any Hellene who
likes may ask him anything. How different is our lot! my dear Meno. Here
at Athens there is a dearth of the commodity, and all wisdom seems to have
emigrated from us to you. I am certain that if you were to ask any Athenian
whether virtue was natural or acquired, he would laugh in your face, and
say: "Stranger, you have far too good an opinion of me, if you think that
I can answer your question. For I literally do not know what virtue is,
and much less whether it is acquired by teaching or not." And I myself,
Meno, living as I do in this region of poverty, am as poor as the rest
of the world; and I confess with shame that I know literally nothing about
virtue; and when I do not know the "quid" of anything how can I know the
"quale"? How, if I knew nothing at all of Meno, could I tell if he was
fair, or the opposite of fair; rich and noble, or the reverse of rich and
noble? Do you think that I could?
