Wow, Socrates Was Really Smart!

And so was Plato. Such is my articulate and original conclusion upon reading part of The Glory That Was Greece, which is Vol. II in this fantastic 80-year-old eighteen-volume set that I dug up at a used bookstore. The set is called the Columbia University Course in Literature, originally published in 1896, with my edition--in its forest-green leather covers embossed with classical artwork, the titles printed in gold--dating from 1928. Vol. I is The Wisdom of the East; the other volumes present more of the Western canon than you ever knew existed--not just obvious topics like Romance and Realism in Modern France, but also The German Mind, Scandinavian and Slavonic Literature, The Voice of Italy, The Great Literature of Small Nations (Spain, Portugal, Latin America, Holland, Switzerland, Romania, Ireland(!), Finland, Yiddish lit and more), and of course, eight solid volumes on English (5 volumes) and American (3) literature.

And so, yeah, wow: Plato and Socrates, smart dudes indeed! This discussion of evil people seems especially timely, in a political season during a war:

"...And most of those fearful examples, as I believe, are taken from the class of tyrants and kings and potentates and public men; for they are the authors of the greatest and most impious crimes, because they have the power.... Yes, Callicles, the very bad men come from the class of those who have power. And yet, in that very class there may arise good men, and worthy of all admiration they are; for where there is great power to do wrong, to live and die justly is a hard thing, and greatly to be praised, and few there are who attain this."

Wow! So on target, so elevated (and moderately convoluted) in his syntax--it's like listening to Yoda!