ii USELESS KNOWLEDGE 39 



the existence of a better way rather than shown it 

 to us. 



I must confess, Plato, that much as I should have 

 wished to show you that my way is both practical and 

 practicable I have not had the time to do this. But if I 

 had, I feel sure that I could do so. 



Say on ; there is no limit but life itself to the search 

 for Truth. 



That is all very well for you, whose abode has been 

 in these pleasant places for so long, and to whom, it 

 seems, there comes neither death nor change. But / 

 have to go back. 



To your pupils ? 



Yes, and already I feel the premonitory heaviness in 

 my feet. It will slowly creep upwards, and when it 

 reaches the head I shall go to sleep and wake again in 

 another world far from you. 



I am sorry ; though it will interest us to see how you 

 vanish. But before you pass away, will you not, seeing 

 that all truth you say is practical, tell us what in this 

 case is the practical application of the &quot; truths &quot; you have 

 championed ? 



With the greatest pleasure, Plato, that is what I 

 was coming back to. They form my excellent excuse 

 for neglecting to tell men about your ideas. 



I do not quite see how. 



Why, so long as my knowledge of your world is 

 useless to them, it is for them, literally and in the 

 completest way, false ! 



But surely both they and you must admit that there 

 is much useless knowledge ? 



There is much, of course, which is so called, and 

 actually is useless for certain purposes, but nothing which 

 can be so for all. Much that is useless is so because 

 certain persons refuse to use it or are unable to do so. 

 Pearls are useless to swine, and, as Herakleitos said, gold 

 to asses. And so neither ass nor hog could truly call 

 them precious. Or, again, often what is called useless is 

 that which is indirectly useful. It is useful as logically 



