" Thus, between raillery and
good earnest, Alcibiades kept not only himself but others from
learning, as it presently became the talk of the young boys, how
Alcibiades despised playing on the flute, and ridiculed those who
studied it. In consequence of which, it ceased to be reckoned
amongst the liberal accomplishments, and became generally
neglected.
It was manifest that the many well-born persons who were
continually seeking his company, and making court to him, were
attracted and captivated by his extraordinary beauty only. But the
affection which Socrates entertained for him is a great evidence
of the natural noble qualities and good disposition of the boy,
which Socrates, detected under his personal beauty; and fearing
that his wealth and station, and the great number both of
strangers and Athenians who flattered and caressed him, might at
last corrupt him, resolved, if possible, to interpose, and
preserve so hopeful a plant from perishing in the flower, before
its fruit came to perfection. For never did fortune surround a man
with so many of those things which we vulgarly call goods, or so
protect him from every weapon of philosophy, and fence him from
every access of free and searching words, as she did Alcibiades;
who, from the beginning, was exposed to the flatteries of those
who sought merely his gratification, such as might well unnerve
him, and indispose him to listen to any real adviser or
instructor.
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