Letters
Plato (428–347 BC)
Plato's Letters in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with R. G. Bury's English translation.
Caput I: Letter 1
Section 309
Section 310
Bereft of friends—ah! woe is me—I die.Trag. Gr. Frag. Adesp. 347 (Nauck). But not one of them has represented him as dying for lack of gold. This other poem also to men of judgement seemeth not amiss—In this our human life, with halting hopes,It is not glittering gold that rarest is:Not diamond nor couches silver-wroughtAppear so brilliant in the eyes of men:Nor do the fertile fields of earth’s broad breast,Laden with crops, so all-sufficing seemAs gallant men’s unanimous resolve.Lyr. Gr. Frag. Adesp. 138 (Bergk). Farewell; and may you learn how much you have lost in us, so that you may behave yourself better towards all others.