Two lives, temperate and unrestrained
SocratesCome now, let me give you another image from the same school as the one just now. For consider whether this is the kind of thing you say about each of the two lives, the temperate and the unrestrained. Suppose two men each had many jars, and those of the one were sound and full, one of wine, one of honey, one of milk, and many others full of many things, while the sources for each of these were scarce and hard to come by and could be procured only with many hard labours. Now the one, having filled his jars, would neither pour in more nor give it any thought, but as far as they were concerned would be at rest. For the other, the sources, as for the first, could be procured, but with difficulty, while his vessels were full of holes and cracked, and he would be compelled always, night and day, to fill them, or else feel the most extreme pains. If each life is of this kind, do you say that the life of the unrestrained man is happier than that of the orderly one? Am I persuading you at all, by saying this, to concede that the orderly life is better than the unrestrained, or am I not persuading you?
CalliclesYou are not persuading me, Socrates. For that man who has filled up has no pleasure at all any longer, but that, as I was saying just now, is living like a stone, once he has filled up, no longer either enjoying himself or feeling pain. No, living pleasantly lies in this: in having as much as possible flow in.