value wouldst thou put upon the boon shouldst thou come to the knowledge of the absolute good?'
'Oh, an infinite,' said I, 'if only I were so blest as to learn to know God also who is the good.'
'Yet this will I make clear to thee on truest grounds of reason, if only our recent conclusions stand fast.'
'They will.'
'Have we not shown that those things which most men desire are not true and perfect good precisely for this cause—that they differ severally one from another, and, seeing that one is wanting to another, they cannot bestow full and absolute good; but that they become the true good when they are gathered, as it were, into one form and agency, so that that which is independence is likewise power, reverence, renown, and pleasant delight, and unless they are