Dva psa

Besedilo

Dva psa

Lycurgus the lawgiver, wishing to lead the citizens away from their former habits into a more temperate way of life and make them men of noble character—for they were accustomed to luxury—reared two puppies born of the same father and mother. One he kept at home and accustomed to dainties; the other he took out with him and trained to hunt. Then he brought them before the assembly, set out bowls of food and various delicacies, and released a hare. Each dog rushed toward what it was used to, and when the one had caught the hare, he said: “You see, citizens, that although these dogs are of the same stock, the way they have been brought up has made them vastly different from one another. Training does more than nature to foster excellence.” Some, however, say that the puppies he brought before them were not born of the same parents: one came from watchdogs, the other from hunting dogs. He trained the one of inferior stock to hunt, while he accustomed the one of better stock only to dainties. Then, when each rushed toward what it had been taught to seek, he made plain how much upbringing contributes to making a creature better or worse, and said: “So too, citizens, neither the noble birth so widely admired nor our descent from Heracles will benefit us at all unless we do the things that made him more renowned and nobler than all other men, training ourselves in what is good and learning it throughout our lives.”