Plato: Tallyho ~ The Hunt for Virtue

My Advocates {Fürsprecher}

There was very little certainty as to whether anybody would speak out for me, regarding this I was never able to get any meaningful response, nothing precise, everyone would turn their face away and most of the people who came my way, those whom I happened upon over and over again in my excursions through the halls, they all seemed to be older, overweight women and all wearing the same aprons draped over their bellies—aprons with dark blue and white stripes—they’d scratch their stomachs and spin about this way and that, tottering but somehow maintaining their heavy balance. I couldn’t even find out as to whether I was in a courthouse. There was much that spoke for this but a lot that indicated the contrary. The thing that stood out above a host of minor details reminding me the most that this would have to be a courthouse was a booming noise {Dröhnen}, an ever constant roar that was coming from far away, one couldn’t say exactly as to where it came from, all of the rooms reverberated, they were all full of it so that one would have to say that it came from everywhere or, what seemed even more correct, that it came precisely from the place upon which you just happened to be standing, wherever fate had put you, this was the actual {eigentliche} source of the noise, but certainly that was a deception since the noise was coming from far off. The hallways—narrow with simple vaulted ceilings, slowly meandering to the right or the left, all of the doors of considerable height but sparsely decorated, designed it seemed to enhance the stillness—they had to be halls in a museum or some sort of library. But if this wasn’t a courthouse then why am I wasting my time here looking for someone to plead my case? Because I have to look everywhere, there’s nowhere where an advocate isn’t needed, somebody who’s on your side. Indeed one needs such people least of all at court since when justice is at issue the judgments are handed down strictly by the dictates of law, at least that’s the supposition, what you had better believe. If one were to believe that matters were decided in an unjust or frivolous manner, well then life itself wouldn’t be possible, one simply has to have faith in the courts, that the majesty of the law has full sovereign reign since, after all, that’s its sole purpose. When law is at issue then everything boils down to prosecution, defense and judgment {Anklage, Fürsprech, Urteil}, anyone wanting to interject their own views in the matter, now that would be an outrage! But the relationship differs when it’s the particulars of an actual judgment {Tatbestand[i] eines Urteils}, these are based upon whatever is brought up here or there, by one’s relations or by strangers, by friends and by enemies, in the family or within the general public be it in a city or a village community, in short wherever it ever may be. In such instances it becomes a matter of urgency that one has people who are like-minded, and the more the better, the best ones possible, one pressed tightly right alongside the next, a living wall since by nature those who will speak out for you are hard to budge; those however who are the accusers, these sly foxes, these slinking weasels, these invisible little mice, how they wiggle their way through the smallest crevice, how they manage to dart right between the legs of your advocates. Hence, look sharp! {Also Achtung!} And even that’s why I’m here, I’m out collecting people who will speak up for me. But I haven’t yet managed to find anyone, there’s only these older women whom I meet up with, coming and going, and it’s always the same ones and if I wasn’t out looking then the whole thing would just put me to sleep. I’m in the wrong place, unfortunately I can’t get it out of my head that I’m simply in the wrong place. I should have placed myself where lots of people congregate, people from all over, from all walks of life, all possible classes, all incomes, all professions, different age groups—I needed to find an opportunity to locate those who’d be capable, those who would be so friendly, those who’d be willing to see things my way, take on my perspective, that I might carefully consider my options and make my choice from out of such a great multitude. Perhaps the best place would be a great market or a fairground {Jahrmarkt}, this would suit me the best. But instead of that here I am rushing along in these hallways where only older women are to be seen and there’s not even that many of them and then it’s always the same ones and even these few, and despite how languidly they move along, all the same I’m unable to get a proper introduction, somehow they all simply glide past me, they float off like the clouds of Summer, they’re all consumed, totally consumed by their own unknowable occupations. And why is it that I rushed blindly into this building, that I didn’t even pause to read the inscription above the entrance, immediately I found myself careening down these halls and yet I’m dead set upon staying here, nailed to the place so that I can’t even remember having been on the outside, can’t even remember my having come up the first flight. But to turn back now, that’s impermissable, such a waste of time, to have to admit having come so far in vain, that I’ve been racing insanely along all this time in the wrong direction {Irrweg}—such an admission would simply be unbearable. How? In such a brief, hurried life that’s filled by this impatient booming noise, how am I possibly to turn back and rush downstairs? That’s just not possible. The time that’s been allotted is so short that, my friend {du}, were you to lose merely one second of it, well your whole life would be sacrificed for it isn’t any longer, it’s merely as long as the time that you would lose. Hence, once you strike out upon some path you’d best continue to pursue it, pursue it by all means no matter what the circumstance, that’s the only way to come out ahead, you’re not in any danger even if it is possible that you’ll come crashing down at the end since if you would have turned back anywhere along the way and reversed course, so you would already have crashed right then and there, and that’s not even a maybe but rather as sure as sure can be. Thus, if you’re unable to find anyone in these hallways, well then open up the doors, and if you don’t have any success behind these doors, it’s no matter, there are more halls upstairs and even if it should be that the next level doesn’t deliver that’s still no cause for alarm, don’t panic but move on ever upwards. So long as you continue along the upward path there will always be more levels that lie ahead, just as you place your feet upon the stairs new ones spring forth beneath you: so upwards, ever upwards.

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[i] “facts of the matter” is the standard Dictionary definition: - “Tat” is a deed, “Bestand” is ‘continued existence’ and is derived from “bestehen” (to exist).