[Side-note: Question--what is courage? Lachês answers by citing one particularly manifest case of courage. Mistake of not giving a general explanation.]
Here is the same error in replying, as was committed by Euthyphron when asked, What is the Holy? and by Hippias, about the Beautiful. One particular case of courageous behaviour, among many, is indicated, as if it were an explanation of the whole: but the general feature common to all acts of courage is not declared. Sokrates points out that men are courageous, not merely among hoplites who keep their rank and fight, but also among the Scythian horsemen who fight while running away; others also are courageous against disease, poverty, political adversity, pain and fear of every sort; others moreover, against desires and pleasures. What is the common attribute which in all these cases constitutes Courage? If you asked me what is _quickness_--common to all those cases when a man runs, speaks, plays, learns, &c., quickly--I should tell you that it was that which accomplished much in a little time. Tell me in like manner, what is the common fact or attribute pervading all cases of courage?
Lachês at first does not understand the question:[13] and Sokrates elucidates it by giving the parallel explanation of quickness. Here, as elsewhere, Plato takes great pains to impress the conception in its full generality, and he seems to have found difficulty in making others follow him.
[Greek: pa/lin ou)=n peirô= ei)pei=n a)ndrei/an prô=ton, ti/ o)\n e)n pa=si tou/tois tau)to/n e)stin. ê)\ ou)/pô katamantha/neis o(\ le/gô?] _Lachês._ [Greek: Ou) pa/nu ti. . . .] _Sokr._ [Greek: peirô= dê\ tê\n a)ndrei/an ou(/tôs ei)pein, ti/s ou)=sa du/namis ê( au)tê\ e)n ê(donê=| kai\ e)n lu/pê| kai\ e)n a(/pasin oi(=s nu=n dê\ e)le/gomen au)tê\n ei)=nai, e)/peit' a)ndrei/a ke/klêtai.]]
[Side-note: Second answer. Courage is a sort of endurance of the mind. Sokrates points out that the answer is vague and incorrect. Endurance is not always courage: even intelligent endurance is not always courage.]
Lachês then gives a general definition of courage. It is a sort of endurance of the mind.[14]
[Footnote 14: Plato, Lachês, 192 B. [Greek: karteri/a tis tê=s psuchê=s.]]