YOUNG SOCRATES: Most true.
STRANGER: In the political art error is not called disease, but evil, or
disgrace, or injustice.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Quite true.
STRANGER: And when the citizen, contrary to law and custom, is compelled
to do what is juster and better and nobler than he did before, the last and
most absurd thing which he could say about such violence is that he has
incurred disgrace or evil or injustice at the hands of those who compelled
him.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very true.
STRANGER: And shall we say that the violence, if exercised by a rich man,
is just, and if by a poor man, unjust? May not any man, rich or poor, with
or without laws, with the will of the citizens or against the will of the
citizens, do what is for their interest? Is not this the true principle of
government, according to which the wise and good man will order the affairs
of his subjects? As the pilot, by watching continually over the interests
of the ship and of the crew,--not by laying down rules, but by making his
art a law,--preserves the lives of his fellow-sailors, even so, and in the
self-same way, may there not be a true form of polity created by those who
are able to govern in a similar spirit, and who show a strength of art
which is superior to the law? Nor can wise rulers ever err while they
observing the one great rule of distributing justice to the citizens with
intelligence and skill, are able to preserve them, and, as far as may be,
to make them better from being worse.
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