teaching of plato

the true artist does not regard his

own interest, but always that of his subjects; and therefore in order that rulers may be

willing to rule, they must be paid in one of three modes of payment, money, or honour, or a

penalty for refusing.

Now the worst part of the punishment is that he

who refuses to rule is liable to be ruled by one who is worse than himself.

to do injustice is, by nature, good; to suffer injustice, evil; but that the evil is

greater than the good. And so when men have both done and suffered injustice and have

had experience of both, not being able to avoid the one and obtain the other, they think that

they had better agree among themselves to have neither; hence there arise laws and mutual

covenants; and that which is ordained by law is termed by them lawful and just. This they

affirm to be the origin and nature of justice;—it is a mean or compromise, between the best

of all, which is to do injustice and not be punished, and the worst of all, which is to suffer

injustice without the power of retaliation; and justice, being at a middle point between the

two, is tolerated not as a good, but as the lesser evil, and honoured by reason of the

inability of men to do injustice.

‘His mind has a soil deep and fertile,