Page 808 of 1391

Then if any one at all is to have the privilege of lying, the

rulers of the State should be the persons; and they, in their

dealings either with enemies or with their own citizens, may be

allowed to lie for the public good. But nobody else should meddle

with anything of the kind; and although the rulers have this

privilege, for a private man to lie to them in return is to be

deemed a more heinous fault than for the patient or the pupil of

a gymnasium not to speak the truth about his own bodily illnesses

to the physician or to the trainer, or for a sailor not to tell

the captain what is happening about the ship and the rest of the

crew, and how things are going with himself or his fellow

sailors.

Most true, he said.

If, then, the ruler catches anybody beside himself lying in the

State,

'Any of the craftsmen, whether he be priest or physician or

carpenter,'

he will punish him for introducing a practice which is equally

subversive and destructive of ship or State.