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They say that 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. For no man who is worthy to be

called a man would ever submit to such an agreement if he were

able to resist; he would be mad if he did.