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On what principle, then, shall we any longer choose justice

rather than the worst injustice? when, if we only unite the

latter with a deceitful regard to appearances, we shall fare to

our mind both with gods and men, in life and after death, as the

most numerous and the highest authorities tell us. Knowing all

this, Socrates, how can a man who has any superiority of mind or

person or rank or wealth, be willing to honour justice; or indeed

to refrain from laughing when he hears justice praised? And even

if there should be some one who is able to disprove the truth of

my words, and who is satisfied that justice is best, still he is

not angry with the unjust, but is very ready to forgive them,

because he also knows that men are not just of their own free

will; unless, peradventure, there be some one whom the divinity

within him may have inspired with a hatred of injustice, or who

has attained knowledge of the truth-but no other man.