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I think, he said, that there is no need to impose laws about them

on good men; what regulations are necessary they will find out

soon enough for themselves.

Yes, I said, my friend, if God will only preserve to them the

laws which we have given them.

And without divine help, said Adeimantus, they will go on for

ever making and mending their laws and their lives in the hope of

attaining perfection.

You would compare them, I said, to those invalids who, having no

self-restraint, will not leave off their habits of intemperance?

Exactly.

Yes, I said; and what a delightful life they lead! they are

always doctoring and increasing and complicating their disorders,

and always fancying that they will be cured by any nostrum which

anybody advises them to try.

Such cases are very common, he said, with invalids of this sort.