Pagina 757 van 1391

Had this been the universal strain, had you sought to persuade us

of this from our youth upwards, we should not have been on the

watch to keep one another from doing wrong, but every one would

have been his own watchman, because afraid, if he did wrong, of

harbouring in himself the greatest of evils. I dare say that

Thrasymachus and others would seriously hold the language which I

have been merely repeating, and words even stronger than these

about justice and injustice, grossly, as I conceive, perverting

their true nature. But I speak in this vehement manner, as I must

frankly confess to you, because I want to hear from you the

opposite side; and I would ask you to show not only the

superiority which justice has over injustice, but what effect

they have on the possessor of them which makes the one to be a

good and the other an evil to him.