And such an one is far better, as we affirm, than the other in amore difficult kind of war, much in the same degree as justice andtemperance and wisdom, when united with courage, are better thancourage only; for a man cannot be faithful and good in civil strifewithout having all virtue. But in the war of which Tyrtaeus speaks,many a mercenary soldier will take his stand and be ready to die athis post, and yet they are generally and almost without exceptioninsolent, unjust, violent men, and the most senseless of human beings.
You will ask what the conclusion is, and what I am seeking to prove: Imaintain that the divine legislator of Crete, like any other who isworthy of consideration, will always and above all things in makinglaws have regard to the greatest virtue; which, according to Theognis,is loyalty in the hour of danger, and may be truly called perfectjustice. Whereas, that virtue which Tyrtaeus highly praises is wellenough, and was praised by the poet at the right time, yet in placeand dignity may be said to be only fourth rate.
Cle. Stranger, we are degrading our inspired lawgiver to a rankwhich is far beneath him.
Ath. Nay, I think that we degrade not him but ourselves, if weimagine that Lycurgus and Minos laid down laws both in Lacedaemonand Crete mainly with a view to war.
Cle. What ought we to say then?
Ath. What truth and what justice require of us, if I am notmistaken, when speaking in behalf of divine excellence;-at thelegislator when making his laws had in view not a part only, andthis the lowest part of virtue, but all virtue, and that he devisedclasses of laws answering to the kinds of virtue; not in the way inwhich modern inventors of laws make the classes, for they onlyinvestigate and offer laws whenever a want is felt, and one man hasa class of laws about allotments and heiresses, another aboutassaults; others about ten thousand other such matters. But wemaintain that the right way of examining into laws is to proceed as wehave now done, and I admired the spirit of your exposition; for youwere quite right in beginning with virtue, and saying that this wasthe aim of the giver of the law, but I thought that you went wrongwhen you added that all his legislation had a view only to a part, andthe least part of virtue, and this called forth my subsequent remarks.
Will you allow me then to explain how I should have liked to haveheard you expound the matter?
Cle. By all means.
Ath. You ought to have said, Stranger-The Cretan laws are withreason famous among the Hellenes; for they fulfil the object oflaws, which is to make those who use them happy; and they confer everysort of good. Now goods are of two kinds: there are human and thereare divine goods, and the human hang upon the divine; and the statewhich attains the greater, at the same time acquires the less, or, nothaving the greater, has neither. Of the lesser goods the first ishealth, the second beauty, the third strength, including swiftnessin running and bodily agility generally, and the fourth is wealth, notthe blind god [Pluto], but one who is keen of sight, if only he haswisdom for his companion. For wisdom is chief and leader of the divinedass of goods, and next follows temperance; and from the union ofthese two with courage springs justice, and fourth in the scale ofvirtue is courage. All these naturally take precedence of the othergoods, and this is the order in which the legislator must placethem, and after them he will enjoin the rest of his ordinances onthe citizens with a view to these, the human looking to the divine,and the divine looking to their leader mind. Some of his ordinanceswill relate to contracts of marriage which they make one with another,and then to the procreation and education of children, both male andfemale; the duty of the lawgiver will be to take charge of hiscitizens, in youth and age, and at every time of life, and to givethem punishments and rewards; and in reference to all theirintercourse with one another, he ought to consider their pains andpleasures and desires, and the vehemence of all their passions; heshould keep a watch over them, and blame and praise them rightly bythe mouth of the laws themselves. Also with regard to anger andterror, and the other perturbations of the soul, which arise out ofmisfortune, and the deliverances from them which prosperity brings,and the experiences which come to men in diseases, or in war, orpoverty, or the opposite of these; in all these states he shoulddetermine and teach what is the good and evil of the condition ofeach. In the next place, the legislator has to be careful how thecitizens make their money and in what way they spend it, and to havean eye to their mutual contracts and dissolutions of contracts,whether voluntary or involuntary: he should see how they order allthis, and consider where justice as well as injustice is found or iswanting in their several dealings with one another; and honour thosewho obey the law, and impose fixed penalties on those who disobey,until the round of civil life is ended, and the time has come forthe consideration of the proper funeral rites and honours of the dead.
And the lawgiver reviewing his work, will appoint guardians to presideover these things-some who walk by intelligence, others by trueopinion only, and then mind will bind together all his ordinancesand show them to be in harmony with temperance and justice, and notwith wealth or ambition. This is the spirit, Stranger, in which Iwas and am desirous that you should pursue the subject. And I wantto know the nature of all these things, and how they are arranged inthe laws of Zeus, as they are termed, and in those of the PythianApollo, which Minos and Lycurgus gave; and how the order of them isdiscovered to his eyes, who has experience in laws gained either bystudy or habit, although they are far from being self-evident to therest of mankind like ourselves.
Cle. How shall we proceed, Stranger?