Page:Plato (IA platocollins00colliala).pdf/130

 reputation for justice (for this is the crowning exploit of injustice); he will accomplish all his ends by force or fraud, and the gods, whose favour he will win by costly offerings, will sanctify the means. While the perfectly simple and noble man, clothed only in his justice, will suffer the worst consequences of a lifelong reputation for seeming to be that which he really is not—unjust. He will be put in chains, scourged, tortured, and at last put to death. Which think you the happier of these two?"

Then Adeimantus takes up the parable,—for brother, he says, should help brother. "Men too commonly make the mistake of dwelling, not upon the beauty of Justice in itself, but on the worldly advantages, the honours, and the high reputation which attend a just life. It is in this spirit that parents advise their children, and that Homer and Hesiod recount the blessings which the gods bestow upon the pious—

And other poets describe the glories of a sensual paradise, where their heroes feast on couches, crowned with flowers, and make the fairest reward of virtue to be