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    S . ' Not so indeed , since you said that to be powerful was a good thing for the powerful person . ' P . * I say so still . ' 5 . * Do you think it a good thing for a person to accomplish what he thinks fit , if he is without good sense ? and is this what you call being powerful V P . ' Not 1 / S . * Then if you would refute him , you must show that orators have good sense , and that rhetoric is an art * not an adulation . But though you should leave me unrefuted , orators and despots who do whatever they think fit in a state , will he never the hetter for it . Power , you say , is something good . But to effect what we think fit , being without good sense , you yourself allow to be a bad thing . ' P . * I do / S . 'How then can orators or despots be powerful in a state , unless you prove against me that they effect what they desire V P . * What a man V €

    S . ' I say , they do not effect what they desire . ' P . Did you not admit that they effect what they think fit ? ' S . * I admit it still / P . ' Then they effect what they desire / S . * I say not / P . Although they effect what they think fit V S . Yes / P . ' You talk nonsense / S . * Do not inveigh against me , most worthy Polus : but if you have any questions to put , show that I am wrong ; if not , do you yourself answer / P . 'lam willing to answer , that I may know what it is you mean / S . Does it seem to you that people , on each occasion , desire the

    thing itself which they do , or the thing for the sake of which they do it I For instance , does a person who takes medicine , desire the actual

    tiling which he does , viz . to drink the potion and suffer pain , or the thing for the sake of which he does it , viz . to be in health ? Evidently , to be in health . And navigators , or other men of business , do not desire the actual thing which they do ( for who would desire all sorts of trouble and danger ?) vbut they desire the thing for the sake of which all this is done , viz ., to be rich ? ' P . * Very true / S . ' And the case is the same with every thing , is it not ? When we do one thing for the

    sake of another , what we desire is not the thing which we do , but the thing for the sake of which we do it / P . *• Certainly / 5 . * Now are not all things either good or bad , or between the two , neither good nor bad V P . * Certainly / S . Wisdom , health , riches , and so forth , you call good , and their opposites bad / P . ' Undoubtedly / S . And the things which are neither good nor bad , are those which sometimes partake of good , sometimes of bad , sometimes of neither : as to sit , or to walk , or to run , or to

    sail , or as wood and stone , and so forth / P . True / S . ' Do we perform these indifferent things for the sake of the good tilings , or the good things for the sake of the indiiferent things ?* P . We perform the indifferent things for the sake of the good things / S . * Then , when we walk , we do so in pursuit of good , and when we stand , it is for the same reason / P . * Yee / S . 4 And if we kill any one , or banish him ,

    or confiscate his property , it is because we think it better to do so , than not / P . k Certainly / S . * Those then who do these things , do them for the sake of good / P . * Granted / S . * But we admitted that we desire , not those things which we perform for the sake of other things , but those other things , for the sake of which we perform them / P . * Most true * S . Then we do not desire simply to kill men or baimh them , ° r to deprive them of their property : but we desire to do these things iUhey be beneficial , and not to do them if they be hurtful . For , as you sa yi we desire the things which are good * but do not desire those w hich are indifferent , or bad . Do I say true / Why do you not

    Untitled Article

    Plato ' s Dialogues ; the Gorgias . 708

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1834, page 703, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2638/page/27/