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4 us consider farther in this manner . It is sometimes better to do the thing which we were talking about , to kill , and confiscate , and banish ; and sometimes not V P . ' Undoubtedly / S . * This we are both of us agreed in Y P . * We are . ' S . 4 In what cases do you say it is better , and in what otherwise ? Tell me where you draw the line . ' P . * Do you , Socrates , answer this question yourself . ' S . * If you prefer to be a listener , I say , that when it is done justly it is better , and when unjustly , it is worse . ' P . ' Could not a child refute what you now assert V -S > . 4 I shall be very thankful to the child , and equally so to you , if you refute me , and free me from error . Do not be tired of doing a service to a friend , but refute . ' P . ' There is no occasion to go very far back in order to refute you . What happened only the other day i 9 sufficient to prove that many unjust persons are happy . ' S . * What are these things ? ' P . * Do you see Archelaus , the king of Macedonia V
S . * If 1 do not see him I have heard of him / P . * Doe 3 he appear to you happy or miserable V S . i I do not know * for I have never conversed with the man / P . What ! could you know that he was happy by conversing with him , and not otherwise V S . * Certainly not / P . ' Then you will say that you do not know whether the Great King ( of Persia ) is liappy ?* S . 'And I shall say truly ; for I do not know in what condition he is with respect to mental cultivation and justice . ' P . ' What ! Does all happiness consist in this V 5 . As I say , it does ; for
I affirm that an excellent man or woman is happy , an unjust and wicked one wretched / P . * Then Archelaus is wretched , by your account V S . * If he be unjust / P . * But how can it be denied that he is unjust V and here Poius relates a series of crimes by which Archelaus had risen to the throne , intermixing much sarcastic irony on the notion of Socrates that he was unhappy , and ends by saying , ' and do you suppose there is so much as a single Athenian , beginning with yourself , who would not
rather be Archelaus than any other of the Macedonians V Socrates replied , At the commencement of our conversation I praised you for being well versed in rhetoric , but said that you had neglected discussion . Is this the argument with which a child could confute me ? Does this , in your opinion , refute my assertion that an unjust man is not (happy ? How , pray ? for I do not admit a word of what you have said . ' P . Because you will not ; for you in reality think as I say . * S . 'My good friend , you attempt to refute me rhetorically , in the manner of what
is called refutation in the courts of justice . In those courts , one man thinks that he refutes another , if he can produce many ' witnesses of good reputation in behalf of what he says , while his adversary can produce only one , or none at all . But this sort of refutation is good for nothing as respects truth : for it sometimes happens that a great number of witnesses , and people who are thought to be of some worth , bear false witness . And now , on the subject of which you are speaking , very nearly all the Athenians , and foreigners too , will join in your assertion , and if you wish to
produce witnesses in proof that I am wrong , you may have Nicias , if you please , and Aristocrates , and the whole family of Pericles , and , in short , any one you please in this city . But I , who am but one man , do not acknowledge it ; for you do not compel me to do so , but attempt to bear me down and deprive me of my substance , of the Truth , by producing false witnesses against me . I , on the contrary , think 1 have done nothing , unless I can produce you , yourself , who are but one , as a witness
Untitled Article
Plato 8 Dialogues ; the Gorgias * 705
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1834, page 705, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2638/page/29/
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