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    on my side . Nor do I think that you have accomplished any thing , unless I , one single person , bear witness in your behalf , without regard to any of the others . Yours is one kind of refutation , as you and many others think ; there is another kind , as I think . Let us compare them , and see whether they differ from one another . The things respecting which we are disputing are no trifling things , but are nearly those respecting which it is most honourable to know , and most disgraceful to be ignorant ; for it is , in short , to know or not to know , who is and who

    is not happy . You think , that a person who is unjust , and acts unjustly , may be happy V P . * I do . ' S . I say that it is not possible . This , then , is one point in dispute . Next , will a person who commits injustice be happy if ne be brought to justice and punishment ? ' P . 'By no means ; in that case he would be most wretched . ' S . * But if he do

    not suffer punishment , he is happy ? ' P . * Yes . ' S . 'In my opinion , he who is unjust and commits injustice , Is in any case miserable ; but more miserable if he be unjust and escape from punishment , than if he be brought to justice and suffer punishment . You have refuted tny first opinion , liave you not ?* P . 'Yes . ' S . * Will you refute the second , too ? ' P . ' That , truly , is still more difficult to refute than the first !'

    S . * Not difficult , but impossible ; for the truth cannot be refuted ; ' P . * How ! If a man is detected aiming unjustly at the tyranny , and being detected , is put to the rack and hewed in pieces , and has his eyes burnt out , and after suffering both in himself and in his wife and children the uttermost insult and contumely , is at last impaled or crucified , will he be more happy than if he succeeds in his enterprise , and attaining despotic power , continues master of the state to the end of his days , envied and felicitated both by his countrymen and by foreigners ? Is this what you

    say it is impossible to refute 7 S . ' You are inveighing now , and not refuting , as a little while ago you were calling witnesses . But pray refresh my memory ; are you supposing him to aim unjustly at the tyranny ? ' P . ' Certainly , ' S . * Then neither of them , neither lie who is punished nor he who escapes , is the more happy ; for of two miserable

    persons it cannot be said that either is the happier ; but he who escapes and attains the tyranny , is the more wretched . What is this , Polus ; do you laugh ? Is this another mode of refutation , when any thing is asserted , to laugh , instead of answering it T P . Do you not think yourself answered , when you say what no person in the world would say except yourself ? Ask any of the bystanders . ' 1

    Socrates replied , 1 am no politician , and last year , when it fell to me by lot to be a member of the Council of Five Hundred , an 4 when the turn cams for my tribe to preside , and it was my duty to take the votes , I was laughed at for not knowing how to do it . Do not , therefore , bid me take the votes of the bystanders ; but if you cannot produce a better refutation of what I asserted than this , let me take my turn , and try to

    show you what I consider to be a refutation ; for I know how to produce one witness in proof of my assertion , viz ., the person with whom I am speaking ; but tlie large number I let alone . I know how to take the vote of one person , but with the many I do not converse . Let us see , therefore , whether you are willing , in your turn , to submit yourself to refutation , b y answering the auestions which are asked of you . For my opinion is , tnat botji you and \ % and nil men , consider it a greater evil to do an injury than to suffer one , and to be unpunished than to be punished .

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    706 Plato 8 Dialogues ; the Gorgias .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1834, page 706, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2638/page/30/