men at home, and they are equally ready to find some way of keeping the

peace with foreign States. And on account of this fondness of theirs for

peace, which is often out of season where their influence prevails, they

become by degrees unwarlike, and bring up their young men to be like

themselves; they are at the mercy of their enemies; whence in a

few years they and their children and the whole city often pass

imperceptibly from the condition of freemen into that of slaves.

YOUNG SOCRATES: What a cruel fate!

STRANGER: And now think of what happens with the more courageous

natures. Are they not always inciting their country to go to war, owing

to their excessive love of the military life? they raise up enemies

against themselves many and mighty, and either utterly ruin their

native-land or enslave and subject it to its foes?

YOUNG SOCRATES: That, again, is true.

STRANGER: Must we not admit, then, that where these two classes exist,

they always feel the greatest antipathy and antagonism towards one

another?

YOUNG SOCRATES: We cannot deny it.

STRANGER: And returning to the enquiry with which we began, have we

not found that considerable portions of virtue are at variance with one

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Statesman