their running, wrestling, or whatever the form of bodily exercise may

be.

YOUNG SOCRATES: True.

STRANGER: And now observe that the legislator who has to preside over

the herd, and to enforce justice in their dealings with one another,

will not be able, in enacting for the general good, to provide exactly

what is suitable for each particular case.

YOUNG SOCRATES: He cannot be expected to do so.

STRANGER: He will lay down laws in a general form for the majority,

roughly meeting the cases of individuals; and some of them he will

deliver in writing, and others will be unwritten; and these last will be

traditional customs of the country.

YOUNG SOCRATES: He will be right.

STRANGER: Yes, quite right; for how can he sit at every man's side all

through his life, prescribing for him the exact particulars of his duty?

Who, Socrates, would be equal to such a task? No one who really had the

royal science, if he had been able to do this, would have imposed upon

himself the restriction of a written law.

YOUNG SOCRATES: So I should infer from what has now been said.

Statesman