begin to be disheartened, if he make them believe
that a great reinforcement is coming to him, and by
that stratagem inspires fresh courage into the soldiers,
under what head shall we put this lie?” “Under
the head of justice,” answered Euthydemus.
“And when a child will not take the physic
that he has great need of, and his father makes it
be given him in a mess of broth, and by that means
the child recovers his health, to which shall we ascribe
this deceit?” “To justice likewise.”
“And if a man, who sees his friend in despair,
and fears he will kill himself, hides his sword from
him, or takes it out of his hands by force, what shall
we say of this violence?” “That it is
just,” replied Euthydemus. “Observe
what you say,” continued Socrates; “for
it follows from your answers that we are not always
obliged to live with our friends uprightly, and without
any deceit, as we agreed we were.” “No;
certainly we are not, and if I may be permitted to
retract what I said, I change my opinion very freely.”
“It is better,” said Socrates, “to
change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.
But there is still one point which we must not pass
over without inquiry, and this relates to those whose
deceits are prejudicial to their friends; for I ask
you, which are most unjust, they who with premeditate
design cheat their friends, or they who do it through
inadvertency?” “Indeed,” said Euthydemus,
“I know not what to answer, nor what to believe,
for you have so fully refuted what I have said, that
what appeared to me before in one light appears to
me now in another. Nevertheless, I will venture
to say that he is the most unjust who deceives his
friend deliberately.” “Do you think,”
said Socrates, “that one may learn to be just
and honest, as well as we learn to read and write?”
“I think we may.” “Which,”
added Socrates, “do you take to be the most
ignorant, he who reads wrong on purpose, or he who
reads wrong because he can read no better?”
“The last of them,” answered Euthydemus;
“for the other who mistakes for pleasure need
not mistake when he pleases.” “Then,”
inferred Socrates, “he who reads wrong deliberately
knows how to read; but he who reads wrong without
design is an ignorant man.” “You
say true.” “Tell me likewise,”
pursued Socrates, “which knows best what ought
to be done, and what belongs to justice, he who lies
and cheats with premeditate design, or he who deceives
without intention to deceive?” “It is
most plain,” said Euthydemus, “that it
is he who deceives with premeditate design.”
“But you said,” replied Socrates, “that
he who can read is more learned than he who cannot
read?” “I did so.” “Therefore
he who best knows which are the duties of justice
is more just than he that knows them not.”
“It seems to be so,” answered Euthydemus,
“and I know not well how I came to say what
I did.” “Indeed,” said Socrates,
“you often change your opinion, and contradict
what you say; and what would you yourself think of
any man who pretended to tell the truth, and yet never
said the same thing; who, in pointing out to you the
same road, should show you sometimes east, sometimes
west, and who, in telling the same sum, should find
more money at one time than another; what would you
think of such a man?” “He would make
all men think,” answered Euthydemus, “that
he knew nothing of what he pretended to know.”