(Athenian:  My good sir, what do you mean?)—­

Cleinias:...Moreover, there is a victory and defeat—­the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats—­which each man gains or sustains at the hands, not of another, but of himself; this shows that there is a war against ourselves going on within every one of us.

Athenian:  Let us now reverse the order of the argument:  Seeing that every individual is either his own superior or his own inferior, may we say that there is the same principle in the house, the village, and the state?

Cleinias:  You mean that in each of them there is a principle of superiority or inferiority to self?

Athenian:  Yes.

Cleinias:  You are quite right in asking the question, for there certainly is such a principle, and above all in states; and the state in which the better citizens win a victory over the mob and over the inferior classes may be truly said to be better than itself, and may be justly praised, where such a victory is gained, or censured in the opposite case.

Athenian:  Whether the better is ever really conquered by the worse, is a question which requires more discussion, and may be therefore left for the present.  But I now quite understand your meaning when you say that citizens who are of the same race and live in the same cities may unjustly conspire, and having the superiority in numbers may overcome and enslave the few just; and when they prevail, the state may be truly called its own inferior and therefore bad; and when they are defeated, its own superior and therefore good.

Cleinias:  Your remark, Stranger, is a paradox, and yet we cannot possibly deny it.

Athenian:  Here is another case for consideration;—­in a family there may be several brothers, who are the offspring of a single pair; very possibly the majority of them may be unjust, and the just may be in a minority.

Cleinias:  Very possibly.

Athenian:  And you and I ought not to raise a question of words as to whether this family and household are rightly said to be superior when they conquer, and inferior when they are conquered; for we are not now considering what may or may not be the proper or customary way of speaking, but we are considering the natural principles of right and wrong in laws.

Cleinias:  What you say, Stranger, is most true.

Megillus:  Quite excellent, in my opinion, as far as we have gone.

Athenian:  Again; might there not be a judge over these brethren, of whom we were speaking?

Cleinias:  Certainly.

Athenian:  Now, which would be the better judge—­one who destroyed the bad and appointed the good to govern themselves; or one who, while allowing the good to govern, let the bad live, and made them voluntarily submit?  Or third, I suppose, in the scale of excellence might be placed a judge, who, finding the family distracted, not only did not destroy any one, but reconciled them to one another for ever after, and gave them laws which they mutually observed, and was able to keep them friends.