Megillus:  How do you mean?

Athenian:  All those who are ready at a moment’s notice to praise or censure any practice which is matter of discussion, seem to me to proceed in a wrong way.  Let me give you an illustration of what I mean:—­You may suppose a person to be praising wheat as a good kind of food, whereupon another person instantly blames wheat, without ever enquiring into its effect or use, or in what way, or to whom, or with what, or in what state and how, wheat is to be given.  And that is just what we are doing in this discussion.  At the very mention of the word intoxication, one side is ready with their praises and the other with their censures; which is absurd.  For either side adduce their witnesses and approvers, and some of us think that we speak with authority because we have many witnesses; and others because they see those who abstain conquering in battle, and this again is disputed by us.  Now I cannot say that I shall be satisfied, if we go on discussing each of the remaining laws in the same way.  And about this very point of intoxication I should like to speak in another way, which I hold to be the right one; for if number is to be the criterion, are there not myriads upon myriads of nations ready to dispute the point with you, who are only two cities?

Megillus:  I shall gladly welcome any method of enquiry which is right.

Athenian:  Let me put the matter thus:—­Suppose a person to praise the keeping of goats, and the creatures themselves as capital things to have, and then some one who had seen goats feeding without a goatherd in cultivated spots, and doing mischief, were to censure a goat or any other animal who has no keeper, or a bad keeper, would there be any sense or justice in such censure?

Megillus:  Certainly not.

Athenian:  Does a captain require only to have nautical knowledge in order to be a good captain, whether he is sea-sick or not?  What do you say?

Megillus:  I say that he is not a good captain if, although he have nautical skill, he is liable to sea-sickness.

Athenian:  And what would you say of the commander of an army?  Will he be able to command merely because he has military skill if he be a coward, who, when danger comes, is sick and drunk with fear?

Megillus:  Impossible.

Athenian:  And what if besides being a coward he has no skill?

Megillus:  He is a miserable fellow, not fit to be a commander of men, but only of old women.

Athenian:  And what would you say of some one who blames or praises any sort of meeting which is intended by nature to have a ruler, and is well enough when under his presidency?  The critic, however, has never seen the society meeting together at an orderly feast under the control of a president, but always without a ruler or with a bad one:—­when observers of this class praise or blame such meetings, are we to suppose that what they say is of any value?