Megillus:  Certainly not, if they have never seen or been present at such a meeting when rightly ordered.

Athenian:  Reflect; may not banqueters and banquets be said to constitute a kind of meeting?

Megillus:  Of course.

Athenian:  And did any one ever see this sort of convivial meeting rightly ordered?  Of course you two will answer that you have never seen them at all, because they are not customary or lawful in your country; but I have come across many of them in many different places, and moreover I have made enquiries about them wherever I went, as I may say, and never did I see or hear of anything of the kind which was carried on altogether rightly; in some few particulars they might be right, but in general they were utterly wrong.

Cleinias:  What do you mean, Stranger, by this remark?  Explain.  For we, as you say, from our inexperience in such matters, might very likely not know, even if they came in our way, what was right or wrong in such societies.

Athenian:  Likely enough; then let me try to be your instructor:  You would acknowledge, would you not, that in all gatherings of mankind, of whatever sort, there ought to be a leader?

Cleinias:  Certainly I should.

Athenian:  And we were saying just now, that when men are at war the leader ought to be a brave man?

Cleinias:  We were.

Athenian:  The brave man is less likely than the coward to be disturbed by fears?

Cleinias:  That again is true.

Athenian:  And if there were a possibility of having a general of an army who was absolutely fearless and imperturbable, should we not by all means appoint him?

Cleinias:  Assuredly.

Athenian:  Now, however, we are speaking not of a general who is to command an army, when foe meets foe in time of war, but of one who is to regulate meetings of another sort, when friend meets friend in time of peace.

Cleinias:  True.

Athenian:  And that sort of meeting, if attended with drunkenness, is apt to be unquiet.

Cleinias:  Certainly; the reverse of quiet.

Athenian:  In the first place, then, the revellers as well as the soldiers will require a ruler?

Cleinias:  To be sure; no men more so.

Athenian:  And we ought, if possible, to provide them with a quiet ruler?

Cleinias:  Of course.

Athenian:  And he should be a man who understands society; for his duty is to preserve the friendly feelings which exist among the company at the time, and to increase them for the future by his use of the occasion.

Cleinias:  Very true.

Athenian:  Must we not appoint a sober man and a wise to be our master of the revels?  For if the ruler of drinkers be himself young and drunken, and not over-wise, only by some special good fortune will he be saved from doing some great evil.