Phaedo — That is plain.

Socrates — And if a company of men should find an island and go and live upon it and be strong enough to subdue the wild animals and keep out other men, that island would be for their use.

Phaedo — That follows, because sovereignty goes with power exercised in force.

Socrates — And so if one man should find a vacant space and take possession, it would be his.

Phaedo — That is true.

Socrates — And what belongs to man, man may dispose of as he will.

Phaedo — All men agree to that.

Socrates — And, therefore, since Hippocrates has found a vacant space on the earth and taken possession thereof, and no man disputes his possession, it is his and he may sell it.

Phaedo — That is certainly true, and I do not doubt that Hipparchus will now pay down his talent of silver and take over the vale in the Olympian forest.

Socrates — And if instead of finding an island the company of men had found an entire continent it would be theirs if they were strong enough to keep it.

Phaedo — Surely that is so, for power is but concentrated ability to enjoy, and where most power lies, there lies most ability to enjoy, and therefore the highest possible aggregate of human happiness, in the attainment of which the will of the gods shall be done.

Socrates — And if a company can take part of a continent, but not the whole, whatever they are able to take is theirs.

Phaedo — Undoubtedly.

Socrates — And what is theirs is not the property of others.

Phaedo — By no means.

Socrates — And if it does not belong to others, others may not lawfully use it.

Phaedo — Surely not.

Socrates — And they who do own it may prevent others from entering it.

Phaedo — Surely, for hath not the poet said: 

“That they shall take who have the power,
And they may keep who can.”

Socrates — Therefore it is plain that the United States may keep
Chinamen out of America.

Phaedo — There can be no doubt of it whatever.

Socrates — And Chinese may keep Americans out of China.

Phaedo — That is another story.  One must never let his logic get the better of him.

And so we might play with these great subjects forever, with reasoning as leaky as a sieve, but good enough to catch the careless or the untrained.

One of the most interesting lectures which I ever listened to was one before the Economic League of San Francisco on the “Dialectics of Socialism.”  The lecturer was a very acute man, who would not for one moment be deceived by the sophistry of my Socrates and Phaedo, but, who, himself, made willing captives of his hearers by similar methods.  I was unable to hear all his address, but when I reluctantly left, it appeared to me that he was expecting to prove that Socialism must be sound philosophy because it was contradictory to all human observation, experience, judgment and the dictates of sound common sense — and his large audience was plainly enough with him.