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[405b] it disgraceful and a notable mark of bad breeding to have to make use of a justice imported from others, who thus become your masters and judges, from lack of such qualities in yourself1?” “The most shameful thing in the world.” “Is it?” said I, “or is this still more shameful2—when a man only wears out the better part of his days in the courts of law as defendant or accuser, but from the lack of all true sense of values3 is led to plume himself on this very thing, as being a smart fellow to 'put over' an unjust act

1 I have given the sense. The contruction is debated accordingly as we read ἀπορία or ἀπορίᾳ. Cf. Phaedrus 239 D, of the use of cosmetics,χήτει οἰκείων. The καί with ἀπορίᾳ is awkward or expresses the carelessness of conversation.

2 Plato likes to emphasize by pointing to a lower depth or a higher height beyond the superlative.

3 There is no exact English equivalent for ἀπειροκαλία, the insensitiveness to the καλόν of the banausic, the nouveau riche and the Philistine.

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