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though accidentally it may be the greater. With this however science
is not concerned; science pronounces pIeurisy a more serious disorder than a sprain, in
spite of the fact that in certain circumstances a sprain may be accidentally worse than
pleurisy, as for instance if it should happen that owing to a sprain you fell and in
consequence of falling were taken by the enemy and killed.)
[9]
In a metaphorical and analogical sense however there is such a thing as justice, not
towards oneself but between different parts of one's nature; not, it is true, justice in
the full sense of the term, but such justice as subsists between master and slave, or
between the head of a household and his wife and children. For in the discourses on this
question1 a distinction is set up between the
rational and irrational parts of the soul; and this is what leads people to suppose that
there is such a thing as injustice towards oneself, because these parts of the self may be
thwarted in their respective desires, so that there may be a sort of justice between them,
such as exists between ruler and subject.
[10]
So much may be said in description of Justice and of the other Moral Virtues.
1 Plato's Republic and the writings of Plato's followers: cf. 1.13.9.