[950b]
and, moreover, it would appear to the rest of the world to be both churlish and cross-grained, since they would get the reputation of adopting harsh language, such as that of the so-called “Aliens Expulsion Acts,”1 and methods both tyrannical and severe; and reputation in the eyes of others, whether for goodness or the reverse, is a thing that should never be lightly esteemed. For the majority of men, even though they be far removed from real goodness themselves, are not equally lacking in the power of judging whether others are bad or good; and even in the wicked there resides a divine and correct intuition,2 whereby a vast number even of the extremely wicked
1 By a law of Lycurgus, strangers were forbidden to reside at Sparta; cp. Aristophanes Av. 1012 ὥσπερ ἐν Λακεδαίμον ξενηλατοῦνται.
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