[425e]
they will easily, I
presume, discover.” “Yes, my friend, provided God grants
them the preservation of the principles of law that we have already
discussed.” “Failing that,” said he,
“they will pass their lives multiplying such petty laws and
amending them in the expectation of attaining what is best.”
“You mean,” said I, “that the life of such
citizens will resemble that of men who are sick, yet from intemperance are
unwilling to abandon1 their unwholesome regimen.”
1 Cf. Emerson, “Experience”: “They wish to be saved from the mischiefs of their vices but not from their vices. Charity would be wasted on this poor waiting on the symptoms. A wise and hardy physician will say, 'Come out of that' as the first condition of advice.”
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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