https://app.box.com/s/n9vvq5rzlumf1kijyfyjrtoct9yeliro
[Socrates:] But
if they are to be courageous, must they not learn other lessons besides these, and
lessons of such a kind as will take away the fear of death? Can any man be courageous
who has the fear of death in him?
Certainly
not, he said.
[Socrates:] And
can he be fearless of death, or will he choose death in battle rather than defeat and slavery,
who believes the world below to be real and terrible?
[Socrates:] But with the judge it is otherwise; since he governs mind by
mind; he ought not therefore to have been trained among vicious minds, and to
have associated with them from youth upwards, and to have gone through the
whole calendar of crime, only in order that he may quickly infer the crimes
of others as he might their bodily diseases from his own
self-consciousness; the honourable mind which is to form a healthy judgment should have had no
experience or contamination of evil habits when young. And this is the
reason why in youth good men often appear to be simple, and are easily
practised upon by the dishonest, because they have no examples of what evil is
in their own souls.
Yes, he said, they are far too apt to be deceived.
[Socrates:] Therefore, I said, the judge should not be young; he should
have learned to know evil, not from his own soul, but from late and long
observation of the nature of evil in others: knowledge should be his guide, not
personal experience.
Yes,
he said, that is the ideal of a judge.
[Socrates:] Yes, I replied, and he will be a good man (which is my
answer to your question); for he is good who has a good soul. But the cunning and
suspicious nature of which we spoke,–he who has committed many crimes, and
fancies himself to be a master in wickedness, when he is amongst his fellows,
is wonderful in the precautions which he takes, because he judges of them by
himself: but when he gets into the company of men of virtue, who have the
experience of age, he appears to be a fool again, owing to his unseasonable
suspicions; he cannot recognise an honest man, because he has no pattern of
honesty in himself; at the same time, as the bad are more numerous than the good,
and he meets with them oftener, he thinks himself, and is by others thought to
be, rather wise than foolish.
Most
true, he said.
[Socrates:] Then the good and wise judge whom we are seeking is not this
man, but the other; for vice cannot know virtue too, but a virtuous
nature, educated by time, will acquire a knowledge both of virtue and vice: the
virtuous, and not the vicious,
man has wisdom–in my opinion.
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