sophrosyne

XX. — Peut-être, repris-je ; mais peut-être aussi avons-nous fait une recherche totalement inutile. Ce qui me le fait croire, ce sont certaines conséquences qui m’apparaissent et qui seraient bien étranges, si la sagesse est ce que nous avons dit. Examinons-les, si tu veux.

— Qu’est-ce donc que cela pourrait bien être, de faire ses propres affaires ? Pourrais-tu le dire ?

[159b] Il hésita d’abord, peu disposé à répondre. Il finit cependant par dire qu’à son avis la sagesse consistait à faire toutes choses avec modération et avec calme, qu’il s’agît de marcher dans les rues, de converser ou de toute autre chose. « Il me semble, dit-il, qu’en somme ce que tu me demandes est une sorte de calme. »

— Peut-être as-tu raison, repris-je. Il est certain, Charmide, qu’on dit souvent des gens calmes qu’ils sont des sages ; mais voyons si on a raison de le dire. [159c] Dis-moi donc : tu mets certainement la sagesse au nombre des belles choses ?

[153a] SOCRATE: I. — J’étais revenu la veille au soir de l’armée de Potidée1, et, comme j’arrivais après une longue absence, je pris plaisir à revoir les endroits que j’avais l’habitude de fréquenter, entre autres la palestre de Tauréas2, en face du sanctuaire de Basilè3. J’entrai et j’y trouvai beaucoup de gens, les uns inconnus, mais la plupart de ma connaissance. En me [153b] voyant entrer, ils furent surpris et aussitôt me saluèrent de tous les points de la salle.

La

We will not, I said, be over-positive as yet ; but if, on trial, this conception of justice be verified in the individual as well as in the State, there will be no longer any room for doubt ; if it be not verified, we must have a fresh inquiry. First let us complete the old investigation, which we began, as you remember, under the impression that, if we could previously examine justice on the larger scale, there would be less difficulty in discerning her in the individual.

But where, amid all this, is justice ? Son of Ariston, tell me where. Now that our city has been made habitable, light a candle and search, and get your brother and Polemarchus and the rest of our friends to help, and let us see where in it we can discover justice and where injustice, and in what they differ from one another, and which of them the man who would be happy should have for his portion, whether seen or unseen by gods and men.

Nonsense, said Glaucon : did you not promise to search yourself, saying that for you not to help justice in her need would be an impiety ?

Thrasymachus made all these admissions, not fluently, as I repeat them, but with extreme reluctance ; it was a hot summer’s day, and the perspiration poured from him in torrents ; and then I saw what I had never seen before, Thrasymachus blushing. As we were now agreed that justice was virtue and wisdom, and injustice vice and ignorance, I proceeded to another point :

Well, I said, Thrasymachus, that matter is now settled ; but were we not also saying that injustice had strength — do you remember ?

Several times in the course of the discussion Thrasymachus had made an attempt to get the argument into his own hands, and had been put down by the rest of the company, who wanted to hear the end. But when Polemarchus and I had done speaking and there was a pause, he could no longer hold his peace ; and, gathering himself up, he came at us like a wild beast, seeking to devour us. We were quite panic-stricken at the sight of him.

Tell me then, O thou heir of the argument, what did Simonides say, and according to you, truly say, about justice ?

He said that the repayment of a debt is just, and in saying so he appears to me to be right.