Dialogues

have you which are adapted to promote temperance? “There are the common meals and gymnastic exercises.” These are partly good and partly bad, and, as in medicine, what is good at one time and for one person, is bad at another time and for another person. Now although gymnastics and common meals do good, they are also a cause of evil in civil troubles, and they appear to encourage unnatural love, as has been shown at Miletus, in Boeotia, and at Thurii. And the Cretans are said to have invented the tale of Zeus and Ganymede in order to justify their evil practices by the example of the God who was their lawgiver. Leaving the story, we may observe that all law has to do with pleasure and pain; these are two fountains which are ever flowing in human nature, and he who drinks of them when and as much as he ought, is happy, and he who indulges in them to excess, is miserable. “You may be right, but I still incline to think that the Lacedaemonian lawgiver did well in forbidding pleasure, if I may judge from the result. For there is no drunken revelry in Sparta, and anyone found in a state of intoxication is severely punished; he is not excused as an Athenian would be at Athens on account of a festival. I myself have seen the Athenians drunk at the Dionysia⁠—and at our colony, Tarentum, on a similar occasion, I have beheld the whole city in a state of intoxication.” I admit that these festivals should be properly regulated. Yet I might reply, “Yes, Spartans, that is not your vice; but look at home and remember the licentiousness of your women.” And to all such accusations every one of us may reply in turn:⁠—“Wonder not, Stranger; there are different customs in different countries.” Now this may be a sufficient answer; but we are speaking about the wisdom of lawgivers and not about the customs of men. To return to the question of drinking: shall we have total abstinence, as you have, or hard drinking, like the Scythians and Thracians, or moderate potations like the Persians? “Give us arms, and we send all these nations flying before us.” My good friend, be modest; victories and defeats often arise from unknown causes, and afford no proof of the goodness or badness of institutions. The stronger overcomes the weaker, as the Athenians have overcome the Ceans, or the Syracusans the Locrians, who are, perhaps, the best governed state in that part of the world. People are apt to praise or censure practices without enquiring into the nature of them. This is the way with drink: one person brings many witnesses, who sing the praises of wine; another declares that sober men defeat drunkards in battle; and he again is refuted in turn. I should like to conduct the argument on some other method; for if you regard numbers, there are two cities on one side, and ten thousand on the other. “I am ready to pursue any method which is likely to lead us to the truth.” Let me put the matter thus: Somebody praises the useful qualities of a goat; another has seen goats running about wild in a garden, and blames a goat or any other animal which happens to be without a keeper. “How absurd!” Would a pilot who is seasick be a good pilot? “No.” Or a general who is sick and drunk with fear and ignorant of war a good general? “A general of old women he ought to be.” But can anyone form an estimate of any society, which is intended to have a ruler, and which he only sees in an unruly and lawless state? “No.” There is a convivial form of society⁠—is there not? “Yes.” And has this convivial society ever been rightly ordered? Of course you Spartans and Cretans have never seen anything of the kind, but I have had wide experience, and made many enquiries about such societies, and have hardly ever found anything right or good in them. “We acknowledge our want of experience, and desire to learn of you.” Will you admit that in all societies there must be a leader? “Yes.” And in time of war he must be a man of courage and absolutely devoid of fear, if this be possible? “Certainly.” But we are talking now of a general who shall preside at meetings of friends⁠—and as these have a tendency to be uproarious, they ought above all others to have a governor. “Very good.” He should be a sober man and a man of the world, who will keep, make, and increase the peace of the society; a drunkard in charge of drunkards would be singularly fortunate if he avoided doing a serious mischief. “Indeed he would.” Suppose a person to censure such meetings⁠—he may be right, but also he may have known them only in their disorderly state, under a drunken master of the feast; and a drunken general or pilot cannot save his army or his ships. “True; but although I see the advantage of an army having a good general, I do not equally see the good of a feast being well managed.” If you mean to ask what good accrues to the state from the right training of a single youth or a single chorus, I should reply, “Not much”; but if you ask what is the good of education in general, I answer, that education makes good men, and that good men act nobly and overcome their enemies in battle. Victory is often suicidal to the victors, because it creates forgetfulness of education, but education itself is never suicidal. “You imply that the regulation of convivial meetings is a part of education; how will you prove this?” I will tell you. But first let me offer a word of apology. We Athenians are always thought to be fond of talking, whereas the Lacedaemonian is celebrated for brevity,