REPUBLIC(BOOKII) 69
made to be situated in a way opposite to the one before, for while he does nothing
unjust, let him have a reputation for the greatest injustice, in order that he might be
put to the acid test for justice: its not being softened by bad reputation and the things
that come from that. Let him go unchanged until death, seeming to be unjust
throughout life while being just, so that when both people have come to the ultimate
point, one of justice and the other of injustice, it can be decided which of the pair is
happier.”
“Ayayay, Glaucon my friend,” I said, “how relentlessly you scrub each of them
pure, like a statue, for the decision between the two men.”
“As much as is in my power,” he said, “and now that the two are that way, there’s
nothing difficult any more, as I imagine, about going on through in telling the sort of
life that’s in store for each of them.
“So it must be said, and if in fact it’s said too crudely, don’t imagine I’m saying it,
Socrates, but the people who praise injustice in preference to justice.
“They’ll say this: that situated the way he is, the just person will be beaten with
whips, stretched on the rack, bound in chains, have both eyes burned out, and as an end
after suffering every evil he’ll be hacked in pieces, and know that one ought to wish not
to be but seem just. And therefore the lines of Aeschylus would be much more correct to
speak about the unjust person, since they’ll claim that the one who is unjust in his being,
inasmuch as he’s pursuing a thing in contact with truth and not living with a view to
opinion, wishing not to seem but be unjust
Gathers in the fruit cultivated deep in his heart
From the place where wise counsels breed.In the first place, he rules in his city as one who seems to be just; next, he takes a
wife from wherever he wants, and gives a daughter to whomever he wants; he con-
tracts to go in partnership with whomever he wishes; and besides benefiting from all
these things, he gains by not being squeamish about doing injustice. So when he
goes into competition both in private and in public, he overcomes his enemies and
comes out with more, and since he has more he is rich and does good to his friends
and damages his enemies. And to the gods he makes sacrifices in an adequate way
and dedicates offerings in a magnificent way, and does much better service to the
gods, and to the human beings it pleases him to, than the just person does, so that in
all likelihood it’s more suitable for him, rather than the just person, to be dearer to
the gods.
“In that way, Socrates, they claim that, on the part of both gods and human
beings, a better life is provided for the unjust person than for the just.”
[Socrates responds to Glaucon and Adeimantus]: “You’ve experienced something
godlike if you haven’t been persuaded that injustice is better than justice, though you
have the power to speak that way on behalf of it. And you seem to me truly not per-
suaded, but I gather this from other indications of your disposition, since from your
arguments I’d distrust you. But to the degree that I trust you more, I’m that much
more stumped as to how I can be of use, and I have no way to help out, since I seem
to myself to be powerless. A sign of this for me is that I imagined what I said to
Thrasymachus demonstrated that justice is better than injustice, but you didn’t let
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