in like manner as a kind of conclusion; the word is derived from
sunienai (to go along with), and, like epistasthai (to know), implies
the progression of the soul in company with the nature of things.
Sophia (wisdom) is very dark, and appears not to be of native growth;
the meaning is, touching the motion or stream of things. You must
remember that the poets, when they speak of the commencement of any
rapid motion, often use the word esuthe (he rushed); and there was a
famous Lacedaemonian who was named Sous (Rush), for by this word the
Lacedaemonians signify rapid motion, and the touching (epaphe) of
motion is expressed by sophia, for all things are supposed to be in
motion. Good (agathon) is the name which is given to the admirable
(agasto) in nature; for, although all things move, still there are
degrees of motion; some are swifter, some slower; but there are some
things which are admirable for their swiftness, and this admirable
part of nature is called agathon. Dikaiosune (justice) is clearly
dikaiou sunesis (understanding of the just); but the actual word
dikaion is more difficult: men are only agreed to a certain extent
about justice, and then they begin to disagree.
For those who suppose all things to be in motion conceive the greater
part of nature to be a mere receptacle; and they say that there is a
penetrating power which passes through all this, and is the instrument
of creation in all, and is the subtlest and swiftest element; for if
it were not the subtlest, and a power which none can keep out, and
also the swiftest, passing by other things as if they were standing
still, it could not penetrate through the moving universe. And this
element, which superintends all things and pieces (diaion) all, is
rightly called dikaion; the letter k is only added for the sake of
euphony. Thus far, as I was saying, there is a general agreement about
the nature of justice; but I, Hermogenes, being an enthusiastic
disciple, have been told in a mystery that the justice of which I am
speaking is also the cause of the world: now a cause is that because
of which anything is created; and some one comes and whispers in my
ear that justice is rightly so called because partaking of the nature
of the cause, and I begin, after hearing what he has said, to
interrogate him gently: "Well, my excellent friend," say I, "but if
all this be true, I still want to know what is justice." Thereupon
they think that I ask tiresome questions, and am leaping over the
barriers, and have been already sufficiently answered, and they try to
satisfy me with one derivation after another, and at length they
quarrel. For one of them says that justice is the sun, and that he
only is the piercing (diaionta) and burning (kaonta) element which is
the guardian of nature. And when I joyfully repeat this beautiful
notion, I am answered by the satirical remark, "What, is there no
justice in the world when the sun is down?" And when I earnestly beg
my questioner to tell me his own honest opinion, he says, "Fire in the
abstract"; but this is not very intelligible. Another says, "No, not
fire in the abstract, but the abstraction of heat in the fire."
Another man professes to laugh at all this, and says, as Anaxagoras
says, that justice is mind, for mind, as they say, has absolute power,
and mixes with nothing, and orders all things, and passes through all
things. At last, my friend, I find myself in far greater perplexity
about the nature of justice than I was before I began to learn. But
still I am of opinion that the name, which has led me into this
digression, was given to justice for the reasons which I have
mentioned.
Her. I think, Socrates, that you are not improvising now; you must
have heard this from some one else.
Soc. And not the rest?
Her. Hardly. Soc. Well, then, let me go on in the hope of making you
believe in the originality of the rest. What remains after justice? I
do not think that we have as yet discussed courage (andreia),-
injustice (adikia), which is obviously nothing more than a hindrance
to the penetrating principle (diaiontos), need not be considered.
Well, then, the name of andreia seems to imply a battle;- this battle