Page:The Republic (Spens, 1919).djvu/26

It is not, Socrates, reply'd Polemarchus, if at least we may give any credit to Simonides.

However that be, I give up, said Cephalus, this conversation to you; for I must now go to take care of the sacred rites.

Is not Polemarchus, said I, your heir?

Certainly, reply'd he, smiling, and went off to the sacred rites.

Tell me, then, said I, you who are heir in the conversation, what is it which, according to you, Simonides says so well concerning justice?

That to give every one his due is just, reply'd he; in saying this, he seems to me to say well.

It is, indeed, said I, not easy to disbelieve Simonides, for he is a wise and divine man. But what his meaning may be in this, you, Polemarchus, probably know it, but I do not ; for it is plain he does not mean what we were saying just now : that when one deposites with another any thing, it is to be given back to him when he asks for it again in his madness, yet what hath been deposited is in some respect, at least, due. Is it not?

It is.

But yet it is not at all, by any means, then, to be restored when any one asks for it in his madness?

It is not, reply'd he.

Simonides then, as it should seem, says something different from this, that to deliver up what is due is just?

Something different, truly, reply'd he; for he thinks that friends ought to do their friends some good, but no ill.

I understand, said I. He who restores gold deposited with him, if to restore and receive it be hurtful, and the restorer and receiver be friends, doth not give what is due. Is not this what you allege Simonides says ?

Surely.

But what? are we to give our enemies, too, what may chance to be due to them?

By all means, reply'd he — what is due to them; and from an enemy to an enemy there is due, I imagine, what is fitting, that is, some evil.

Simonides, then, as it should seem, reply'd I, expressed what is just enigmatically, and after the manner of the