Upon this Sokrates asks--In which of the cities were your gains the largest: probably at Sparta? _Hip._--No; I received nothing at all at Sparta. _Sokr._--How? You amaze me! Were not your lectures calculated to improve the Spartan youth? or did not the Spartans desire to have their youth improved? or had they no money? _Hip._--Neither one nor the other. The Spartans, like others, desire the improvement of their youth: they also have plenty of money: moreover my lectures were very beneficial to them as well as to the rest.[6] _Sokr._--How could it happen then, that at Sparta, a city great and eminent for its good laws, your valuable instructions were left unrewarded; while you received so much at the inconsiderable town of Inykus? _Hip._--It is not the custom of the country, Sokrates, for the Spartans to change their laws, or to educate their sons in a way different from their ordinary routine. _Sokr._--How say you? It is not the custom of the country for the Spartans to do right, but to do wrong? _Hip._--I shall not say that, Sokrates. _Sokr._--But surely they would do right, in educating their children better and not worse? _Hip._--Yes, they would do right: but it is not lawful for them to admit a foreign mode of education. If any one could have obtained payment there for education, I should have obtained a great deal; for they listen to me with delight and applaud me: but, as I told you, their law forbids. [Footnote 6: Plato, Hipp. Maj. 283-284.] [Side-note: Question, What is law? The law-makers always aim at the Profitable, but sometimes fail to attain it. When they fail, they fail to attain law. The lawful is the Profitable: the Unprofitable is also unlawful.]