"The case as I set it forth" (pursues Adeimantus) "admits of no answer on the ground commonly taken by those who extol justice and blame injustice, from the earliest poets down to the present day.[39] What they praise is not justice _per se_, but the reputation which the just man obtains, and the consequences flowing from it. What they blame is not injustice _per se_, but its results. They never commend, nor even mention, justice as it exists in and moulds the internal mind and character of the just man; even though he be unknown, misconceived and detested, by Gods as well as by men. Nor do they ever talk of the internal and intrinsic effects of injustice upon the mind of the unjust man, but merely of his ulterior prospects. They never attempt to show that injustice itself, in the mind of the unjust man, is the gravest intrinsic evil: and justice in the mind of the just man, the highest intrinsic good: apart from consequences on either side. If you had all held this language from the beginning, and had impressed upon us such persuasion from our childhood, there would have been no necessity for our keeping watch upon each other to prevent injustice. Every man would have been the best watch upon himself, through fear lest by becoming unjust he might take into his own bosom the gravest evil.[40] [Footnote 39: Plat. Rep. ii. p. 366 D-E. [Greek: pa/ntôn u(mô=n, o(/soi e)paine/tai phate\ dikaiosu/nês ei)=nai, a)po\ tô=n e)x a)rchê=s ê(rô/ôn a)rxa/menoi, o(/sôn lo/goi leleimme/noi, me/chri tô=n nu=n a)nthrô/pôn, ou)dei\s pô/pote e)/psexen a)diki/an ou)d' e)pê/|nese dikaiosu/nên a)/llôs ê)\ do/xas te kai\ tima\s kai\ dôrea\s ta\s a)p' au)tô=n duna/mei e)n tê=| tou= e)/chontos psuchê=| e)no\n kai\ lantha/non theou/s te kai\ a)nthrô/pous, ou)dei\s pô/pote ou)/t' e)n poiê/sei ou)/t' e)n i)di/ois lo/gois e)pexê=lthen i(kanô=s tô=| lo/gô|], &c. Compare p. 362 E. Whoever reads this, will see that Plato does not intend (as most of his commentators assert) that the arguments which Sokrates combats in the Republic were the invention of Protagoras, Prodikus, and other Sophists of the Platonic century.] [Footnote 40: Plato, Republic, ii. p. 367 A. [Greek: ei) ga\r ou)/tôs e)le/geto e)x a)rchê=s u(po\ pa/ntôn u(mô=n, kai\ e)k ne/ôn ê(ma=s e)pei/thete, ou)k a)n a)llê/lous e)phula/ttomen mê\ a)dikei=n, a)ll' au)to\s au(tou= ê)=n e(/kastos phu/lax, dediô\s mê\ a)dikô=n tô=| megi/stô| kakô=| xu/noikos ê)=|.]] [Side-note: Adeimantus calls upon Sokrates to recommend and enforce Justice on its own grounds, and to explain how Justice in itself benefits the mind of the just man.]