And will not the temperate man do what is proper, both in relation to
the gods and to men;—for he would not be temperate if he did not?
Certainly he will do what is proper. In his relation to other men he
will do what is just; and in his relation to the gods he will do what
is holy; and he who does what is just and holy must be just and holy?
Very true. And must he not be courageous? for the duty of a temperate
man is not to follow or to avoid what he ought not, but what he ought,
whether things or men or pleasures or pains, and patiently to endure
when he ought; and therefore, Callicles, the temperate man, being, as
we have described, also just and courageous and holy, cannot be other
than a perfectly good man, nor can the good man do otherwise than well
and perfectly whatever he does; and he who does well must of necessity
be happy and blessed, and the evil man who does evil, miserable: now
this latter is he whom you were applauding—the intemperate who is the
opposite of the temperate. Such is my position, and these things I
affirm to be true. And if they are true, then I further affirm that he
who desires to be happy must pursue and practise temperance and run
away from intemperance as fast as his legs will carry him: he had
better order his life so as not to need punishment; but if either he or
any of his friends, whether private individual or city, are in need of
punishment, then justice must be done and he must suffer punishment, if
he would be happy. This appears to me to be the aim which a man ought
to have, and towards which he ought to direct all the energies both of
himself and of the state, acting so that he may have temperance and
justice present with him and be happy, not suffering his lusts to be
unrestrained, and in the never-ending desire satisfy them leading a
robber’s life. Such a one is the friend neither of God nor man, for he
is incapable of communion, and he who is incapable of communion is also
incapable of friendship. And philosophers tell us, Callicles, that
communion and friendship and orderliness and temperance and justice
bind together heaven and earth and gods and men, and that this universe
is therefore called Cosmos or order, not disorder or misrule, my
friend. But although you are a philosopher you seem to me never to have
observed that geometrical equality is mighty, both among gods and men;
you think that you ought to cultivate inequality or excess, and do not
care about geometry.—Well, then, either the principle that the happy
are made happy by the possession of justice and temperance, and the
miserable miserable by the possession of vice, must be refuted, or, if
it is granted, what will be the consequences? All the consequences
which I drew before, Callicles, and about which you asked me whether I
was in earnest when I said that a man ought to accuse himself and his
son and his friend if he did anything wrong, and that to this end he
should use his rhetoric—all those consequences are true. And that which