The confusion, into which Plato has here fallen, arises mainly from his exaggerated application of the analogy between the Commonwealth and the Individual: from his anxiety to find in the individual something like what he notes as justice in the Commonwealth: from his assimilating the mental attributes of each individual, divisible only in logical abstraction,--to the really distinct individual citizens whose association forms the Commonwealth.[47] It is only by a poetical or rhetorical metaphor that you can speak of the several departments of a man's mind, as if they were distinct persons, capable of behaving well or ill towards each other. A single man, considered without any reference to others, cannot be either just or unjust. "The just man" (observes Aristotle, in another line of argument), "requires others, towards whom and with whom he may behave justly."[48] Even when we talk by metaphor of a man being just towards himself, reference to others is always implied, as a standard with which comparison is taken. [Footnote 47: Plato, Republic, i. pp. 351 C, 352 C. [Greek: ou) ga\r a)\n a)pei/chonto a)llê/lôn komidê=| o)/ntes a)/dikoi, a)lla\ dê=lon o(/ti e)nê=n tis au)toi=s dikaiosu/nê, ê(\ au)tou\s e)poi/ei mê/ toi kai\ a)llê/lous ge kai\ e)ph' ou(\s ê)/|esan a(/ma a)dikei=n, di' ê(\n e)/praxan a(\ e)/praxan, ô(/rmêsan de\ e)pi\ ta\ a)/dika a)diki/a| ê(mimo/chthêroi o)/ntes], &c. We find the same sentiment in the Opera et Dies of Hesiod, 275, contrasting human society with animal life:-- [Greek: i)/chthusi me\n kai\ thêrsi\ kai\ oi)ônoi=s peteê/nois e)/sthein a)llê/lous, e)pei\ ou) di/kê e)sti\n e)n au)toi=s; a)nthrô/poisi d' e)/dôke (Zeu\s) di/kên, ê(\ pollo\n a)ri/stê gi/netai.]] [Footnote 48: Aristotel. Ethic. Nikomach. x. 7. [Greek: o( di/kaios dei=tai pro\s ou(\s dikaiopragê/sei, kai\ meth' ô(=n.]] [Side-note: Second Argument of Plato to prove the happiness of the just man--He now recalls his previous concession, and assumes that the just man will receive just treatment and esteem from others.]