actions speak it sufficiently; and do you think that actions deserve not rather to be believed than words?" "Much rather," said Hippias, "because many may say one thing, and do another; nay, we see that, in fact, many who preach up justice to others are very unjust themselves; but this cannot be said of a man whose every action is good, and that never in his life did an unjust thing." "Have you known, then," said Socrates, "that I have accused any man out of malice, that I have sown dissension among friends, that I have raised seditions in the Republic; in short, that I have committed any other sort of injustice?" "Not in the least," said he. "Well, then," added Socrates, "do you not take him to be just who commits no manner of injustice?" "It is plain, now,'" said Hippias, "that you intend to get loose, and that you will not speak your mind freely, nor give us an exact definition of justice. For all this while you have only shown what just men do not, but not what they do." "I should have thought," said Socrates, "I had given at once a good definition, and a clear instance of justice, when I called it an aversion from doing injustice. But since you will not allow it to be so, see whether this will satisfy you: I say, then, that justice 'is nothing but the observance of the laws.'" "You mean," said Hippias, "that to observe the laws is to be just?" "Yes," answered Socrates. "I cannot comprehend your thought," said Hippias. "Do you not know," pursued Socrates, "what the laws in a State are?" "The laws," answered Hippias, "are what the citizens have ordained by an universal consent." "Then," inferred Socrates, "he who lives conformably to those ordinances observes the laws; and he who acts contrary to them is a transgressor of the laws." "You say true." "Is it not likewise true," continued Socrates, "that he who obeys these ordinances does justly, and that he obeys them not does unjustly?" "Yes." "But," said Socrates, "he who acts justly is just, and he who acts unjustly is unjust?" "Without doubt." "Therefore," said Socrates, "whosoever observes the laws is just, and whosoever observes them not is unjust." "But how can it be imagined," objected Hippias, "that the laws are a good thing, and that it is good to obey them, since even they that made them mend, alter, and repeal them so often?" To this Socrates answered, "When you blame those who obey the laws, because they are subject to be abrogated, you do the same thing as if you laughed at your enemies for keeping themselves in a good posture of defence during the war, because you might tell them that the peace will one day be made: and thus you would condemn those who generously expose their lives for the service of their country. Do you know," added he, "that Lycurgus could never have rendered the Republic of Sparta more excellent than other States if he had not made it his chief care to incline the citizens most exactly to observe the laws? This, too, is what all good