LAWS, BOOK I
for if any were right at all, it was only in a few details, and most of them were almost entirely on the wrong lines.
cLiN. What do you mean by that, Stranger ? Explain yourself more clearly; for since we are (as you observed) without any experience of such institutions, even if we did come across them, we would probably fail to see at once what was right in them and what wrong.
aTH. That is very probable. Try, however, to leam from my description. This you understand— that in all gatherings and associations for any purpose whatsoever it is right that each group should always have a commander.
clin. Of course.
ata. Moreover, we have recently said that the commander of fighting men must be courageous,
cin. Of course,
aTH. The courageous man is less perturbed by alarms than the coward.
cin. That is true, too.
aTtH, Now if there had existed any device for putting an army in charge of a general who was absolutely impervious to fear or perturbation, should we not have made every effort to do so?
cLiN. Most certainly.
ATH, But what we are discussing now is not the man who is to command an army in time of war, in meetings of foe with foe, but the man who is to command friends in friendly association with friends in time of peace.
CLIN. Quite so,
atu. Such a gathering, if accompanied by drunkenness, is not free from disturbance, is it?
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