utter impossibility, and to the rest of
the world is likely to appear ruthless and uncivilised; it is a practice
adopted by people who use harsh words, such as xenelasia or banishment
of strangers, and who have harsh and morose ways, as men think. And to
be thought or not to be thought well of by the rest of the world is no
light matter; for the many are not so far wrong in their judgment of who
are bad and who are good, as they are removed from the nature of
virtue in themselves. Even bad men have a divine instinct which guesses
rightly, and very many who are utterly depraved form correct notions
and judgments of the differences between the good and bad. And the
generality of cities are quite right in exhorting us to value a
good reputation in the world, for there is no truth greater and more
important than this--that he who is really good (I am speaking of the
men who would be perfect) seeks for reputation with, but not without,
the reality of goodness. And our Cretan colony ought also to acquire the
fairest and noblest reputation for virtue from other men; and there is
every reason to expect that, if the reality answers to the idea, she
will be one of the few well-ordered cities which the sun and the other
Gods behold. Wherefore, in the matter of journeys to other countries and
the reception of strangers, we enact as follows: In the first place, let
no one be allowed to go anywhere at all into a foreign country who is
less than forty years of age; and no one shall go in a private capacity,
but only in some public one, as a herald, or on an embassy, or on a
sacred mission. Going abroad on an expedition or in war is not to be
included among travels of the class authorised by the state. To Apollo
at Delphi and to Zeus at Olympia and to Nemea and to the Isthmus,
citizens should be sent to take part in the sacrifices and games there
dedicated to the Gods; and they should send as many as possible, and the
best and fairest that can be found, and they will make the city renowned
at holy meetings in time of peace, procuring a glory which shall be the
converse of that which is gained in war; and when they come home they
shall teach the young that the institutions of other states are inferior
to their own. And they shall send spectators of another sort, if they
have the consent of the guardians, being such citizens as desire to look
a little more at leisure at the doings of other men; and these no law
shall hinder. For a city wh