ur country;
but I have come across many of them in many different places, and
moreover I have made enquiries about them wherever I went, as I may say,
and never did I see or hear of anything of the kind which was carried on
altogether rightly; in some few particulars they might be right, but in
general they were utterly wrong.

CLEINIAS: What do you mean, Stranger, by this remark? Explain. For we,
as you say, from our inexperience in such matters, might very likely
not know, even if they came in our way, what was right or wrong in such
societies.

ATHENIAN: Likely enough; then let me try to be your instructor: You
would acknowledge, would you not, that in all gatherings of mankind, of
whatever sort, there ought to be a leader?

CLEINIAS: Certainly I should.

ATHENIAN: And we were saying just now, that when men are at war the
leader ought to be a brave man?

CLEINIAS: We were.

ATHENIAN: The brave man is less likely than the coward to be disturbed
by fears?

CLEINIAS: That again is true.

ATHENIAN: And if there were a possibility of having a general of an
army who was absolutely fearless and imperturbable, should we not by all
means appoint him?

CLEINIAS: Assuredly.

ATHENIAN: Now, however, we are speaking not of a general who is to
command an army, when foe meets foe in time of war, but of one who is to
regulate meetings of another sort, when friend meets friend in time of
peace.

CLEINIAS: True.

ATHENIAN: And that sort of meeting, if attended with drunkenness, is apt
to be unquiet.

CLEINIAS: Certainly; the reverse of quiet.

ATHENIAN: In the first place, then, the revellers as well as the
soldiers will require a ruler?

CLEINIAS: To be sure; no men more so.

ATHENIAN: And we ought, if possible, to provide them with a quiet ruler?

CLEINIAS: Of course.

ATHENIAN: And he should be a man who understands society; for his duty
is to preserve the friendly feelings which exist among the company
at the time, and to increase them for the future by his use of the
occasion.

CLEINIAS: Very true.

ATHENIAN: Must we not appoint a sober man and a wise to be our master of
the revels? For if the ruler of drinkers be himself young and drunken,
and not over-wise, only by some special good fortune will he be saved
from doing some great evil.

CLEINIAS: It will be by a singular good fortune that he is saved.

ATHENIAN: Now suppose such associations to be framed in the best way
possible in states, and th