alogue of crimes truly,
even if the perpetrators are few.' Yes, I said; but small and great are
relative terms, and no crimes which are committed by them approach those
of the tyrant, whom this class, growing strong and numerous, create out
of themselves. If the people yield, well and good, but, if they resist,
then, as before he beat his father and mother, so now he beats his
fatherland and motherland, and places his mercenaries over them. Such
men in their early days live with flatterers, and they themselves
flatter others, in order to gain their ends; but they soon discard their
followers when they have no longer any need of them; they are always
either masters or servants,--the joys of friendship are unknown to them.
And they are utterly treacherous and unjust, if the nature of justice be
at all understood by us. They realize our dream; and he who is the most
of a tyrant by nature, and leads the life of a tyrant for the longest
time, will be the worst of them, and being the worst of them, will also
be the most miserable.

Like man, like State,--the tyrannical man will answer to tyranny, which
is the extreme opposite of the royal State; for one is the best and the
other the worst. But which is the happier? Great and terrible as the
tyrant may appear enthroned amid his satellites, let us not be afraid to
go in and ask; and the answer is, that the monarchical is the happiest,
and the tyrannical the most miserable of States. And may we not ask the
same question about the men themselves, requesting some one to look into
them who is able to penetrate the inner nature of man, and will not be
panic-struck by the vain pomp of tyranny? I will suppose that he is one
who has lived with him, and has seen him in family life, or perhaps in
the hour of trouble and danger.

Assuming that we ourselves are the impartial judge for whom we seek, let
us begin by comparing the individual and State, and ask first of all,
whether the State is likely to be free or enslaved--Will there not be
a little freedom and a great deal of slavery? And the freedom is of the
bad, and the slavery of the good; and this applies to the man as well
as to the State; for his soul is full of meanness and slavery, and the
better part is enslaved to the worse. He cannot do what he would, and
his mind is full of confusion; he is the very reverse of a freeman. The
State will be poor and full of misery and sorrow; and the man's soul
will also be poor and full of sor