rows, and he will be the most miserable
of men. No, not the most miserable, for there is yet a more miserable.
'Who is that?' The tyrannical man who has the misfortune also to become
a public tyrant. 'There I suspect that you are right.' Say rather, 'I
am sure;' conjecture is out of place in an enquiry of this nature. He
is like a wealthy owner of slaves, only he has more of them than
any private individual. You will say, 'The owners of slaves are not
generally in any fear of them.' But why? Because the whole city is in a
league which protects the individual. Suppose however that one of these
owners and his household is carried off by a god into a wilderness,
where there are no freemen to help him--will he not be in an agony of
terror?--will he not be compelled to flatter his slaves and to promise
them many things sore against his will? And suppose the same god who
carried him off were to surround him with neighbours who declare that no
man ought to have slaves, and that the owners of them should be punished
with death. 'Still worse and worse! He will be in the midst of his
enemies.' And is not our tyrant such a captive soul, who is tormented by
a swarm of passions which he cannot indulge; living indoors always like
a woman, and jealous of those who can go out and see the world?

Having so many evils, will not the most miserable of men be still more
miserable in a public station? Master of others when he is not master of
himself; like a sick man who is compelled to be an athlete; the meanest
of slaves and the most abject of flatterers; wanting all things, and
never able to satisfy his desires; always in fear and distraction,
like the State of which he is the representative. His jealous,
hateful, faithless temper grows worse with command; he is more and more
faithless, envious, unrighteous,--the most wretched of men, a misery
to himself and to others. And so let us have a final trial and
proclamation; need we hire a herald, or shall I proclaim the result?
'Made the proclamation yourself.' The son of Ariston (the best) is of
opinion that the best and justest of men is also the happiest, and that
this is he who is the most royal master of himself; and that the unjust
man is he who is the greatest tyrant of himself and of his State. And I
add further--'seen or unseen by gods or men.'

This is our first proof. The second is derived from the three kinds
of pleasure, which answer to the three elements of the soul--reason,
pas