he many combined against the strength of the few.

There have been theories in modern as well as in ancient times which
have a family likeness to the speculations of Glaucon; e.g. that power
is the foundation of right; or that a monarch has a divine right to
govern well or ill; or that virtue is self-love or the love of power; or
that war is the natural state of man; or that private vices are public
benefits. All such theories have a kind of plausibility from their
partial agreement with experience. For human nature oscillates between
good and evil, and the motives of actions and the origin of institutions
may be explained to a certain extent on either hypothesis according to
the character or point of view of a particular thinker. The obligation
of maintaining authority under all circumstances and sometimes by rather
questionable means is felt strongly and has become a sort of instinct
among civilized men. The divine right of kings, or more generally of
governments, is one of the forms under which this natural feeling is
expressed. Nor again is there any evil which has not some accompaniment
of good or pleasure; nor any good which is free from some alloy of evil;
nor any noble or generous thought which may not be attended by a shadow
or the ghost of a shadow of self-interest or of self-love. We know that
all human actions are imperfect; but we do not therefore attribute
them to the worse rather than to the better motive or principle. Such
a philosophy is both foolish and false, like that opinion of the clever
rogue who assumes all other men to be like himself. And theories of this
sort do not represent the real nature of the State, which is based on a
vague sense of right gradually corrected and enlarged by custom and law
(although capable also of perversion), any more than they describe the
origin of society, which is to be sought in the family and in the
social and religious feelings of man. Nor do they represent the average
character of individuals, which cannot be explained simply on a theory
of evil, but has always a counteracting element of good. And as men
become better such theories appear more and more untruthful to them,
because they are more conscious of their own disinterestedness. A little
experience may make a man a cynic; a great deal will bring him back to
a truer and kindlier view of the mixed nature of himself and his fellow
men.

The two brothers ask Socrates to prove to them that the just is happy
w