, now
soaring among the stars. But the common herd regards not these things.
What, then? Shall we go over to those whom we have shown to be like
brute beasts? Why, suppose, now, one who had quite lost his sight
should likewise forget that he had ever possessed the faculty of vision,
and should imagine that nothing was wanting in him to human perfection,
should we deem those who saw as well as ever blind? Why, they will not
even assent to this, either--that they who do wrong are more wretched
than those who suffer wrong, though the proof of this rests on grounds
of reason no less strong.'

'Let me hear these same reasons,' said I.

'Wouldst thou deny that every wicked man deserves punishment?'

'I would not, certainly.'

'And that those who are wicked are unhappy is clear in manifold ways?'

'Yes,' I replied.

'Thou dost not doubt, then, that those who deserve punishment are
wretched?'

'Agreed,' said I.

'So, then, if thou wert sitting in judgment, on whom wouldst thou decree
the infliction of punishment--on him who had done the wrong, or on him
who had suffered it?'

'Without doubt, I would compensate the sufferer at the cost of the doer
of the wrong.'

'Then, the injurer would seem more wretched than the injured?'

'Yes; it follows. And so for this and other reasons resting on the same
ground, inasmuch as baseness of its own nature makes men wretched, it is
plain that a wrong involves the misery of the doer, not of the
sufferer.'

'And yet,' says she, 'the practice of the law-courts is just the
opposite: advocates try to arouse the commiseration of the judges for
those who have endured some grievous and cruel wrong; whereas pity is
rather due to the criminal, who ought to be brought to the judgment-seat
by his accusers in a spirit not of anger, but of compassion and
kindness, as a sick man to the physician, to have the ulcer of his fault
cut away by punishment. Whereby the business of the advocate would
either wholly come to a standstill, or, did men prefer to make it
serviceable to mankind, would be restricted to the practice of
accusation. The wicked themselves also, if through some chink or cranny
they were permitted to behold the virtue they have forsaken, and were to
see that by the pains of punishment they would rid themselves of the
uncleanness of their vices, and win in exchange the recompense of
righteousness, they would no longer think these sufferings pains; they
would refuse the help of ad