power in their hands
and but little judgment to manage it.--He farther said that when a man
desires to carry anything by force, he must have many friends to assist
him: as, on the contrary, he that can persuade has need of none but
himself, and is not subject to shed blood; for who would rather choose to
kill a man than to make use of his services, after having gained his
friendship and goodwill by mildness?

The accuser adds, in proof of the ill tendency of the doctrine of
Socrates, that Critias and Alcibiades, who were two of his most intimate
friends, were very bad men, and did much mischief to their country. For
Critias was the most insatiable and cruel of all the thirty tyrants; and
Alcibiades the most dissolute, the most insolent, and the most audacious
citizen that ever the Republic had. As for me, I pretend not to justify
them, and will only relate for what reason they frequented Socrates. They
were men of an unbounded ambition, and who resolved, whatever it cost, to
govern the State, and make themselves be talked of. They had heard that
Socrates lived very content upon little or nothing, that he entirely
commanded his passions, and that his reasonings were so persuasive that
he drew all men to which side he pleased. Reflecting on this, and being
of the temper we mentioned, can it be thought that they desired the
acquaintance of Socrates, because they were in love with his way of life,
and with his temperance, or because they believed that by conversing with
him they should render themselves capable of reasoning aright, and of
well-managing the public affairs? For my part, I believe that if the
gods had proposed to them to live always like him, or to die immediately,
they would rather have chosen a sudden death. And it is easy to judge
this from their actions; for as soon as they thought themselves more
capable than their companions, they forsook Socrates, whom they had
frequented, only for the purpose I mentioned, and threw themselves wholly
into business.

It may, perhaps, be objected that he ought not to have discoursed to his
friends of things relating to the government of the State, till after he
had taught them to live virtuously. I have nothing to say to this; but I
observe that all who profess teaching do generally two things: they work
in presence of their scholars, to show them how they ought to do, and
they instruct them likewise by word of mouth. Now, in either of these
two ways, no man ev