first place held to be crafty and crooked, malicious and vicious:  (and this I know you would allow no one to say or think about you, even if you might rule the whole world by it):  again, if he succeeds, he is thought to have gained an unjust advantage, and if he fails, to have met with merited misfortune. [-3-] This being so, any one might reproach us quite as much, even if we had nothing of the sort in mind at the beginning and were to begin to devise it only now.  For to let the situation get the better of us and not restrain ourselves and not make a right use of the gifts of Fortune is much worse than for a man to do wrong through ill-luck.  The latter sort are often compelled by their very disasters and in consideration of their own need of profit to behave against their will in an irregular way:  the others voluntarily abandon self-control even if to do so is contrary to their own interests.  And when men neither have any love of simplicity in their souls nor are able to show moderation in regard to the blessings bestowed upon them, how could one expect that they would either rule well over others or behave themselves uprightly in trouble?  Let us make our decision on the basis that we are in neither of the classes mentioned and do not desire to act in any way unreasonably, but will choose whatever course after deliberation appears to us best.  I shall speak quite frankly, for I could not for my part express myself in any other way, and I am aware that you do not enjoy hearing lies mingled with flattery.

[-4-] “Equality before the law has a pleasant name and its results are a triumph of justice.  If you take men who have received the same nature, are of kindred race to one another, have been brought up under the same institutions, have been trained in laws that are alike, and yield in common the service of their bodies and of their minds to the same State, is it not just that they should have all other things, too, in common?  Is it not best that they should secure no superior honors except as a result of excellence?  Equality of birth strives for equality of possessions, and if it attains it is glad, but if it misses is displeased.  And human nature everywhere, because it is sprung from the gods and is to return to the gods, gazes upward and is not content to be ruled forever by the same person, nor will it endure to share in the toils, the dangers, the expenditures, and be deprived of partnership in higher matters.  Or, if it is forced to submit to such conditions, it hates the power which has applied coercion and if it obtains an opportunity takes vengeance on what it hates.  All men think they ought to rule, and for this reason submit to being ruled in turn.  They do not wish to be defrauded, and therefore do not insist on defrauding others.  They are pleased with honors bestowed by their peers, and approve the penalties inflicted by their laws.  If they conduct their government on these lines, and believe that profits and the opposite shall be shared