Strona 178 z 1391

Socrates proceeds to discover the nature of justice by a method

of residues. Each of the first three virtues corresponds to one

of the three parts of the soul and one of the three classes in

the State, although the third, temperance, has more of the nature

of a harmony than the first two. If there be a fourth virtue,

that can only be sought for in the relation of the three parts in

the soul or classes in the State to one another. It is obvious

and simple, and for that very reason has not been found out. The

modern logician will be inclined to object that ideas cannot be

separated like chemical substances, but that they run into one

another and may be only different aspects or names of the same

thing, and such in this instance appears to be the case. For the

definition here given of justice is verbally the same as one of

the definitions of temperance given by Socrates in the Charmides,

which however is only provisional, and is afterwards rejected.