<h3><SPAN name="Page_184" id="Page_184" />IV.</h3>
<p>Then said I: 'This is very true. I see that the vicious, though they
keep the outward form of man, are rightly said to be changed into beasts
in respect of their spiritual nature; but, inasmuch as their cruel and
polluted minds vent their rage in the destruction of the good, I would
this license were not permitted to them.'</p>
<p>'Nor is it,' said she, 'as shall be shown in the fitting place. Yet if
that license which thou believest to be permitted to them were taken
away, the punishment of the wicked would be in great part remitted. For
verily, incredible as it may seem to some, it needs must be that the bad
are more unfortunate when they have accomplished their desires than if
they are unable to get them fulfilled. If it is wretched to will evil,
to have been able to accomplish evil is more wretched; for without the
power the wretched will would fail of <SPAN name="Page_185" id="Page_185" />effect. Accordingly, those whom
thou seest to will, to be able to accomplish, and to accomplish crime,
must needs be the victims of a threefold wretchedness, since each one of
these states has its own measure of wretchedness.'</p>
<p>'Yes,' said I; 'yet I earnestly wish they might speedily be quit of this
misfortune by losing the ability to accomplish crime.'</p>
<p>'They will lose it,' said she, 'sooner than perchance thou wishest, or
they themselves think likely; since, verily, within the narrow bounds of
our brief life there is nothing so late in coming that anyone, least of
all an immortal spirit, should deem it long to wait for. Their great
expectations, the lofty fabric of their crimes, is oft overthrown by a
sudden and unlooked-for ending, and this but sets a limit to their
misery. For if wickedness makes men wretched, he is necessarily more
wretched who is wicked for a longer time; and were it not that death, at
all events, puts an end to the evil doings of the wicked, I should
account them wretched to the last degree. Indeed, if we have formed true
conclusions about <SPAN name="Page_186" id="Page_186" />the ill fortune of wickedness, that wretchedness is
plainly infinite which is doomed to be eternal.'</p>
<p>Then said I: 'A wonderful inference, and difficult to grant; but I see
that it agrees entirely with our previous conclusions.'</p>
<p>'Thou art right,' said she; 'but if anyone finds it hard to admit the
conclusion, he ought in fairness either to prove some falsity in the
premises, or to show that the combination of propositions does not
adequately enforce the necessity of the conclusion; otherwise, if the
premises be granted, nothing whatever can be said against the inference
of the conclusion. And here is another statement which seems not less
wonderful, but on the premises assumed is equally necessary.'</p>
<p>'What is that?'</p>
<p>'The wicked are happier in undergoing punishment than if no penalty of
justice chasten them. And I am not now meaning what might occur to
anyone—that bad character is amended by retribution, and is brought
into the right path by the terror of punishment, or that it serves as an
<SPAN name="Page_187" id="Page_187" />example to warn others to avoid transgression; but I believe that in
another way the wicked are more unfortunate when they go unpunished,
even though no account be taken of amendment, and no regard be paid to
example.'</p>
<p>'Why, what other way is there beside these?' said I.</p>
<p>Then said she: 'Have we not agreed that the good are happy, and the evil
wretched?'</p>
<p>'Yes,' said I.</p>
<p>'Now, if,' said she, 'to one in affliction there be given along with his
misery some good thing, is he not happier than one whose misery is
misery pure and simple without admixture of any good?'</p>
<p>'It would seem so.'</p>
<p>'But if to one thus wretched, one destitute of all good, some further
evil be added besides those which make him wretched, is he not to be
judged far more unhappy than he whose ill fortune is alleviated by some
share of good?'</p>
<p>'It could scarcely be otherwise.'</p>
<p>'Surely, then, the wicked, when they are punished, have a good thing
added to <SPAN name="Page_188" id="Page_188" />them—to wit, the punishment which by the law of justice is
good; and likewise, when they escape punishment, a new evil attaches to
them in that very freedom from punishment which thou hast rightly
acknowledged to be an evil in the case of the unrighteous.'</p>
<p>'I cannot deny it.'</p>
<p>'Then, the wicked are far more unhappy when indulged with an unjust
freedom from punishment than when punished by a just retribution. Now,
it is manifest that it is just for the wicked to be punished, and for
them to escape unpunished is unjust.'</p>
<p>'Why, who would venture to deny it?'</p>
<p>'This, too, no one can possibly deny—that all which is just is good,
and, conversely, all which is unjust is bad.'</p>
<p>Then I answered: 'These inferences do indeed follow from what we lately
concluded; but tell me,' said I, 'dost thou take no account of the
punishment of the soul after the death of the body?'</p>
<p>'Nay, truly,' said she, 'great are these penalties, some of them
inflicted, I imagine, in the severity of retribution, <SPAN name="Page_189" id="Page_189" />others in the
mercy of purification. But it is not my present purpose to speak of
these. So far, my aim hath been to make thee recognise that the power of
the bad which shocked thee so exceedingly is no power; to make thee see
that those of whose freedom from punishment thou didst complain are
never without the proper penalties of their unrighteousness; to teach
thee that the license which thou prayedst might soon come to an end is
not long-enduring; that it would be more unhappy if it lasted longer,
most unhappy of all if it lasted for ever; thereafter that the
unrighteous are more wretched if unjustly let go without punishment than
if punished by a just retribution—from which point of view it follows
that the wicked are afflicted with more severe penalties just when they
are supposed to escape punishment.'</p>
<p>Then said I: 'While I follow thy reasonings, I am deeply impressed with
their truth; but if I turn to the common convictions of men, I find few
who will even listen to such arguments, let alone admit them to be
credible.'<SPAN name="Page_190" id="Page_190" /></p>
<p>'True,' said she; 'they cannot lift eyes accustomed to darkness to the
light of clear truth, and are like those birds whose vision night
illumines and day blinds; for while they regard, not the order of the
universe, but their own dispositions of mind, they think the license to
commit crime, and the escape from punishment, to be fortunate. But mark
the ordinance of eternal law. Hast thou fashioned thy soul to the
likeness of the better, thou hast no need of a judge to award the
prize—by thine own act hast thou raised thyself in the scale of
excellence; hast thou perverted thy affections to baser things, look not
for punishment from one without thee—thine own act hath degraded thee,
and thrust thee down. Even so, if alternately thou turn thy gaze upon
the vile earth and upon the heavens, though all without thee stand
still, by the mere laws of sight thou seemest now sunk in the mire, 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 <SPAN name="Page_191" id="Page_191" />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.'</p>
<p>'Let me hear these same reasons,' said I.</p>
<p>'Wouldst thou deny that every wicked man deserves punishment?'</p>
<p>'I would not, certainly.'</p>
<p>'And that those who are wicked are unhappy is clear in manifold ways?'</p>
<p>'Yes,' I replied.</p>
<p>'Thou dost not doubt, then, that those who deserve punishment are
wretched?'</p>
<p>'Agreed,' said I.</p>
<p>'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?'<SPAN name="Page_192" id="Page_192" /></p>
<p>'Without doubt, I would compensate the sufferer at the cost of the doer
of the wrong.'</p>
<p>'Then, the injurer would seem more wretched than the injured?'</p>
<p>'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.'</p>
<p>'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 <SPAN name="Page_193" id="Page_193" />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 advocates, and would commit themselves wholly
into the hands of their accusers and judges. Whence it comes to pass
that for the wise no place is left for hatred; only the most foolish
would hate the good, and to hate the bad is unreasonable. For if vicious
propensity is, as it were, a disease of the soul like bodily sickness,
even as we account the sick in body by no means deserving of hate, but
rather of pity, so, and much more, should they be pitied whose minds are
assailed by wickedness, which is more frightful than any sickness.'<SPAN name="Page_194" id="Page_194" /></p>
<h3>SONG IV.<br/>The Unreasonableness of Hatred.</h3>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i2">Why all this furious strife? Oh, why<br/></span>
<span>With rash and wilful hand provoke death's destined day?<br/></span>
<span class="i2">If death ye seek—lo! Death is nigh,<br/></span>
<span>Not of their master's will those coursers swift delay!<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i2">The wild beasts vent on man their rage,<br/></span>
<span>Yet 'gainst their brothers' lives men point the murderous steel;<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Unjust and cruel wars they wage,<br/></span>
<span>And haste with flying darts the death to meet or deal.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i2">No right nor reason can they show;<br/></span>
<span>'Tis but because their lands and laws are not the same.<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Wouldst <em>thou</em> give each his due; then know<br/></span>
<span>Thy love the good must have, the bad thy pity claim.<br/></span></div>
</div>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />