LAWS, BOOK I
cLIN. Certainly not ; quite the reverse, I imagine.
ATH, So those people also need, in the first place, a commander ?
cLin. Undoubtedly—they above all.
ATH. Should we, if possible, provide them with a commander who is imperturbable ?
cLIN. Certainly.
aTH. Naturally, also, he should be wise about social gatherings. For he has both to preserve the friendliness which already exists among the company and to see that the present gathering promotes it still further.
cuin. Very true.
aTH, Then the commander we set over drunken men should be sober and wise, rather than the opposite? For a commander of drunkards who was himself drunken, young, and foolish would be very lucky if he escaped doing some serious mischief.
cin. Uncommonly lucky.
ATH, Suppose, then, that a man were to find fault with such institutions in States where they are managed in the best possible way, having an objection to the institution in itself, he might perhaps be right in doing so; butif a man abuses an institution when he sees it managed in the worst way possible, it is plain that he is ignorant, first, of the fact that it is badly conducted, and secondly, that every institution will appear similarly bad when it is carried on without a sober ruler and commander, For surely you per- ceive that a sea-captain, and every commander of anything, if drunk, upsets everything, whether it be aship or a chariot or an army or anything else that is under his captaincy.
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