CHAPTER XIV.

HIPPARCHUS--MINOS.

Hipparchus--Question--What is the definition of Lover of Gain? He is one who thinks it right to gain from things worth nothing. Sokrates cross-examines upon this explanation. No man expects to gain from things which he knows to be worth nothing: in this sense, no man is a lover of gain 71

Gain is good. Every man loves good: therefore all men are lovers of gain 72

Apparent contradiction. Sokrates accuses the companion of trying to deceive him--accusation is retorted upon Sokrates 73

Precept inscribed formerly by Hipparchus the Peisistratid--never deceive a friend. Eulogy of Hipparchus by Sokrates _ib._

Sokrates allows the companion to retract some of his answers. The companion affirms that some gain is good, other gain is evil 74

Questions by Sokrates--bad gain is _gain_, as much as good gain. What is the common property, in virtue of which both are called Gain? Every acquisition, made with no outlay, or with a smaller outlay, is gain. Objections--the acquisition may be evil--embarrassment confessed _ib._

It is essential to gain, that the acquisition made shall be greater not merely in quantity, but also in value, than the outlay. The valuable is the profitable--the profitable is the good. Conclusion comes back. That Gain is Good 75

Recapitulation. The debate has shown that all gain is good, and that there is no evil gain--all men are lovers of gain--no man ought to be reproached for being so the companion is compelled to admit this, though he declares that he is not persuaded _ib._

Minos. Question put by Sokrates to the companion. What is Law, or The Law? All law is the same, _quatenus_ law: what is the common constituent attribute? 76

Answer--Law is, 1. The consecrated and binding customs. 2. The decree of the city. 3. Social or civic opinion _ib._

Cross-examination by Sokrates--just and lawfully-behaving men are so through law; unjust and lawless men are so through the absence of law. Law is highly honourable and useful: lawlessness is ruinous. Accordingly, bad decrees of the city--or bad social opinion--cannot be law 77

Suggestion by Sokrates--Law is the _good_ opinion of the city--but good opinion is true opinion, or the finding out of reality. Law therefore wishes (tends) to be the finding out of reality, though it does not always succeed in doing so 77

Objection taken by the Companion--That there is great discordance of laws in different places--he specifies several cases of such discordance at some length. Sokrates reproves his prolixity, and requests him to confine himself to question or answer 78

Farther questions by Sokrates--Things heavy and light, just and unjust, honourable and dishonourable, &c., are so, and are accounted so everywhere. Real things are always accounted real. Whoever fails in attaining the real, fails in attaining the lawful _ib._

There are laws of health and of cure, composed by the few physicians wise upon those subjects, and unanimously declared by them. So also there are laws of farming, gardening, cookery, declared by the few wise in those respective pursuits. In like manner, the laws of a city are the judgments declared by the few wise men who know how to rule 79

That which is right is the regal law, the only true and real law--that which is not right, is not law, but only seems to be law in the eyes of the ignorant 80

Minos, King of Krete--his laws were divine and excellent, and have remained unchanged from time immemorial _ib._

Question about the character of Minos--Homer and Hesiod declare him to have been admirable, the Attic tragedians defame him as a tyrant, because he was an enemy of Athens 81

That Minos was really admirable--and that he has found out truth and reality respecting the administration of the city--we may be sure from the fact that his laws have remained so long unaltered _ib._

The question is made more determinate--What is it that the good lawgiver prescribes and measures out for the health of the mind, as the physician measures out food and exercise for the body? Sokrates cannot tell. Close 81

The Hipparchus and Minos are analogous to each other, and both of them inferior works of Plato, perhaps unfinished 82

Hipparchus--double meaning of [Greek: philokerdê\s] and [Greek: ke/rdos] _ib._

State or mind of the agent, as to knowledge, frequent inquiry in Plato. No tenable definition found 83

Admitting that there is bad gain, as well as good gain, what is the meaning of the word _gain_**? None is found _ib._

Purpose of Plato in the dialogue--to lay bare the confusion, and to force the mind of the respondent into efforts for clearing it up 84

Historical narrative and comments given in the dialogue respecting Hipparchus--afford no ground for declaring the dialogue to be spurious _ib._

Minos. Question--What is the characteristic property connoted by the word [Greek: No/mos] or law? 86

This question was discussed by the historical Sokrates, Memorabilia of Xenophon _ib._

Definitions of law--suggested and refuted. Law includes, as a portion of its meaning, justice, goodness, usefulness, &c. Bad decrees are not laws 86

Sokrates affirms that law is everywhere the same--it is the declared judgment and command of the Wise man upon the subject to which it refers--it is truth and reality, found out and certified by him 87

Reasoning of Sokrates in the Minos is unsound, but Platonic. The Good, True, and Real, coalesce in the mind of Plato--he acknowledges nothing to be Law, except what he thinks ought to _be_ Law 88

Plato worships the Ideal of his own mind--the work of systematic constructive theory by the Wise Man 89

Different applications of this general Platonic view, in the Minos, Politikus, Kratylus, &c. _Natural_ Rectitude of Law, Government, Names, &c _ib._

Eulogy on Minos, as having established laws on this divine type or natural rectitude 90

The Minos was arranged by Aristophanes at first in a Trilogy along with the Leges 91

Explanations of the word Law--confusion in its meaning _ib._