Dialogue

  1  Gorg|       general view of the good and evil of man. After making an
  2  Gorg|            is worse than to suffer evil; and (2) that when a man
  3  Gorg|           that when a man has done evil he had better be punished
  4  Gorg|         concentrated the spirit of evil against which Socrates is
  5  Gorg|            is worse than to suffer evil.~Polus, though he will not
  6  Gorg|          to acknowledge that to do evil is considered the more foul
  7  Gorg|            exceed the suffering of evil in pain, and therefore must
  8  Gorg|            these is injustice, the evil of the soul, because that
  9  Gorg|        thirsting, whereas good and evil are not simultaneous, and
 10  Gorg|         are bad by the presence of evil. And the brave and wise
 11  Gorg|         wrong is the next greatest evil. He who would avoid the
 12  Gorg|       protection he will suffer no evil, but will he also do no
 13  Gorg|             but will he also do no evil? Nay, will he not rather
 14  Gorg|           he not rather do all the evil which he can and escape?
 15  Gorg|          in peace. For death is no evil, but to go to the world
 16  Gorg|           and do you all manner of evil.~Perhaps you think that
 17  Gorg|           is better than to suffer evil. A man should study to be,
 18  Gorg|     attaining this pre-eminence of evil. They are not incurable,
 19  Gorg|         that ‘God is the author of evil only with a view to good,’
 20  Gorg|          man, the powerlessness of evil, and the reversal of the
 21  Gorg|           Thesis:—~It is a greater evil to do than to suffer injustice.~
 22  Gorg|            for well doing than for evil doing.’—1 Pet.~And the Sermon
 23  Gorg|           imply that the only real evil is moral evil. The righteous
 24  Gorg|            only real evil is moral evil. The righteous may suffer
 25  Gorg|         successful, is essentially evil, and has the nature of disease
 26  Gorg|             The tangle of good and evil can no longer be unravelled;
 27  Gorg|         good has often come out of evil. But Socrates would have
 28  Gorg|       consequences for good or for evil cannot alter a hair’s breadth
 29  Gorg|             and is not so great an evil as an unworthy life, or
 30  Gorg|           rightly regarded, not an evil at all, but to a good man
 31  Gorg| proportioned to the offence. Moral evil would then be scarcely distinguishable
 32  Gorg|    misfortunes. The success of our evil doings is a proof that the
 33  Gorg|         the character of their own evil deeds. To any suffering
 34  Gorg|        they are conscious of doing evil, they must learn to do well;
 35  Gorg|           and the consciousness of evil: (2) the legend of the Island
 36  Gorg|          and are purified of their evil deeds, and receive the rewards
 37  Gorg|     experience of the world and of evil. It is a more familiar remark
 38  Gorg|          for the good than for the evil.’~All literature gathers
 39  Gorg|   discourse concerning the good or evil condition of the body?~GORGIAS:
 40  Gorg|        being cured of a very great evil than of curing another.
 41  Gorg|           imagine that there is no evil which a man can endure so
 42  Gorg|           and honourable, good and evil, as he is of medicine and
 43  Gorg|       anything of what is good and evil, base or honourable, just
 44  Gorg|           done without sense is an evil.~POLUS: Yes; I admit that.~
 45  Gorg|          all things either good or evil, or intermediate and indifferent?~
 46  Gorg|         which are neither good nor evil, and which partake sometimes
 47  Gorg|         good and at other times of evil, or of neither, are such
 48  Gorg|          you call neither good nor evil?~POLUS: Exactly so.~SOCRATES:
 49  Gorg|          which is neither good nor evil, or simply evil, we do not
 50  Gorg|           good nor evil, or simply evil, we do not will. Why are
 51  Gorg|           wills if he does what is evil? Why do you not answer?~
 52  Gorg|      suffering injustice a greater evil?~SOCRATES: Certainly not.~
 53  Gorg|     SOCRATES: And punishment is an evil?~POLUS: Certainly.~SOCRATES:
 54  Gorg|          not, then his power is an evil and is no power. But let
 55  Gorg|        good and when that they are evil—what principle do you lay
 56  Gorg|            when they are just, and evil when they are unjust.~POLUS:
 57  Gorg|       maintain, and the unjust and evil are miserable.~POLUS: Then,
 58  Gorg|            that to do is a greater evil than to suffer injustice:
 59  Gorg|            disgrace is the greater evil?~POLUS: Certainly not.~SOCRATES:
 60  Gorg|          or the disgraceful as the evil?~POLUS: Certainly not.~SOCRATES:
 61  Gorg|      opposite standard of pain and evil?~POLUS: Certainly.~SOCRATES:
 62  Gorg|          exceeds either in pain or evil—must it not be so?~POLUS:
 63  Gorg|           suffering wrong was more evil, and doing wrong more disgraceful?~
 64  Gorg|          must exceed in pain or in evil or both: does not that also
 65  Gorg|       SOCRATES: That is to say, in evil?~POLUS: True.~SOCRATES:
 66  Gorg|   injustice will have an excess of evil, and will therefore be a
 67  Gorg|        will therefore be a greater evil than suffering injustice?~
 68  Gorg|          now discovered to be more evil?~POLUS: True.~SOCRATES:
 69  Gorg|         would you prefer a greater evil or a greater dishonour to
 70  Gorg|         prefer a greater to a less evil?~POLUS: No, not according
 71  Gorg|           injustice is the greater evil of the two.~POLUS: That
 72  Gorg|        punishment is not a greater evil, as I supposed. Consider:—
 73  Gorg|     punished is delivered from the evil of his soul?~POLUS: Yes.~
 74  Gorg|        delivered from the greatest evil? Look at the matter in this
 75  Gorg|             do you see any greater evil than poverty?~POLUS: There
 76  Gorg|         POLUS: There is no greater evil.~SOCRATES: Again, in a man’
 77  Gorg|             you would say that the evil is weakness and disease
 78  Gorg|         the soul likewise has some evil of her own?~POLUS: Of course.~
 79  Gorg|      injustice, and in general the evil of the soul?~POLUS: By far
 80  Gorg|          And now injustice and all evil in the soul has been admitted
 81  Gorg|       argue, not more painful, the evil of the soul is of all evils
 82  Gorg|   extraordinary hurtfulness of the evil.~POLUS: Clearly.~SOCRATES:
 83  Gorg|          is delivered from a great evil; and this is the advantage
 84  Gorg|          two persons who have some evil in their bodies, and that
 85  Gorg|          healed and delivered from evil, and another is not healed,
 86  Gorg|            healed, but retains the evil—which of them is the most
 87  Gorg|           to be released from this evil?~POLUS: True.~SOCRATES:
 88  Gorg|       suffer, is to perpetuate the evil?~POLUS: Yes.~SOCRATES: To
 89  Gorg|          will thereby suffer great evil?~POLUS: True.~SOCRATES:
 90  Gorg|   injustice, which is the greatest evil. Then, Polus, rhetoric would
 91  Gorg|       disgrace because the greater evil; but conventionally, to
 92  Gorg|          but conventionally, to do evil is the more disgraceful.
 93  Gorg|      complete trial of the good or evil of the soul, he ought to
 94  Gorg|        could be more truly base or evil than temperance—to a man
 95  Gorg|           I suppose, that good and evil fortune are opposed to each
 96  Gorg|    happiness, and their opposites, evil and misery, in a similar
 97  Gorg|            that cannot be good and evil—do we agree? Please not
 98  Gorg|            man could have good and evil fortune at the same time?~
 99  Gorg|       fortune, or pain the same as evil fortune, and therefore the
100  Gorg|            not cease from good and evil at the same moment, as you
101  Gorg|            as the pleasant, or the evil the same as the painful;
102  Gorg|        moment; but not of good and evil, for they are different.
103  Gorg|           same as good, or pain as evil? And I would have you look
104  Gorg|         advantage both in good and evil? (i.e. in having more pleasure
105  Gorg|         present with them, and the evil because evil; and that pleasures
106  Gorg|         them, and the evil because evil; and that pleasures were
107  Gorg|         those who are in pain have evil or sorrow present with them?~
108  Gorg|       would you still say that the evil are evil by reason of the
109  Gorg|        still say that the evil are evil by reason of the presence
110  Gorg|          reason of the presence of evil?~CALLICLES: I should.~SOCRATES:
111  Gorg|          and those who are in pain evil?~CALLICLES: Yes.~SOCRATES:
112  Gorg|            The degrees of good and evil vary with the degrees of
113  Gorg|           man and the coward to be evil?~CALLICLES: Certainly.~SOCRATES:
114  Gorg|           And he who is in pain is evil?~CALLICLES: Certainly.~SOCRATES:
115  Gorg|             SOCRATES: The good and evil both have joy and pain,
116  Gorg|            pain, but, perhaps, the evil has more of them?~CALLICLES:
117  Gorg|      pleasures are good and others evil?~CALLICLES: Yes.~SOCRATES:
118  Gorg|          good, and the hurtful are evil?~CALLICLES: To be sure.~
119  Gorg|            are those which do some evil?~CALLICLES: Yes.~SOCRATES:
120  Gorg|          good, and their opposites evil?~CALLICLES: Certainly.~SOCRATES:
121  Gorg|           good pains and there are evil pains?~CALLICLES: To be
122  Gorg|   Certainly.~SOCRATES: But not the evil?~CALLICLES: Clearly.~SOCRATES:
123  Gorg|    pleasures are good and what are evil, or must he have art or
124  Gorg|      processes which know good and evil. And I considered that cookery,
125  Gorg|          consideration of good and evil. And now I wish that you
126  Gorg|           which there is disorder, evil?~CALLICLES: Yes.~SOCRATES:
127  Gorg|          life if his body is in an evil plight—in that case his
128  Gorg|         that case his life also is evil: am I not right?~CALLICLES:
129  Gorg|         happy and blessed, and the evil man who does evil, miserable:
130  Gorg|          and the evil man who does evil, miserable: now this latter
131  Gorg|        wrongfully is not the worst evil which can befall a man,
132  Gorg|          more disgraceful and more evil; aye, and to despoil and
133  Gorg|           far more disgraceful and evil to the doer of the wrong
134  Gorg|            avert the next greatest evil; thirdly that which is unable
135  Gorg|           avert the third greatest evil; and so of other evils.
136  Gorg|             As is the greatness of evil so is the honour of being
137  Gorg|          suffer injustice a lesser evil—by what devices can a man
138  Gorg|           not this be the greatest evil to him?~CALLICLES: You always
139  Gorg|           saying, ‘O my boys, many evil things has this man done
140  Gorg|         could only say, ‘All these evil things, my boys, I did for
141  Gorg|       their minds, or that I speak evil of old men, and use bitter
142  Gorg|      happiness out of the reach of evil; but that he who has lived
143  Gorg|         there are many who, having evil souls, are apparelled in
144  Gorg|            be delivered from their evil. But they who have been