'If the world, Socrates, were as ready to receive your words as I am, there
would be greater peace and less evil among mankind.'

Evil, Theodorus, must ever remain in this world to be the antagonist of
good, out of the way of the gods in heaven. Wherefore also we should fly
away from ourselves to them; and to fly to them is to become like them; and
to become like them is to become holy, just and true. But many live in the
old wives' fable of appearances; they think that you should follow virtue
in order that you may seem to be good. And yet the truth is, that God is
righteous; and of men, he is most like him who is most righteous. To know
this is wisdom; and in comparison of this the wisdom of the arts or the
seeming wisdom of politicians is mean and common. The unrighteous man is
apt to pride himself on his cunning; when others call him rogue, he says to
himself: 'They only mean that I am one who deserves to live, and not a
mere burden of the earth.' But he should reflect that his ignorance makes
his condition worse than if he knew. For the penalty of injustice is not
death or stripes, but the fatal necessity of becoming more and more unjust.
Two patterns of life are set before him; the one blessed and divine, the
other godless and wretched; and he is growing more and more like the one
and unlike the other. He does not see that if he continues in his cunning,
the place of innocence will not receive him after death. And yet if such a
man has the courage to hear the argument out, he often becomes dissatisfied
with himself, and has no more strength in him than a child.--But we have
digressed enough.

'For my part, Socrates, I like the digressions better than the argument,
because I understand them better.'

To return. When we left off, the Protagoreans and Heracliteans were
maintaining that the ordinances of the State were just, while they lasted.