CRITO 389
" Well then, since you were brought into the world and nurtured and educated by us, can you deny in the first place that you are our child and slave, as your fathers were before you ? And if this is true you ai-e not on equal terms with us ; nor can you think that you have a right to do to us what we are doing to you. Would you have any right to strike or revile or do any other evil to your father or your mas- ter, if you had one, because you have been struck or reviled by him, or received some other evil at his hands ? — you would not say this ? And because we think right to destroy you, do you think that you have any right to destroy us in return, and your country as far as in you lies ? Will you, Ο professor of true virtue, pretend that you are justified in this ? Has a philosopher like you failed to discover that our country is more to be valued and higher and holier far than mother or father or any ancestor, and more to be regarded in the eyes of the gods and of men of understanding ? Also to be soothed, and gently and reverently entreated when angry, even more than a father, and either to be persuaded, or if not per- suaded, to be obeyed ? And when we are punished by her, whether with imprisonment or stripes, the punishment is to be endured in silence ; and if she lead us to wounds or death in battle, thither we follow, as is right ; neither may any one yield or retreat or leave his rank, but whether in battle or in a court of law, or in any other place, he must do what his city and his country order him ; or he must change their view of what is just ; and if he may do no violence to his father or mother, much less may he do violence to his country." What answer shall we make to this, Crito ? Do the laws speak truly, or do they not ?
