nts to go to a colony or to any other city, may go
where he likes and take his goods with him. But he who has experience
of the manner in which we order justice and administer the state, and
still remains, has entered into an implied contract that he will do as
we command him. And he who disobeys us is, as we maintain, thrice
wrong; first, because in disobeying us he is disobeying his parents;
secondly, because we are the authors of his education; thirdly,
because he had made an agreement with us that he will duly obey our
commands; and he neither obeys them nor convinces us that our commands
are wrong; and we do not rudely impose them, but give him the
alternative of obeying or convincing us; that is what we offer, and he
does neither. These are the sort of accusations to which, as we were
saying, you, Socrates, will be exposed if you accomplish your
intentions; you above all other Athenians." Suppose I ask, why is
this? They will justly retort upon me that I above all other men have
acknowledged the agreement. "There is clear proof," they will say,
"Socrates, that we and the city were not displeasing to you. Of all
Athenians you have been the most constant resident in the city, which,
as you never leave, you may be supposed to love. For you never went
out of the city either to see the games, except once when you went to
the Isthmus, or to any other place unless when you were on military
service; nor did you travel as other men do. Nor have you any
curiosity to know other states or their laws; your affections did not
go beyond us and our state; we were your special favorites, and you
acquiesced in our government of you; and this is the state in which
you begot your children, which is a proof of your satisfaction.
Moreover, you might, if you had liked, have fixt the penalty at
banishment in the course of the trial--the state which refuses to let
you go now would have let you go then. But you pretended that you
preferred death to exile, and that you were not grieved at death. And
now you have forgotten these fine sentiments, and pay no respect to us
the laws, of which you are the destroyer, and are doing what only a
miserable slave would do, running away and turning your back upon the
compacts and agreements which you made as a citizen. And first of all
answer this very question: Are we right in saying that you agreed to
be governed according to us in deed, and not in word only? Is that
true or not?" How shall we answer t