ting.

Phid. I will pass over to that part of my discourse
where you interrupted me; and first I will ask you this:
Did you beat me when I was a boy?

Strep. I did, through good-will and concern for you.

Phid. Pray tell me, is it not just that I also should be
well inclined toward you in the same way, and beat you,
since this is to be well inclined-to give a beating? For
why ought your body to be exempt from blows and mine
not? And yet I too was born free. The boys weep, and do
you not think it is right that a father should weep? You
will say that it is ordained by law that this should be
the lot of boys. But I would reply, that old men are
boys twice over, and that it is the more reasonable that
the old should weep than the young, inasmuch as it is
less just that they should err.

Strep. It is nowhere ordained by law that a father
should suffer this.

Phid. Was it not then a man like you and me, who first
proposed this law, and by speaking persuaded the
ancients? Why then is it less lawful for me also in turn
to propose henceforth a new law for the sons, that they
should beat their fathers in turn? But as many blows as
we received before the law was made, we remit: and we
concede to them our having been thrashed without return.
Observe the cocks and these other animals, how they
punish their fathers; and yet, in what do they differ
from us, except that they do not write decrees?

Strep. Why then, since you imitate the cocks in all
things, do you not both eat dung and sleep on a perch?

Phid. It is not the same thing, my friend; nor would it
appear so to Socrates.

Strep. Therefore do not beat me; otherwise you will one
day blame yourself.

Phid. Why, how?

Strep. Since I am justly entitled to chastise you; and
you to chastise your son, if you should have one.

Phid. But if I should not have one, I shall have wept
for nothing, and you will die laughing at me.

Strep. To me, indeed, O comrades, he seems to speak
justly; and I think we ought to concede to them what is
fitting. For it is proper that we should weep, if we do
not act justly.

Phid. Consider still another maxim.

Strep. No; for I shall perish if I do.

Phid. And yet perhaps you will not be vexed at suffering