aid on the subject of justice, and his actions
being conformable to his words, he from day to day created a greater love
of justice in the minds of those who frequented him.

CHAPTER V. OF THE MISCHIEFS OF INTEMPERANCE, AND THE ADVANTAGES OF
SOBRIETY.

I will now set down the arguments that Socrates used to bring his friends
to the practice of good actions, for being of opinion that temperance is
a great advantage to such as desire to do anything that is excellent, he
first showed them, by his way of living, that no man was more advanced
than himself in the exercise of that virtue; and in his conferences he
exhorted his hearers above all things to the practice of it, and his
thoughts being continually employed in the means of arriving to be
virtuous, he made it likewise the subject of all his discourses.

I remember that talking once with Euthydemus concerning temperance he
delivered himself to this effect:--"In your opinion, Euthydemus, is
liberty a very valuable thing?" "To be valued above all things,"
answered Euthydemus. "Do you believe that a man who is a slave to
sensual pleasures, and finds himself incapable of doing good, enjoys his
liberty?" "Not in the least." "You allow, then, that to do good is to
be free, and that to be prevented from doing it, by any obstacle
whatever, is not to be free?" "I think so," said Euthydemus. "You
believe, then," said Socrates, "that debauched persons are not free?" "I
do." "Do you believe likewise," continued Socrates, "that debauchery
does not only hinder from doing good, but compels to do ill?" "I think
it does." "What would you say, then, of a master who should hinder you
from applying yourself to what is honest, and force you to undertake some
infamous occupation?" "I would say he was a very wicked master,"
answered Euthydemus. "And which is the worst of all slaveries?" added
Socrates. "To serve ill masters," said Euthydemus. "Therefore,"
inferred Socrates, "the debauched are in a miserable slavery." "No doubt
of it." "Is it not debauchery, likewise," said Socrates, "that deprives
men of their wisdom, the noblest gift of the gods, and drives them into
ignorance and stupidity, and all manner of disorders? It robs them of
leisure to apply themselves to things profitable, while it drowns them in
sensual pleasures; and it seizes their minds to that degree that, though
they often know which is the best way, they are miserably engaged in the
worst." "The