274 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES 



right in commanding your father to train you in music 

 and gymnastics?" "Right," I should reply. "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 are 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 master, 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, O professor of true virtue, pre- 

 tend 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 if not persuaded 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 anyone 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 his mother, much less may he do violence to his 

 country." 



