 |
6. The Principle of Implied Consent
|
 |
|
|
Socrates. Then the laws will say: "Consider, Socrates, if this is |
|
|
true, that in your present attempt you are going to do us |
|
|
wrong. For, after having brought you into the world, and |
|
| 51d |
nurtured and educated you, and given you and every other |
|
|
citizen a share in every good that we had to give, we further |
|
|
proclaim and give the right to every Athenian, that if he does |
|
|
not like us when he has come of age and has seen the ways of |
|
|
the city, and made our acquaintance, he may go where he |
|
|
pleases and take his goods with him; and none of us laws will |
|
|
forbid him or interfere with him. Any of you who does not |
|
|
like us and the city, and who wants to go to a colony or to any |
|
|
other city, may go where he likes, and take his goods with |
|
| 51e |
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 has 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 |
|
| 52a |
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 |
|
| 52b |
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
had |
|
|
Socrates Served as a Hoplite
Artist: Ru Dien-Jen
|
|
|
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 |
|
| 52c |
you; and this is the State in which you begat your children, |
|
|
which is a proof of your satisfaction Moreover, you might, if |
|
|
you had liked, have fixed 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 whom you are the destroyer; |
|
| 52d |
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 that, |
|
|
Crito? Must we not agree? |
|
|
|
|
|
Crito. There is no help, Socrates. |
|
|
|
|
|
Soc. Then will they not say: "You, Socrates,
are breaking the |
|
| 52e |
covenants and agreements which you made with us at your |
|
|
leisure, not in any haste or under any compulsion or |
|
|
deception, but having had seventy years to think of them, |
|
|
during which time you were at liberty to leave the city, if we |
|
|
were not to your mind, or if our covenants appeared to you to |
|
|
be unfair. You had your choice, and might have gone either to |
|
|
Lacedaemon or Crete, which you often praise for their good |
|
| 53a |
government, or to some other Hellenic or foreign State. |
|
|
Whereas you, above all other Athenians, seemed to be so fond |
|
|
of the State, or, in other words, of us her laws (for who |
|
|
would like a State that has no laws), that you never stirred |
|
|
out of her: the halt, the blind, the maimed, were not more |
|
|
stationary in her than you were. And now you run away and |
|
|
forsake your agreements. Not so, Socrates, if you will take
|
|
|
our advice; do not make yourself ridiculous by escaping out of |
|
|
the city. |
|
| |
|
|
