1To be sure, he said, they are to receive what we owe them, and an enemy, as I take it, owes to an enemy that which is due or proper to him—that is to say, evil.

2Simonides, then, after the manner of poets, would seem to have spoken darkly of the nature of justice; for he really meant to say that justice is the giving to each man what is proper to him, and this he termed a debt.

3That must have been his meaning, he said.

4By heaven! I replied; and if we asked him what due or proper thing is given by medicine, and to whom, what answer do you think that he would make to us?

5He would surely reply that medicine gives drugs and meat and drink to human bodies.

6And what due or proper thing is given by cookery, and to what?

7Seasoning to food.

8And what is that which justice gives, and to whom?

9If, Socrates, we are to be guided at all by the analogy of the preceding instances, then justice is the art which gives good to friends and evil to enemies.

10That is his meaning then?

11I think so.

12And who is best able to do good to his friends and evil to his enemies in time of sickness?

13The physician.

14Or when they are on a voyage, amid the perils of the sea?

15The pilot.

16And in what sort of actions or with a view to what result is the just man most able to do harm to his enemy and good to his friend?

17In going to war against the one and in making alliances with the other.

18But when a man is well, my dear Polemarchus, there is no need of a physician?

19No.

20And he who is not on a voyage has no need of a pilot?

21No.

22Then in time of peace justice will be of no use?

23I am very far from thinking so.

24You think that justice may be of use in peace as well as in war?

25Yes.