Well, then, according to the proverb, ‘Let brother help brother’—if he fails in any part do you assist him; although I must confess that Glaucon has already said quite enough to lay me in the dust, and take from me the power of helping justice.
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peck.wisdom 23,094 posts
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Let them not thoughtlessly indulge themselves in their ordinary life; let them not act as if weary of what that life depends on.
Worship of gods Meriting worship; lowly reverence Of Twice-borns, Teachers, Elders; Purity, Rectitude, and the Brahmacharya's vow, And not to injure any helpless thing,-- These make a true religiousness of Act.
[FN#37] I omit the concluding shlokas, as of very doubtful authenticity.
And the same is true of all other things; they have each of them an end and a special excellence?
The Kings and Chiefs drawn in, That gaping gorge within; The best of both these armies torn and riven! Between Thy jaws they lie Mangled full bloodily, Ground into dust and death! Like streams down-driven
Therefore the sage is (like) a square which cuts no one (with its angles); (like) a corner which injures no one (with its sharpness). He is straightforward, but allows himself no license; he is bright, but does not dazzle.
Tao Te Ching — Chapter 30: Chapter 34
Bhagavad Gita (The Song Celestial) — Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Religion By Separation Of Matter And Spirit
You mean to say, if they have lost their proper excellence, which is sight; but I have not arrived at that point yet. I would rather ask the question more generally, and only enquire whether the things which fulfil their ends fulfil them by their own proper excellence, and fail of fulfilling them by their own defect?
When the Tao prevails in the world, they send back their swift horses to (draw) the dung-carts. When the Tao is disregarded in the world, the war-horses breed in the border lands.
I know, I said, that such was your position; but what I would further consider is, whether this power which is possessed by the superior state can exist or be exercised without justice or only with justice.
And if we imagine the State in process of creation, we shall see the justice and injustice of the State in process of creation also.
True, he replied; and I will add that the best and most perfectly unjust state will be most likely to do so.
[FN#14] I read here janma, "birth;" not jara,"age"
Tao Te Ching — Chapter 67: Chapter 72
Tao Te Ching — Chapter 46: Chapter 50
And is not injustice equally fatal when existing in a single person; in the first place rendering him incapable of action because he is not at unity with himself, and in the second place making him an enemy to himself and the just? Is not that true, Thrasymachus?
Therefore the sentence-makers have thus expressed themselves:--
Lucilla buried Verus; then was Lucilla herself buried by others. So Secunda Maximus, then Secunda herself. So Epitynchanus, Diotimus; then Epitynchanus himself. So Antoninus Pius, Faustina his wife; then Antoninus himself. This is the course of the world. First Celer, Adrianus; then Adrianus himself. And those austere ones; those that foretold other men's deaths; those that were so proud and stately, where are they now? Those austere ones I mean, such as were Charax, and Demetrius the Platonic, and Eudaemon, and others like unto those. They were all but for one day; all dead and gone long since. Some of them no sooner dead, than forgotten. Others soon turned into fables. Of others, even that which was fabulous, is now long since forgotten. This thereafter thou must remember, that whatsoever thou art compounded of, shall soon be dispersed, and that thy life and breath, or thy soul, shall either be no more or shall ranslated (sp.), and appointed to some certain place and station.