Hipp.
Quite true.
Soc.
Well now, would you choose to possess a horse of such spirit that you would ride him badly voluntarily, or involuntarily?
Hipp.
Voluntarily.
Soc.
Then that spirit is better.
Hipp.
Yes.
Soc.
Then with the horse of better spirit one would do voluntarily the bad acts of that spirit, but with the one of worse spirit involuntarily?
Hipp.
Certainly.
Soc.
And is not that true of a dog, and all other animals?
Hipp.
Yes.
Soc.
Well now, then, in the case of an archer is it better to possess the mind which voluntarily misses the mark,
375b
or that which does so involuntarily?
Hipp.
That which does so voluntarily.
Soc.
Then that is the better mind for the purpose of archery?
Hipp.
Yes.
Soc.
Is, then, the mind also which errs involuntarily worse than that which errs voluntarily?
Hipp.
Yes, in the case of archery.
Soc.
And how is it in the art of medicine? Is not the mind which does harm to the patients’ bodies voluntarily the more scientific?
Hipp.
Yes.
Soc.
In this art, then, this mind is better than the other.
Hipp.
It is better.
Soc.
Well now, the more musical, whether with lyre or with flute,
375c
and in everything else that concerns all the other arts and sciences—is not that mind better which voluntarily does bad and disgraceful things and commits errors, whereas that which does so involuntarily is worse?
Hipp.
Apparently.
Soc.
And surely we should prefer to possess slaves of such minds that they voluntarily commit errors and do mischief, rather than such as do so involuntarily; we should think them better fitted for their duties.
Hipp.
Yes.
Soc.
Well now, should we not wish to possess our own mind in the best possible condition?
Hipp.
Yes.
Soc.
Will it, then, be better if it does evil and errs voluntarily, or involuntarily?
Hipp.
But it would be a terrible thing, Socrates, if those who do wrong voluntarily are to be better than those who do so involuntarily.
Soc.
But surely they appear, at least, to be so, from what has been said.
Hipp.
Not to me.
Soc.
I thought, Hippias, they appeared to be so to you also. But now once more answer me: Is not justice either a sort of power or knowledge, or both? Or must not justice inevitably be one or other of these?
Hipp.
Yes.
Soc.
Then injustice is a power of the soul, the more powerful soul is the more just, is it not? For we found, my friend, that such a soul was better.
Hipp.
Yes, we did.
Soc.
And what if it be knowledge? Is not the wiser soul more just, and the more ignorant more unjust?
Hipp.
Yes.
Soc.
And what if it be both? Is not the soul which has both, power and knowledge, more just, and the more ignorant more unjust? Is that not inevitably the case?
Hipp.
It appears to be.
Hippias Minor. Plato. Harold North Fowler (Translator), ed. Walter Rangeley Maitland Lamb. Cambridge, MA. 1926.
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