“Then it is not a base transaction?”
“No.”
“Now consider in this way; Does a vote belong to the man who possesses a vote?”
“Yes, Socrates; but I am afraid that you are going to quibble, as usual.”
“It is only by dialectic,” I replied, “that we can arrive at the truth. And the wine belongs, I suppose, to the wine-seller?”
“Then when the wine-seller gets the voter’s vote in exchange for his own wine, they simply give each other what each possesses; and such a transaction, as you have said, is advantageous to both parties, and honourable, and not base at all.”
“I said,” he replied, rather angrily, “that you were going to quibble. Of course, the case is quite different. A vote is a sacred thing; and it ought not to be exchanged for the satisfaction of mere bodily desires, such as the desire for drink.”
“Nor for any other material comfort?” I asked.
“Certainly not,” he replied.