I cannot, but I should like to be told.
From another point of view Justice is the residue of the three others. Because I think that this is the only virtue which remains in the State when the other virtues of temperance and courage and wisdom are abstracted; and, that this is the ultimate 124 cause and condition of the existence of all of them, and while remaining in them is also their preservative; [C]and we were saying that if the three were discovered by us, justice would be the fourth or remaining one.
That follows of necessity.
If we are asked to determine which of these four qualities by its presence contributes most to the excellence of the State, whether the agreement of rulers and subjects, or the preservation in the soldiers of the opinion which the law ordains about the true nature of dangers, or wisdom and [D]watchfulness in the rulers, or whether this other which I am mentioning, and which is found in children and women, slave and freeman, artisan, ruler, subject,—the quality, I mean, of every one doing his own work, and not being a busybody, would claim the palm—the question is not so easily answered.
Certainly, he replied, there would be a difficulty in saying which.
Then the power of each individual in the State to do his own work appears to compete with the other political virtues, wisdom, temperance, courage.
Yes, he said.
And the virtue which enters into this competition is [E]justice?
Exactly.
Our idea is confirmed by the administration of justice in lawsuits. No man is to have what is not his own. Let us look at the question from another point of view: Are not the rulers in a State those to whom you would entrust the office of determining suits at law?