Minos
Translated by Walter Rangeley Maitland Lamb
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The opening
Soc. Tell me, what is law?
Com. To what kind of law does your question refer?
Soc. What! Is there any difference between law and law, in this particular point of being law? For just consider what is the actual question I am putting to you. It is as though I had asked, what is gold: if you had asked me in the same manner, to what kind of gold I refer, I think your question would have been incorrect. For I presume there is no difference between gold and gold, or between stone and stone, in point of being gold or stone; and so neither does law differ at all from law, I suppose, but they are all the same thing. For each of them is law alike, not one more so, and another less. That is the particular point of my question—what is law as a whole? So if you are ready, tell me.
Com. Well, what else should law be, Socrates, but things loyally accepted?
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About this edition
- The words
- Walter Rangeley Maitland Lamb's English translation, copied word for word.
- Copied from
Perseus Digital Library (Tufts University); CC BY-SA 4.0 — this edition may be reused under the same share-alike terms. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
- Left out
- Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 2 places