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[426b] and idling, neither drugs1 nor cautery nor the knife, no, nor spells nor periapts2 will be of any avail?” “Not altogether charming,” he said, “for there is no grace or charm in being angry3 with him who speaks well.” “You do not seem to be an admirer4 of such people,” said I. “No, by heaven, I am not.”

“Neither then, if an entire city,5 as we were just now saying, acts in this way, will it have your approval, or don't you think that the way of such invalids is precisely that of those cities

1 For the list cf. Pindar, Pyth. iii. 50-54.οὐδ᾽ αὖ emphasizes the transition to superstitious remedies in which Plato doesn't really believe. Cf. his rationalizing interpretations of ἐπῳδαί, Charmides 157 A, Theaetetus 149 C.Laws 933 A-B is to be interpreted in the spirit of the observation in Selden's Table Talk: “The law against witches does not prove that there be any but it punishes the malice,” etc. [Demosthenes] xxv. 80 is sceptical.

2 Cf. any lexicon, Shakespeare 1 Henry VI. v. iii. 2 “Now help, ye charming spells and periapts,” and Plutarch's story of the women who hung them on Pericles' neck on his death-bed.

3 Cf. 480 A, 354 A.

4 The noun is more forcible than the verb would be. Cf. Protagoras 309 Aἐπαινέτης.

5 We return from the illustration to its application to the state.

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