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[766d] until they have appointed the guardian for the children. A State, indeed, would be no State if it had no law-courts properly established; but a judge who was dumb and who said as little as litigants at a preliminary inquiry,1 as do arbitrators,2 would never prove efficient in deciding questions of justice; consequently it is not easy for a large body of men to judge well, nor yet for a small one, if of poor ability. The matter in dispute on either side

1 i.e. an inquiry into the grounds of a proposed action at law, to decide whether or not it should be brought into court.

2 i.e. persons appointed to settle points in dispute, so as to avoid a legal trial in the regular courts.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 10 & 11 translated by R.G. Bury. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967 & 1968.

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