[352e]
would inevitably prove a most impressive lesson. Of such policies, one may say, there is no lack; but as for a policy which would prove beneficial to all alike, foes as well as friends, or at least as little detrimental as possible to either, such a policy is neither easy to discern, nor, when discerned, easy to carry out; and to advise such a policy or attempt to describe it is much like saying a prayer.1 Be it so, then, that this is nothing but a prayer (and in truth every man ought always
1 “Prayer” in the sense of a “pious wish” unlikely to be fulfilled, or a “last resort.”