This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[6]
If a conclusion is put in the form of a
question, we should state the reason for our answer. For instance,
Sophocles1 being asked
by Pisander whether he, like the rest of the Committee of Ten, had approved the
setting up of the Four Hundred, he admitted it. “What then?”
asked Pisander, “did not this appear to you to be a wicked
thing?” Sophocles admitted it. “So then you did what was
wicked?” “Yes, for there was nothing better to be
done.” The Lacedaemonian, who was called to account for his ephoralty,
being asked if he did not think that the rest of his colleagues had been justly
put to death, answered yes. “But did not you pass the same measures as
they did?” “Yes.” “Would not you, then,
also be justly put to death?” “No; for my colleagues did
this for money; I did not, but acted according to my conscience.” For
this reason we should not ask any further questions after drawing the
conclusion,
nor put the conclusion itself as a question, unless the balance of truth is unmistakably in our favor.
nor put the conclusion itself as a question, unless the balance of truth is unmistakably in our favor.
1 Cp. 1.14.3.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.