<000005>On turning from the conduct of State affairs to the administration of justice in the popular law courts, we find the same tale of iniquity repeated, but this time with more telling satire, as Plato is speaking from his own immediate experience. He considers that, under the manipulation of dexterous pleaders, judicial decisions had come to be framed with a total disregard of righteousness. That disputed claims should be submitted to a popular tribunal and settled by counting heads was, indeed, according to his view, a virtual admission that no absolute standard of justice existed; that moral truth varied with individual opinion. And this200 is how the character of the lawyer had been moulded in consequence:
One not accustomed to manual labour will, after commencing, find his limbs aching, his hands sore; he will feel exhausted both at the beginning and at the end of a day's work. These are not dangerous symptoms. He has only to wait until his system is built up so as to sustain this new draught upon its resources, and until nature furnishes a power of endurance, which will in the end be a source of pride, and add a score of years to life. Have plenty of sleep, plenty of plain, substantial food, keep the skin clean and active, laugh at privations, and cultivate a spirit of self-sacrifice and a pride in endurance that will court the hardest and longest efforts. An apprentice who has not the spirit and firmness to endure physical labour, and adapt himself to the conditions of a workshop, should select some pursuit of a nature less aggressive than mechanical engineering.Many days before the Germans marched upon Antwerp I announced the siege in my paper. In Louvain I had seen all the preparations and also the arrival of the Austrian 30?5 c.m. which were intended to batter to ruins the bulwark of the national defence."I destroyed it. There was no object in keeping it. I tore it up then and there and pitched it on the pavement. The motor was driven by a dumb man, who conveyed me to the corner house. It struck me as strange, but then the owner might have returned. When I got there I found the man subsequently murdered suffering from a combination of alcoholic poisoning and laudanum. It was hard work, but I managed to save him. A Spanish woman--the only creature besides my patient I saw--paid me a fee of three guineas, and there ends the matter.""But, madame, you do not mean to send that child to Maastricht by itself?""Get up!" the latter cried. "Why do you grovel there? Faugh! you sicken me. Is there no spark of manhood in you at all? You are going to die."
