'Very true.' Such a struggle might be determined by a judge.
And which will be the better judge--he who destroys the worse and lets the better rule, or he who lets the better rule and makes the others voluntarily obey; or, thirdly, he who destroys no one, but reconciles the two parties?
'The last, clearly.' But the object of such a judge or legislator would not be war.

'True.' And as there are two kinds of war, one without and one within a state, of which the internal is by far the worse, will not the legislator chiefly direct his attention to this latter?
He will reconcile the contending factions, and unite them against their external enemies.

'Certainly.' Every legislator will aim at the greatest good, and the greatest good is not victory in war, whether civil or external, but mutual peace and good-will, as in the body health is preferable to the purgation of disease.

He who makes war his object instead of peace, or who pursues war except for the sake of peace, is not a true statesman.

'And yet, Stranger, the laws both of Crete and Sparta aim entirely at war.' Perhaps so; but do not let us quarrel about your legislators--let us be gentle; they were in earnest quite as much as we are, and we must try to discover their meaning.