CRITO 393
And what will you say to thera ? What you say here about virtue and justice and institutions and laws be- ing the best things among men ? AVould that be decent of you? Surely not. But if you go away from well-governed states to Crito's friends in Thes- saly, where there is great disorder and license, they will be charmed to hear the tale of your escape from prison, set o£F with ludicrous particulars of the manner in which you were wrapped up in a goatskin or some other disguise, and metamorphosed as the manner is of runaways ; but will there be no one to remind you that in your old age you were not ashamed to violate the most sacred laws from a miserable desire of a little more life? Perhaps not, if you keep them in a good temper ; but if they are out of temper you will hear many degrading things. You will live, but how ? — as the flatterer of all men, and the servant of all men ; and doing what ? — eating and drinking in Thessaly, having gone abroad in order that you may get a dinner. And where will be your fine sentiments about justice and virtue ? Say that you wish to live for the sake of your children — you want to bring them up and educate them — will you take them into Thessaly and deprive them of Athenian citizenship ? Is this the benefit which you will confer upon them ? Or are you under the impression that they will be better cared for and educated here if you are still alive, although absent from them ; for your friends will take care of them? Do you fancy that if you are an inhabitant of Thessaly they will take care of them, and if you are an inhabitant of the other world that they will not take care of them ? Nay ; but if they who call themselves friends are good for any- thing, they will — to be sure they will.
