Polus: Certainly.
Socrates: Then he who is punished suffers what is good?
Polus: That is true.
Socrates: Then he is benefited?
Polus: Yes.
Socrates: Do I understand you to mean what I mean by the term “benefited”? I mean, that if he be justly punished his soul is improved.
Polus: Surely.
Socrates: Then he who is punished is delivered from the evil of his soul?
Polus: Yes.
Socrates: And is he not then delivered from the greatest evil? Look at the matter in this way:—In respect of a man’s estate, do you see any greater evil than poverty?
Polus: There is no greater evil.
Socrates: Again, in a man’s bodily frame, you would say that the evil is weakness and disease and deformity?
Polus: I should.
Socrates: And do you not imagine that the soul likewise has some evil of her own?
Polus: Of course.
Socrates: And this you would call injustice and ignorance and cowardice, and the like?
Polus: Certainly.
Socrates: So then, in mind, body, and estate, which are three, you have pointed out three corresponding evils—injustice, disease, poverty?
Polus: True.
Socrates: And which of the evils is the most disgraceful?—Is not the most disgraceful of them injustice, and in general the evil of the soul?
Polus: By far the most.
Socrates: And if the most disgraceful, then also the worst?
Polus: What do you mean, Socrates?
Socrates: I mean to say, that is most disgraceful has been already admitted to be most painful or hurtful, or both.
Polus: Certainly.