[75,0] The Seventy-fifth Discourse :  On Law 
1 The law is for life a guide, for cities an impartial overseer, and for the conduct of 
affairs a true and just straight-edge by which each must keep straight his own 
conduct; otherwise he will be crooked and corrupt. Accordingly, those who strictly 
observe the law have firm hold on safety; while those who transgress it destroy first of 
all themselves and then their fellows too, providing them with an example and 
pattern of lawlessness and violence. Yes, just as at sea those who do not miss the 
beacon are most likely to come through with their lives and to find their havens, so 
those who live according to the law journey through life with maximum security and 
reach the right destination. 2 There have been, it is true, instances in which one who 
has used a human being as counsellor has done so to his sorrow, but not so with the 
law. So much more serviceable is it for our cities than their walls that many of them 
still remain unwalled, but without law no city can be administered. 
But the law is of advantage not only to mortals, but to the gods as well. At any rate the 
universe always preserves the same law inviolate, and nothing which is eternal may 
transgress it. It is for that reason, methinks, that the law has appropriately (p243) been 
called "king of men and gods";  for law does away with violence, puts down insolence, 
reproves folly, chastises wickedness, and in private and public relations helps all who 
are in need, succouring the victims of injustice, and to those who are perplexed about 
a course of action making known what is their duty. 3 Whenever, for instance, a man 
is confronted by a perplexing situation and is seeking to discover what is expedient 
for him, he need not, I believe, call in friends or kinsmen, but rather go to the laws 
and pose his question. For the law would not, having an eye to its own advantage, 
give him inferior advice, nor yet through ignorance of the better course, nor would it 
because of some engagement or lack of interest beg its consultants to let it be 
excused. For, on the contrary, it has regard for all alike, and it has leisure for the 
problems of all others, and for it there is no private or special interest. 
4 Again, law is more serviceable than the oracular responses of the gods in the that, 
while there have been some who did not understand the oracles, and, supposing that 
they were acting in harmony with them, have done the very opposite — which 
accounts, I imagine, for their having met with disaster — from the law there proceeds 
nothing which is tortuous or ambiguous, but, instead, it puts in simple phrases 
everything which is appropriate for those who are in need. Besides, though ruler and 
master of all things, it exercises its authority without the use of arms and force — on 
the contrary, law itself does away with force; nay, it rules by persuasion and governs 
(p245) willing subjects. For it is because it first persuades men and secures their 
approval that law comes into being and acquires its own power. 
5 But so great is the power it possesses, that it is the law which assists even the gods. 
For example, the sacrilegious and those who violate the reverence due to the gods it 
punishes. Moreover, the law itself no one has the power to injure. For every one who 
transgresses the law harms, not the law, but himself. 6 But such is the righteousness 
and benevolence which pervades the law, that for the unfortunate it has proved even 
more helpful than their blood relatives; and for the victims of injustice it has proved 
more potent than their own might; and for fathers, more kindly than their sons; for 
sons, more kindly than parents; for brothers, than brothers. At any rate many, when 
wronged by their closest kin, seek refuge with the law. Then too, though it has 
experienced no kindness at the hands of any one, the law renders thanks in full to all 
for the kindnesses which they show to others, exacting thanks alike for fathers from 
their sons, for those who have in private done some deed of kindness from those 
whom they have benefited, and for those who display public spirit in municipal affairs 
from their city. 
7 Furthermore, most beautiful are the rewards which it has established for their 
benefactions, having devised crowns and public proclamations and seats of honour, 
things which for those who supply them entail no expense, but which for those who 
win them have come to be worth everything. Indeed, whatever it so desires, however 
inexpensive it may be, the law immediately renders important and precious. It is the 
law which has made the wild olive so important, (p247) worth so much devoted effort, 
8 just as also with the parsley, the pine, and the olive crown;  it is the law which has 
made the three words with which each good man is publicly acclaimed  more precious 
to many than life itself. It is the law which convenes the national festive gatherings, 
which honours the gods, which exalts virtue; it is the law which purges the sea,  
makes civilized the land, is the veritable son of Zeus, the possessor of invincible, 
insuperable might  for it is so far superior to all else in temperance and 
trustworthiness that not only partnership with women but also the bloom of maidens 
and the prime of lads we all have entrusted to the law. Besides, though Justice is a 
virgin, such is his continence that Law dwells with her without a chaperon. 
9 Law is a protector of old age, a schoolmaster of youth, of poverty a fellow labourer, a 
guard of wealth, to peace an ally, to war a foe. Nay, even in war itself law has the 
greater might. For instance, the herald who is dispatched from one's bitterest foes the 
law protects and guards, giving him as a weapon more mighty than any corselet or 
any shield the herald's staff — in fact, this is a symbol of the law. Because of the law 
the slain are deemed no longer to be foes, nor are hatred and insult wreaked upon 
their bodies. 
10 Again, so much more useful is the law to our cities (p249) than rudders are to our 
ships that, whereas a ship which has lost its rudders  would not perish unless a storm 
should overtake it, a city cannot be saved if the law has been destroyed, not even 
when no dire disaster befalls it from without. But just as each of us is governed and 
safeguarded by the intelligence which is in him, while its destruction entails madness 
and insanity, similarly, if one expels the law from his life, just as if he had lost his 
mind, I believe he will be brought into a state of utter madness and confusion.