Soc. Then consider the matter in this way: Imagine that I am about to play
truant (you may call the proceeding by any name which you like), and the laws
and the government come and interrogate me: "Tell us, Socrates," they say;
"what are you about? are you going by an act of yours to overturn us- the laws
and the whole State, as far as in you lies? Do you imagine that a State can
subsist and not be overthrown, in which the decisions of law have no power,
but are set aside and overthrown by individuals?" What will be our answer,
Crito, to these and the like words? Anyone, and especially a clever
rhetorician, will have a good deal to urge about the evil of setting aside the
law which requires a sentence to be carried out; and we might reply, "Yes; but
the State has injured us and given an unjust sentence." Suppose I say that?