THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY

FOUNDED BY JAMES LOEB, LL.D.

EDITED BY

t T. E. PAGE, CH., LITT.D.

E. CAPPS, PH.D., LUD. W. H. D. ROUSE, Lrrr.D.

L. A. POST, M.A. E. H. WARMINGTON, ma.

PLATO'S REPUBLIC
II
 PLATO
THE REPUBLIC
WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY
PAUL SHOREY, Ph.D., LL.D., Lirr.D.
[Link] PROKESSOR OF GREEK, IXIVERSITY OF CnlCAGO

IN TWO VOLUMES
II

BOOKS VI-X

CAMBRIDGF, MASSACHUSETTS
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
[Link]
WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD
UCUXUI
 First printed 1935
Reprinted 1942

c"^. ^'

Printed in Great Britainf

 ;

PREFATORY NOTE
While actively engaged, so far as his failing strength
would permit, in completing for publication this the
second volume of his translation of the Republic of Plato,
Professor Shorey passed away on April 24, 1934, in the
seventy-eighth year of his life. In justice to him as
weU as to the many thousands of readers who will study
and cherish this last and perhaps the greatest scholarly
work of the distinguished Platonist, the Editors of the
Loeb Classical Library- desire to place on record here a
brief statement of the pertinent facts relating to the com-
position and the proof-revision of this volume. Behind
the bare narrative lies a record of unwavering courage
in the face of fast-approaching death on the part of the
veteran scholar and of dauntless determination both to
achieve a long-cherished purpose and to fulfil an obligation
entered into many years before with his friend Dr. James
Loeb and his collaborators in the editing of the Library
and the Editors thought it right to offer this volume to the
public as nearly as possible approximating to the condition
in which the latest proofs passed under the author's eye.
The translation had been finished and was in Professor
Shorey's hands in proof form for about two years and had
been partially, though not finally, revised by him. The
Introduction was dictated by him, paragraph by para-
graph, in the scant hours of work permitted him by his
physicians after his first break-down in December 1933.
The same is true of those notes accompanying the trans-
lation which are of an interpretative, literary or philo-
sophical character. The many notes on Platonic diction
and on matters of Greek grammar and idiom were in
large part compiled from Professor Shorey's jottings on
the well-filled margins of his desk-copy of the Republic by
his research secretary, Miss Stella Lange, who had assisted
 PREFATORY NOTE
him in that capacity during the preparation of What
Plato Said, to which important work she added many
references in the notes of this volume. The critical notes
under the text were added by Miss Lange during the
revision of the proofs, often from notes made by Professor
Shorey himself.
The assembling in the form of copy for the printer of all
the material which is found in the Introduction and notes
has been the work of Miss Lange, undertaken at the
request of Mrs. Shorey ; and she has read all the galley
and page proofs of the volume in co-operation with Dr.
Page and myself. Miss Lange 's familiarity with her
teacher's Platonic studies, his methods of work, his views
on the interpretation of passages of peculiar difficulty
has rendered her co-operation invaluable, and generous
acknowledgements are due to her for her fidelity to the
heavy task which she willingly undertook.
To the writer of these words it would have been a grate-
ful task, had this been an appropriate place, to add a per-
sonal tribute to his colleague of many years at the Uni-
versity of Chicago. The familiar correspondence which
grew out of their renewed relationship during the prepara-
tion of the two volumes of the Republic has iUuminated for
him in unexpected ways the life of tremendous and varied
activities of the great scholar and humanist during the
years which for the ordinary man would have been a
period of decreasing labours. The literary and scholarly
f)roductivity of Professor Shorey in these later years fails
ittle short of heroism. But the readers of this interpre-
tation of the Republic who would know more about the
remarkable man and his life are referred to the review of
his career which introduces the July 1934 number of
Classical Philology, the journal which he edited for twenty-
five years, and especially to President George Norlin's
eloquent appreciation of " Paul Shorey the Teacher," on
pp. 188-191.
For the Editors
EDWARD GAPPS.
September 18, 1934.
vi
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME II

PAGE

Prefatory Note V

Introduction .
ix

The Text Ixxi

The Translation Ixxii

Book VI. 2

Book VII. 118

Book VIII. 234

Book IX. 334

Book X. . 418

I. Index of Names 525

II. Index of Subjects 529

 INTRODUCTION
There is a sufficient outline of the Republic in the
introduction to the first volume. Here it remains
to consider more argumentatively certain topics of
the last five books which were treated summarily
there. They may be listed as (1) the theory of ideas
and the idea of good, (2) the higher education and
Plato's attitude toward science, (3) some further
details of Plato's political theories, (4) the logic and
psychology of the main ethical argument of the
Republic, (5) the banishment of poetry, (6) the con-
cluding myth.
Regarded as metaphysics, Plato's theory of ideas The xiieory

is, technically speaking, the deliberate and conscious

hypostatization of all concepts the affirmation that
every abstract general notion of the human mind is
also somehow, somewhere, in some sense, an objective
entity, a real thing, outside of any mind. Some
philologians and some sensitive aesthetic critics
object to the use of the words concept and hypo-
statization in this connexion. They have a right
to their personal distaste, but it contributes nothing
to the interpretation of Plato. Both words convey
definite meanings to students of philosophy and
there are no words that can replace them. The
Socratic dialogues are in fact largely concerned with
the definition of concepts, general or abstract ideas,
ix
 INTRODUCTION
general terms, Begriffe, call them what you will,
and some convenient synonym for this meaning is
indispensable in any rational discussion of Plato's
philosophy. The Platonic word eidos may have
retained some of the associations of physical form,
and the modern psychology of the concept may
involve in some cases a more developed logic than
Plato possessed. The word eidos or idea in Hero-

dotus, Thucydides, Democritus, the Hippocratic

corpus and Isocrates * may show the meaning con-
cept or Begr?^ imperfectly freed from the association
of physical form, but that does not justify the in-
ference that it was never so freed in Plato. The
terminology of the transcendental idea is indis-
tinguishable from the terminology of the concept
and the definition.'' It is impossible to say at what
point the metaphysical doctrine emerges in the minor

dialogues, or on the, I believe, mistaken hypothesis

that the later dialogues abandon it ^just when the
change took place. The logic of the definition in
the minor dialogues implies a practically sufficient
notion of the nature of a concept,*^ and it is sophistry

" Cf. Shorey, I)e Platonis Idearum Doctrina, Munich,

1884, p. 1, and review of A. E. Taylor's Varia Socratica, in

C?ass.P/[Link].,1911,pp.361 fF.; Ritter, Neue Untersuchungen,
Munich, 1910, pp. 228-326 ; Lewis Campbell, The Theaetetus
of Plato, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1883, pp. 268-269 ; C. M. Gillespie,
" The Use of Eidos and Idea in Hippocrates," Class.
Quarterly, vi., 1912, pp. 178-203; Zeller, ii. l\ pp. 658, n. 2
and 661, n. 1; Wilamowitz, Platon, ii. pp. 248 ff.; Fried-
lander, Platon, i. pp. 16 fF.
*
Cf. What Plato Said, p. 75.
It is hard to understand the acceptance by several
scholars of Stenzel's view that the concept and consequently
the idea is a late discovery in the Platonic dialogues, a result
in fact of the analyses of the Sophist. He must take concept
 INTRODUCTION
to trv to suppress so plain a fact by capitalizing the
word Form and insisting that Plato always or till
his latest works visualized the " Forms " as t\-pes.
He did for some purposes and for others he did not,
and he always knew what he was doing. The ideas,
as I have often pointed out, are ideals, types, or
hypostatized concepts or simply concepts according
to the purpose and the context."
Many interpreters of Plato seem to assume that
philosophy is, like mathematics or chemistry, a pro-

in some very esoteric significance. For to common sense

nothing can be plainer than that the concept is implied in
Socrates' attempts to define ethical terijns and that it distinctly
emerges together with the terminology at least of the idea in
the minor dialogues of Plato and especially in the Euthyphro.
Stenzel's thought seems to be that the concept involves
predication and that predication can be fully understood only
after the analysis of sentence structure in the Sophist and the
discovery of the meaning of " is." But surely the conscious
analysis of sentence structure and the function of the copula
is one thing and the correct use of predication, of propositions
and the conversion of propositions and their combination in
virtual syllogisms is another. All the elements of a sound
logic are present in Plato's minor dialogues. They are
correctly employed in inductive and deductive reasoning, in
the quest for definitions and in the testing of them when
found. If Stenzel means that the nature of the concept, of
the general idea, of abstractions is not definitively understood
in the minor dialogues his postulate proves or demands too
much. The ultimate nature of the concept is still debatetl
to-day. But for all practical purposes of common sense any
one who consistently endeavours to define abstract and
general terms and who applies a sound logic to the testing of
the definitions proposed, has a suflBcient notion of the concept.
And anyone who apprehends the concept may go on to
hypostatize it either by an instinctive tendency of human
nature and speech, or with conscious metaphysics as Plato
did.
Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 27 flF.

VOL. n 6 xi
 INTRODUCTION
gressive science ; that Plato, though a great artist,
was a primitive thinker whose methods and opinions
have only an historical interest to-day ; and that his
doctrine of ideas is the endeavour of an immature
mind to deal with a problem which modern psych-
ology or the common sense of any dissertation-
writing philologian can settle in a paragraph. These
assumptions close the door to any real understand-
ing of Plato's philosophy. The ultimate nature of
general ideas, of abstract and conceptual thought in
relation both to the human mind and to the uni-
verse is as much a matter of debate to-day as it was
in the age of the schoolmen. This plain fact of
literary history is not affected by the opinion of a
certain number of materialists and behaviourists that
the matter is quite simple and that there is or ought
to be no problem. They may or may not be right.
But the discussion continues, as any bibliography of
psychology and philosophy will show. The entire
literature of the " meaning of meaning " and of
" imageless thought" is a renewal of the contro-
versy in other terms.
A great many thinkers are not satisfied with the
simple evasion of Aristotle that the human mind is
" such " as to be able to experience this, namely the
separation in thought of things inseparable in ex-
perience. They cannot find any enlightenment in
the modern tautology that a general idea is an image
of a particular idea plus a feeling of generality. And
they are not convinced that the movements of the
body, even if we concede that they run exactly
])arallel to the movements of the mind, really explain
them. And if we turn to the other side of the
problem we find that many of the leaders of modern
 INTRODUCTION
physics and mathematics are imable to conceive and
refuse to admit that there is nothing in the objective
universe corresponding to the ideas, the concepts,
the laws, the principles by which they get their
results.
The Platonic theory of ideas is a convenient short-
hand, symbolic expression of the opinions that I have
thus summarized. If we disregard the rhetoric
and physical imagery of the myths by which Plato
exalts the importance of the doctrine or makes it
the expression of the ideal for ethics, poUtics and
aesthetics, all that it affirms is, first, that conceptual
thought is a distinct and differentiated prerogative
of man not sufficiently accounted for by the structure
of his body and the sensations which he shares with
the animals ; and second, that there must be some-
thing in the universe, something in the nature of
things, that corresponds to our concepts and our
ideals to the principles, for example, of ethics and
mathematics. These affirmations of Plato are primi-
tive animism only in the sense in which the same could
be said of the beUefs of some of the greatest mathe-
maticians and physicists of to-day or of Matthew
Arnold when he talks of a power not ourselves that
makes for righteousness. This is not reading modern
philosophies into Plato. It is merely giving him
credit for knowing and intending what he in fact
says. The opposite interpretation underrates his
intelUgence and really does read into his wTitings
modern ideas, the notions, namely, of modern anthro-
pologists as to how savages think. Gomperz'
comparison of the doctrine of ideas to Iroquois
animism (iii. 323 cf. iii. 1-2), Ogden and Richards'
;

designation of the ideas as " name-souls " {The Meaning

xiii
 INTRODUCTION
of Meaning, p. 45), Jowett's illustration of what he
deems hair-splitting refinements in Plato by the
" distinction so plentiful in savage languages," Corn-
ford's fancy {From ReUgioti to Philosophy, p. 254) that
" the idea is a group-soul related to its group as a
mystery -demon like Dionysus is related to the group
of worshippers, his thiasos," and all similar utter-
ances are uncritical, whatever airs of science or
pseudo-science they assume. The relevant illustra-
tions of Plato's doctrine of ideas are to be sought
in the most subtle debates of the schoolmen, or in
modern psychological and epistemological literature
about the meaning of meaning."
There were, of course, some other more special con-
siderations that determined Plato's deliberate and
defiant hypostatization of all concepts. It accepted
a natural tendency of the human, and not merely of
the primitive mind, and rendered it harmless by apply-
,

ing it consistently to everything. If all concepts are

hypostatized, the result for practical logic and for
everything except metaphysics and ultimate epistem-
ological psychology is to leave concepts where they

were, as indispensable instruments of human think-

ing. The hypostatization of abstractions operated
practically as a short answer to the sophisms of crude
nominalists who obstructed ordinary reasoning by
raising ultimate objections to the validity of all ab-
stractions or general terms. This motive is distinctly
apparent in Plato's writings and there is a strong
presumption that he was conscious of it.
However that may be, Plato did in fact, partly as a
matter of imaginative style, partly as a matter of
" Sec Shorey in Proceedings
of the Sixth International
Congress of Philosophy, pp. 579-583.
 INTRODUCTION
metaphysics, speak of concepts as if they were real
objects. He
did, as his MTitings conclusively show,
hypostatize all concepts, and all attempts to show
that he hypostatized only a few of the sublimer or
more dignified concepts are a priori improbable
because they deprive the doctrine of all rational
meaning and consistency," and they are also refuted
by the incontrovertible evidence of the dialogues
themselves. Plato affirms this monstrous paradox,
not because he is a naive thinker unacquainted with
the elementary psychology of abstraction and general-
ization,'' but because, as we have said, he regards it
as the most convenient expression of his rejection
of all materiahstic and relativistic philosophies and "^

of all crude nominalism.'* He recognized that the

doctrine is a paradox hard to accept but also hard to
reject.* But he deliberately affirmed it as the most
convenient alternative to inacceptable or unworkable
philosophies.^ He perhaps, as we have already sug-
gested, justified this procedure to himself, and we
may certainly justify it for him, by the reflection that
the theor}' is no more of a paradox than that involved
in every theology and ultimately in all science and
philosophy except the crudest dogmatic materialism.
And we may find further confirmation of this opinion
in the fact that both the metaphysics and the tran-
scendental physics of the past two decades discover
"
Cf. Aristot. Met. 1043 b 21 and 991 b 6 Ross, i. pp. 192
;

and 199 ;and What Plato Said, p. 584.

"
Cf. Charm ides 158 e, Phaedo 96 b, What Plato Said,
p. 533, Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 47-48.
=
Cf. Cratyl. 440 b-c.
" Cf. What Plato Said, p. 574.

Cf. What Plato Said, p. 586, on Parmen. 135 c.
Cf. What Plato Said, pp. 39, 268, 574.
'

XV
I
 INTRODUCTION^
more helpful analogies in the Platonic theory of ideas
and in Plato's applications of it to the philosophy of
nature than they do in any other philosophy of the
past.
In disregard of these considerations many critics in
every age, and notably Natorp and Stewart in ours,
have tried to free Plato from the stigma of paradox or
naivete by trying to show that this uncompromising
realism (in the proper medieval sense of the word) is
not to be taken seriously, and that it was only a
poetic and emphatic form of conceptualism. This, as
we have seen, is at the best a half truth. All Platonic
ideas are also concepts, but we cannot infer that they
were only concepts.* For many purposes of logic,
ethics and politics Plato practically treats them as
concepts. Why not ? No reasonable writer ob-
trudes his ultimate metaphysics into everything.
And Plato is always particularly careful to distinguish
metaphysical hypotheses and their imaginative em-
bodiments in myth and allegory from the simple
truths of a working logic and a practical ethics which
are all that he dogmatically affirms.'' But he always
affirms the metaphysical idea when challenged. To
this extent Natorp and those who agree with him
are right. But they pay too high a price for their
Tightness on this point when they insist on deducing
all Plato's opinions from his ontology, and obtrude
the metaphysical idea into passages where the doc-
trine at the most lends rhetorical and poetical colour-
ing to the practical affirmation of the necessity of
concepts and the value of ideals.
" See Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 30, What Plato Said,

p. 585, on Parmen. 132 b.

''
Cf. Meno 81 d-e and What Plato Said, p. 515, on 3Teno
86 B.
xvi
 INTRODUCTION
An example \*ill pediaps make these distinctions

more [Link] in the Republic (501) says that

his philosophic statesman will contemplate the divine
pattern of justice as an artist looks away to his model,
and that like the artist he will frequently glance from
the copy that he is producing to the model and back
again to the copy." This may reasonably be under-
stood as only a heightened way of saying that the
true statesman must be guided by definite concep-
tions and strive for the realization of clearly ap-
prehended ideals. The fact that Plato, the meta-
physician, believed the transcendental reality of the
idea to be a necessary assumption of ultimate epistem-
ology adds nothing to the practical meaning of this
passage. When in the Phaedrus, however (24'7 d,
249 B-c), Plato says that every human soul has beheld
the idea of justice in pre-natal \-ision, since otherwise
it would not have the power to reduce the confused

multiplicity of sensation to the unities of conceptual

thought, he is clothing in mythical garb an epistem-
ological argument for the reality of the transcend-
ental idea, and he is not, as in the Republic passage,
thinking mainly of the exphcit affirmation that the
true statesman must have submitted to a higher educa-
tion in conceptual thinking and have thus framed in
his mind ideals to guide his practice. The historian
of philosophy who, ^^^thout calling attention to this
distinction, merely cites the two passages together
in a footnote, only confuses the uncritical reader.
But again in the Parmenides (135 a-c), the Sophist
(246-247), the Cratyhs (439 d f. cf. What Plato Said,
;

pp. 266-267), the Politicus (283-284, What Plato Said,

p. 309), the Timaeus (51-52 and What Plato Said, p.
" Cf. What Plato Said, p. 458, on Euthyphro 6 e.
 INTRODUCTION
613 on 28 a-b), there are passages in which, without
mythical dress, and with no specific reference to the
practical value of concepts and ideals, Plato postulates
the transcendental ideas as an epistemological neces-
sity, and the only escape from materialism and the
flux of relativity. No legerdemain of interpretation
or speculations about the chronology of the evolution
of Plato's thought can explain away these passages,
and the interpreter who realizes that some virtual
equivalent of the Platonic idea is still to-day the alter-
native to thorough-going and unequivocal material-
ism will not desire to explain them away.
All that is needed in order to understand Plato
and to do justice to him as a rational philosopher is
to remember again " that, though the doctrine of ideas
is always in the background of his mind and would
always be reaffirmed on a challenge, he is not always
thinking explicitly of it when he is speaking of
logic, ethics, or politics, and we need not think of it
in order to enjoy his art or apprehend his meaning.
The transcendental idea, for example, is not needed
in the Reptiblic except for the characterization of the
philosophic mind and the higher education of the
Platonic rulers.^ It is not indispensable even there.
The concept will serve. The philosopher is he who
can think and reason consecutively in abstr actions. '^

" See supra, p. xvi.

"
Cf. Vol.I. pp. xl-xli, and What Plato Said, pp. 226-227.
It is also used in an intentionally crude form to confirm the
banishment of the poets. The poet does not deal in essential
truth, he copies the copy of the reality. Cf. infra, p. Ixii,
on 596 A ff. and What Plato Said, p. 249. Stenzel's
justification of this (Platon der Erzieher, p. 175) by the
consideration that good joiners' work involves mathematics
seems fanciful and is certainly not in Plato's text.
* Supra, Vol. I. pp. 516 ff.
 INTRODUCTION
The curriculum of the higher education is designed to
develop this faculty in those naturally fitted to re-
ceive it.<* The thought and the practical conclusions
will not be affected if we treat the accompanying
symbolic rhetoric as surplusage. Such statements as
that the philosopher is concerned with pure being,*
dwells in a world of light/ is devoted to the most
blessed part of reality satisfies and fills the continent
j*^

part of his soul,* undoubtedly suggest the meta-

physical background of Plato's thought and the
emotional and imaginative connotations of his ideas.
But in the context of the Republic they are little
more than an expression of the intensity of Plato's
feeling about his political and educational ideas.
It is ob\ious that the concept or idea is in many
eloquent Platonic passages an ideal, a type, a pattern,
to which aesthetic, moral and social experience may
approximate but which they never perfectly realize,
just as mathematical conceptions are ideals never
actually met with in the w^orld of sense.^ It is
possible, though not probable, that in some of the
minor dialogues we get glimpses of a stage of Plato's
youthful thought in which, though he already uses,
in speaking of the concept or the definition, much of
the terminology associated with the doctrine of ideas,

Cf. supra. Vol. I. pp. 51^-517, 520-521, What Plato Said^

pp. 233-234.
" 477 A ff., 479 E, 484 b, 486 a, 500 b.
' 517 B, 518 A, 518 c, 520 d. * 526 e.
* Rep. o%6 B, Gorg. 493 b.
f Phaedo 74 a. For the threefold aspect of the Platonic
ideas in metaphysics, logic and aesthetics see my Unity of
Plato's Thought, p. 27, and T. E. Jessup, " The Metaphysics
of Plato," Journ. of Philos. Studies (1930), pp. 41-42. See
supra. Vol. I. pp. 504-505.
 INTRODUCTION
he has not yet consciously and systematically hyposta-
tized the concept." These and similar qualifications
and speculative possibilities do not in the least alter
the fact that throughout the main body of his work
Plato is ready to affirm the metaphysical theory of
the hypostatized idea whenever the issue is raised,''
and there is not an iota of evidence in his own writings
that he ever abandoned or altered the doctrine, how-
ever much he varied the metaphors and the terms in
which he expressed it. It is quite certain that he did
not, except in obviously mythical or poetical passages,
say more of the ideas than that they exist and that
they are in some sense real." He did not say that
they are the thoughts of God.** There is no indica-
tion in his writings that he said that they are numbers.*

" See Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 31, What Plato Said,

p. 458.
* Cf. supra, pp. xvi and xviii.

Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 28 and p. 29, n. 188.
^
This Neoplatonic doctrine based on a misinterpretation
of such passages as Rep. 597 b f. was adopted by many
Christian fathers and mediaeval scholars. Cf. Alcinous
in Hermann, Plato, vi. p. 163 Baumgartner, Philos. des
;

Alanus de Insulis, p. 54; Zeller ii. 1*, p. 664, n. 5 ; Taylor,

Mediaeval Mind, ii. pp. 485-486 ;^^'ebb, Studies in the
Hist, of Nat. Theol. p. 241 Harris, Duns Scotus, ii. p. 195:
;

C. G. Field, The Origin and Development of Plato's Theory

of Ideas, pp. 21-22 ; Otto Kluge, Darstellung u. Beur-
teilung der Einwendungen des Aristot. gegen die Plat. Ideen-
lehre, p. 24.
It is very difficult to argue with those who attribute this

doctrine of ideas and numbers to Plato. Sometimes they

seem to affirm it only on the authority of Aristotle, which they
admit is in most cases hopelessly confused with his statements
about Speusippus and Xenocrates and other members of the
Academy. Sometimes they seem to admit that the doctrine
is not to be found in Plato's extant writings. Sometimes
they hint rather than say that certain passages of the Philebus
 INTRODUCTION
And he never admitted that they are only thoughts in
thehuman mind," though for practical purposes, as
we have said, they may usually be treated as such
when no metaphysical issue is involved.
ought not to be necessary to debate these ques-
It
tions further. The only question open to debate
is the extent of Plato's consciousness of what some
criticsthink the modem meanings that I have read
into him. The question of course is not whether he

and the Timaeus suggest that Plato's mind was working in

this direction, though they are usually too cautious now to
affirm anything positive about Philebus 15-16 d, or Timaeus
53 B. I have more than once shown that there is no difficulty
in treating numerical ideas precisely like other ideas in their
relation to concretes. The number live is to five apples as
redness is to red apples. It is present with them. I have
repeatedly collected and interpreted the Platonic passages
that probably misled uncritical students of the Academy
{cf. What Plato Said, p. 605, and infra on 525 d, 526 a).
And the distinction that there is only one idea while there
are many numbers of the same kind is quite pointless. There
is one idea of redness that is metaphysically or teleologically
really present entire in many red things and there is one
idea of five or fiveness which is similarly present in many
groups of five. There is no more difficulty about the fives
that are present as factors in ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-
five than there is about any other ideas that may mingle
with or enter into the definition of another idea. The whole
theory is a piece of scholastic hair-splitting to which a sound
interpretation of what Plato says lends no support. And there
is no space and no need to transcribe here the exhaustive
collections of Robin {La Th-^orie platonicienne dfs ld4es et
des Nombres d'apres Aristote) or Ross's repeated summaries
of them in his commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics.
If Plato's mind was really working towards such con-
clusions, why is there no hint of them in his huge work of the

Laws, or if we grant them genuine for the sake of the

argument in the Epistles ?
Cf. Parmen. 132 b-c, and What Plato Said, p. 585, and
ibid. p. 594 on Soph. 250 b. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 30.
 INTRODUCTION
could feel the associations and connotations of the
all
modern words in which we have to express his mean-
ing, but whether his meaning is on the whole sub-
stantially that which I have attributed to him.
The obvious conclusion is that we can infer nothing
as to the composition or date of the Republic from the
fact that the ideas are not mentioned where there
is no reason for mentioning them, and that all hypo-
theses that different stages of the evolution of Plato's
thought are indicated by the various aspects in which
the ideas are presented when they are mentioned are
uncritical." There is no occasion for the metaphysical
doctrine of ideas in the first four books. But the
general concept, the type, the ideal are referred to
in language which could be understood of the ideas.
The fact that it does not necessarily have to be so
understood is no proof that the doctrine was not
present to Plato's mind at the time.
In the fifth, sixth, and seventh books the theory is
explicitly enunciated,'' illustrated by imagery and
applied to education. There is even a much disputed
but certain anticipation of the later doctrine that
while the idea is a unity its relation to things and to
other ideas seems to break it up into a plurality."
The uncompromising statement of the subject in
the tenth book is sometimes taken to represent an
earlier and more naive form of the doctrine. But the
style of the passage is evidently that of a defiant
affirmation of the whole length of the paradox, or
rather perhaps of an expert explaining the matter to

" Cf. What Plato Said, p. 560, Unity of Plato's Thought,

p. 35 and n. 238.
* 476 A f.
Cf. Vol. I. pp. 516-517, 505 a ff., 517 b ff.
'
Cf. 476 A, Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 34.
 INTRODUCTION
lavmen." The fact that the argument of the third
man is distinctly mentioned in thesame connexion is
in itselfexidence that the passage does not represent
an earlier and more primitive stage of Plato's thought.
For the third man is mentioned in the Parmenides.^
But there would not be much profit in further discus-
sion of hypotheses that have no basis in the text of
Plato or in the philosophical probabilities of the case.

All that has been said of the ideas in general applies ^^^'^
to the idea of good. It is the hypostatization of the
concept " good." Its significance in the Platonic
system is that of its importance in human thought.
In ethics it is what modern ethical philosophy calls
the sanction. In politics it is the ideal, whatever it
may be, of social welfare. In theology and the phil-
osophy of nature it is the teleological principle, the
design that implies a designing mind in the universe.
The first of these meanings is predominant in the
minor dialogues where all problems and all attempted
definitions point to an unknown good so consistently
and systematically that Plato must have been aware
of the reference.*^ The second meaning is most
prominent in the Republic, but there is explicit refer-
ence to the first and to the discussions of the minor
dialogues. In any case, ethical and social good are
not sharply separable in Plato.
The idea of good is nowhere defined, but its supreme
importance and all of its meanings are symbolized in
the images of the sun and the cave. Its main mean-
" Cf. 597 A ibt y' div So^fif roii irtpi tovs roioivde \oyovt
SuLTpiSoiviy.
" 132 z-133 A. Cf. infra on 597 c.
* See What Plato Said, pp. 71-73, with marginal references
there.
 INTRODUCTION
ing for the Republic is the ideal of social welfare on
which the statesman, as opposed to the opportunist
politician, must fix his eye, and which he can appre-
hend only by a long course of higher education which
will enable him to grasp it. Plato rightly feels that
no other definition is possible or desirable unless the
entire polity of the Republic was to be taken as its
definition. The Timaeus is the poetical embodiment
of the third meaning, though single phrases of the
Republic glance at it.** If there is a beneficent
creator, his purpose, his idea of good, is the chief
cause of the existence of the world and the best key
to the understanding of it.
I am not attributing these three meanings of the
good to Plato by an imposed symmetry of my own.
It is what Plato himself says and the chief problem
of my interpretation is not to understand Plato
but to account for the failure to recognize his plain
mieaning.
In view of my repeated expositions of Plato's
doctrine of the idea of good there would be little
point in attempting here once more to set it forth in
a smooth, consecutive, literary statement.'' It will be
more to my purpose to enumerate in the briefest,
baldest, most explicit fashion some of my reasons for
feeling that I have been misunderstood, and that the
definite issues raised by my arguments have never

"
Cf. infra, pp. xxv and 102.
""
See my paper, " The Idea of Good in Plato's Republic,"
University of Chicago Studies in Classical Philology, vol. i.
(1895), pp. 188-239; my article, " Summum Bonum," in
Hastings' Encycl. of Relig. and Ethics, vol. xii. pp. 44-48 ;

my review of Jowett and Campbell's Republic, The Nation,

61, 1895, pp. 83-84 ; Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 17 and n.
94 What Plato Said, pp. 71-72, 230 ff., 534 on Phaedo 99 a.
;
 INTRODUCTION
been met. I have never intended to deny that
Plato's language about the idea of good is in large
part the language of poetry and religion, that he
intends to suggest by it the ineffable and infinite
unknowable beyond our ken, and that his eloquence
has been a source of inspiration to many readers who
care little for his dialectics and for the critical inter-
pretation of his specific thought. What I have been
trying to say is that the mere repetition of Plato's
rhetoric or the attempt to better it in our o\vn para-
phrases will not contribute much to the interpretation
of the precise meaning of the passages of the Republic
in question, assuming that in addition to their in-
spirational value they are intended to convey some
definite meaning and are not merely ejaculations
thrown out at an infinite object.
In the first place, then, since all Platonic ideas
are hypostatized concepts the hypostatization of the
idea of good is presumably irrelevant to its main
significance for the ethical and political thought of
the Republic It does, of course, suggest the meta-
.

physical background of Plato's thought there are ;

a few sentences in which it involves the goodness

which teleologists discover in the structure of the
universe and in the designs of its creator, the theme
of the Timaeus and since goodness is the chief
;
<*

attribute of God in religious literature from the New

Testament to \\Tiittier's hymn, there is a certain
plausibility in identifying it ^Tith God himself. But
the text of Plato, and especially the text of the
Republic, does not justify any of these extensions of
the idea if taken absolutely. The idea of good is
undoubtedly the most important of ideas, but it is
Cf. on 508 B and 509 b ; Zeller 11, 1*, pp. 687-688.
xxv
 INTRODUCTION
not true that it is the most comprehensive in the
sense that all other ideas are deduced from it," as in
some Platonizing pantheistic philosophies they are
deduced from the idea of Being. There is no hint
of such deduction in Plato's writings. It is only
teleological ideas in ethics, politics and cosmogony
that are referred to the idea of good as the common
generalization or idea that includes them all. Even
the ideas are not in Plato's own reasoning deduced
from the idea of good. It is merely said that a
scientific moralist, a true statesman, will be able so
to deduce them, and that the higher education is
designed to give him this ability. In Republic 534
B-c, the dialectician is he who is able eKaa-rov . . .

\6yov . . 8i86va(. and the idea of good is a special

.

example of the 'iKacrrov. It is not said that the man

who does not know the idea of good does not know
any other idea, but that he does not know SAAo
dyadoi' ovSev.
It is not even true that Plato's philosophic ethics
isdeduced from the idea of good. He only says that
the ethics of the guardians will be so deduced. So
far as Plato himself expounds a scientific ethics it rests
on the preferability of the intellectual life and the
comparative worthlessness of the pleasures of sense.
The idea of good in the dialogues is a regulative not
a substantive concept.
Whatever its religious suggestions it cannot in
any metaphysical or literal sense be identified with
the Deity." The idea of God was taken by Plato
" Cf. my review of Paul Hinneberg, Die Kultur der
Gegenwart, Class. Phil. vi. p. 108.
*
Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 24, and infra, pp. Ivi f.

Cf. my Idea of Good, pp. 188-189, Unity of Plato's
Thought, n. 94, What Plato Said, p. 231.
xxvi
 INTRODUCTION
from the religion of the Greek people and purified
by criticism. The idea of good came to him on an
altogether different line of thought. It is the out-
come of those Socratic quests for definitions of
ethical virtuesand social ends which always break
do^v-n because the interlocutors are never able to
discover the sanction which makes the proposed
virtue or end a good and desirable thing."
WTien these misapprehensions are cleared awav I
trust that I shall not any longer be misunderstood if
I say that the chief and essential meaning of the idea
of good in the Republic is " precisely " that conception
of an ultimate sanction for ethics and politics which
the minor dialogues sought in vain. Plato does not
profess to have discovered it in the Republic except
so far as it is implied in the entire ethical, social and
poUtical ideals of his reformed state. He intention-
ally and wisely refuses to define it in a formula.^
He merely affirms that it is something which can be
apprehended only by those who have received the
training and the discipline of his higher education.
" For the idea of good and God cf. also V. Brochard, " Les
Mythes dans la philos. de Platon," L'Annee Philos., 1900, p.
II ;Pierre Bovet, Le Dieu de Platon, Paris, 1902, p. 177
Raeder, Platos philosophische Enticicklung, pp. 237, 381 f.
Zeller, Phil. d. Gr. ii. 1*, p. 718, n. 1, pp. 667, 694, 707 ff.
Aristotle and the Earlier Peripatetics (Eng. tr.), ii. p. 327
Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, iii. pp. 85 and 21 1 ; Inge, The Philo-
sophy of Plotimis, ii. p. 126 ; Gustave Schneider, Die plat.
Metaphysik, p. 109 ; Taylor, Plato, pp. 85-89 ; Adam,
The Vitality of Platonism, pp. 22 and 132 ; The Religious
Teachers of Greece, pp. 442 f., with my review in Philos.
Rev. vol. 18, pp. 62-63; Apelt, Beitrage zvr Geschichte der
griechischen Philos., Vorrede, p. vi. ; H. Tietzel, Die Idee
des Guten in Platons Staat und der Gottesbegriff, Progr.
Wetzlar, 1894.
*
Cf. infra on 506 e, p. 95, note/.
VOL. II c xxvii
 INTRODUCTION
The consummation of this education is characterized
briefly as a vision, just as in the Sym-
and soberly
posium the long ascent of the scale of beauty cul-
minates in a vision which alone makes life worth
living." This language expresses the intensity of
Plato's feeling about the intellectual life and his
own ethical and social ideals, but it does not make
him a visionary or a mystic in the ordinary sense of
the words.
If the interpretation here outlined is in itself a
rational sequence of thought and makes sense of
what Plato says, it surely creates a presumption
which cannot be rebutted by evading issues and
charging me with insensibility to Plato's deeper
religious and mystic meanings. It can be refuted
only by giving specific answers to specific arguments
and testing them by the texts. The interpretation
of the images, symbols, allegories (the synonym
does not matter) of the sun, the divided line and
the cave, provides the chief test, as the too literal
acceptance of them is perhaps the main cause of
misunderstanding.
The aptness of the sun as a symbol of Plato's idea
of good might be illustrated by many quotations
from modern poetry and from the literature of sun-
worship.'' It would be interesting to compare what
Plato says of the sun as the primal source of light,
heat, life, growth, all things, with the language of
modern science. Herbert Spencer, for example,
innocently says {First Principles of a New System of
Philos., 1865, Amer. ed. p. 454.) " Until I recently
:

Rep. 516 u, 517 B-c, Symp. 210 b flF. Cf. Rep. 500 b-c.
"
Cf. infra, pp. 100-101, on 508 a.

xxviii
 INTRODUCTION
consulted his Outlines of Astronomy on another ques-
tion I was not aware that so far back as 1833 Sir
John Herschel had enunciated the doctrine that
'
the sun's rays are the ultimate source of almost
every motion which takes place on the surface of the
earth.' " Another line of illustration would lead
through the Latin poet Manilius and Plotinus to
Goethe's " War' nicht das Auge sonnenhaft."
This thought might be extended to include modern
debates on the nice preadjustment of the eye to
its function of \-ision. Does it, or does it not, imply
a creator and a design ? Lastly, Plato's statement
that, as the sun is the source of light, but is not itself
light (508 b), so the idea of good is not knowledge or
being but the cause of both and something that is

beyond and transcends being this superhuman
hyperbole (509 b-c) is the source of all so-called
negative theologies and transcendental metaphysics
from Philo and Plotinus to the present day.
But our present concern is not with these things
but with the direct evidence that the idea of good
is essentially for the interpretation of the Republic
what modern ethical theory calls the sanction. One
sentence I admit seems to identify the idea of good
with God. The sun, it is said, is that which the Good
created in the visible world to be its symbol and
analogue. This would seem to identify the idea of
good with the Demiurgos of the Timaeus, who is
both the supreme God and a personification of the
idea of good or the principle of teleology in nature.
But we have already seen that it is uncritical to
press Plato's language about God, a word which
he accepts from traditional religion and employs as
Cf. infra, p. 101, note c, on 508 b.

xxix
 INTRODUCTION
freely for edification and the rejection of militant
atheism as Matthew Arnold does. Moreover, there
are other sentences in this part of the Republic -which,
if pressed, are irreconcilable with the identification
of the idea of good with God. In any case, apart from
one or two sentences of vague and disputable meaning,
the acceptance of the idea of good as the sanction more
nearly lends an intelligible and reasonable meaning
to everything that Plato says than does any other
interpretation. On this view, then, I repeat, the
idea of good is simply the hypostatization of what
the idea of good means for common sense in modern
usage. It is the good purpose in some mind able
to execute its purposes. It is what such a mind
conceives to be the supreme end to which all other
ends are subordinated and referred.
The divided line and the cave are also images and
symbols employed to bring out certain other aspects
of the theory of ideas and of the idea of good in
particular. The main object common to both is to
put the thought " Alles vergangliche ist nur ein
Gleichnis " into a proportion. The four terms of such
a proportion may be secured either by invention or by
forcing special meanings on some of the terms. In
the case of the cave, the cave itself, the fettered
prisoners, the fire and the apparatus by which the
shadows of graven images are cast on the wall of the
cave are clearly inventions. There is a real analogy
between the release of the prisoners with their ascent
to the light of day (515 c fF.) and the Socratic elenchus
which releases the mind and draws it up from a world
of sense to the world of thought (517 b-c). But it is
obvious that all the details of the imagery cannot be
pressed and that we need not ask too curiously to
 INTRODUCTION
what in Plato's serious thought every touch that fills
out the picture corresponds.
On my interpretation critics have likewise erred by
refusing to admit a similar qualification of their too
literal acceptance of the image of the divided line.
The proportion ideas are to things as things are to
:

their reflections in mirrors or in water, has only three

terms. The fourth term is found in mathematical
ideas, which in their use in education and in respect
of the method by which the mind deals with them are
in some sort intermediate between ideas and things.
We thus get our proportion. But in the description
of it Plato is careful to distinguish the mathematical
ideas only by the method of their treatment in science,
not in dialectics, and not as entities of another kind.
This raises the presumption that Plato, as usual,
knows what he is doing and does not intend to dis-
tinguish objectively mathematical ideas as ideas from
other ideas. I support this presumption by pointing
out that in the later and final interpretation of
the line Plato names the objective correlates of the
mental processes corresponding to three divisions
of the line but omits the fourth on the pretext that
it would take too long. (Cf. on 534 a.) He names
the mathematical attitude of mind or method but
does not name its objects as something distinct from
ideas or a distinct kind of ideas. I go on to snow that
there is no evidence in the Platonic Avritings for the
doctrine that mathematical ideas differ in themselves
from other concepts, and that the testimony of Aris-
totle is too confused to prove anything." These
assumptions raise a definite issue which can only be
met by equally definite arguments. Instead of that
' Cf. upra, pp. xx-xxi. Unity of Platans Thought, pp. 82 f.

xxxi
 INTRODUCTION
criticsrebuke me for attributing insincerity to Plato,
or at the best they ask, How could Aristotle be mis-
taken ?

Plato himself regards all literature except dia-

lectics as a form of play and much that passes for
dialectics as conscious or unconscious j esting. When-
ever he himself employs imagery, symbolism and
myth or an eristic dialectic he is careful to warn us
that it is not to be taken too literally or seriously,*
and he usually points out just how much of his
apparent conclusions it is necessary to accept for the
carrying on of the argument. Now the particular
synonyms I employ to describe this characteristic
trait of Plato's method and style are obviously ir-
relevant to my main argument. Yet if in view of
the frequency of the idea and word irai^nv in Plato
I express the thought that the intermediate place of
mathematical ideas in the proportion of the divided
line is not to be taken literally and add that the
ambiguous coinage eiKaa-La, or conjecture, is a term
of disparagement playfully thrown in to secure sym-
metry of subdivision in the two worlds and to suggest
a depth below the lowest depth, I am sternly told
*"

that " It is surely a strange reading of the character

of Plato as a seeker after truth to maintain that in
the very heart of his greatest work and at the very
core of the problem of knowledge he should disturb
and confuse those who are seeking to understand his
doctrine with a little wholly uncalled-for playful-'

ness,' even though it should be for the sake of

*
symmetry.' " " Now I am quite willing to sub-
" Cf. infra on 539 c, p. 227, note d.
* Idea of Good, p. 229.
H. J. Paton, Plato's Theory of EIKASIA, Aristotelian
Society, 1922, p. 69.
xxxii
 INTRODUCTION
stitute some other expression for " playfully thrown
in." But my precise expression. I repeat, is not the
point. Plato in fact does here, as elsewhere, resort
to artificial constructions and inventions in order to
express the relation between the ideas and what we
call realities by proportion. The eiKoves and 6t\-acria
are in fact introduced here to complete the symmetry
of such a proportion and to suggest ironical disparage-
ment of the inferior type of thought. They contri-
bute nothing further to the solution of the " problem
of knowledge." To recognize this plain fact is not to
impugn the character of Plato, and to rebuke my
frivohty with solemn eloquence is no answer to my
argument. Plato himself never thinks it incompat-
ible with a serious search for truth to mingle jest \'ith
earnest and seriousness \\-ith irony.
Similarly of the dvinrodeTov (510 b). It ob\aously
suggests to modern interpreters the metaphysical first
principle, the Unconditioned, the absolute ground,
the noumenon, call it what you will. Plato himself
may have been Nvilling to let the word convey such
overtones, and those who are not interested in his
precise meanings may stop there and cry with Rous-
seau, " O Mighty Being " But it is also equally
!

obvious that the avinrobi-ov has a definite and less

purely emotional meaning in its context. It ex-
presses Plato's distinction between the man of science,
who starts from assumptions that he does not allow
to be questioned (510 c-o), and the philosopher or
Platonic dialectician, who is able and willing to carry
the discussion back, not necessarily always to a meta-
physical first principle, but at least to a proposition on
which both parties to the argiunent agree and which
therefore is not arbitrarily assumed as an hypothesis
 INTRODUCTION
by the questioner. This meaning could be illustrated
by the Crito, in which it is said that all discussion is
vain without such a starting-point of agreement." It
is the essential meaning of the passage in the Phaedo
(101 d-e), where luavov, the adequate, the sufficient,
is for all practical purposes a virtual synonym of the
dvvTTo^tToi', though it does not suggest the possible
metaphysical connotations of the word.
Now this distinction between dialectics or philo-
sophy and the sciences is repeatedly borrowed by
Aristotle * and even retains much of its validity under
the changed conditions of modern thought. There
will always be these two ways of thinking and these
two types of mind. The passage, then, makes good
sense so interpreted and lends a rational meaning
to the avvTTo^eTo;' without denying the mystic over-
tones which are all that seem to interest some inter-
preters of Plato.
To return to the political and social idea of good.
Plato's conception of ultimate good in this sense must
be gathered from his writings as a whole. Neither
in the Republic nor elsewhere does he commit him-
self to a defining formula of social welfare. It is
enough for his purpose to emphasize the distinction
between the statesman and the politician and describe
the education and the way of life that will produce
the statesman and develop in him the ideals and the
unity of purpose that distinguish him. But it would
not be difficult to gather Plato's general conception
of political and social good from the Republic and the
Laws and certain passages of the Gorgias and Poli-
ticus. The true statesman's chief aim vdll be not
*
CrIto 49 D, infra, p. 175, note c, on 537 E.
"
Cf. infra, p. 111.
xxxiv
 INTRODUCTION
wealth and power and amusements, but the virtue of
the citizens.'' A sober disciplined life is preferable
to the unlimited license and expansiveness of an im-
perialisticand decadent democracy. The states-
man's chief instruments for reahzing his ideals will
be the control of education and what to-day is called
eugenics.*
Is this plain common sense, then, all that is meant
by Plato's idealistic eloquence and the imagery of the
sun, the di\ided Une and the cave ? I never meant
to say that it is all, but it is the central core of
meaning without which Plato's transcendentalism is
only a rhapsody of words. If nature is more than
mechanism, if there is a God, as Plato himself be-
Ueves and beheves indispensable to morahty and
social order, his purposes, his idea of good, or, meta-
physically or mythologically speaking, the idea of
good which he contemplates as a pattern,"^ becomes
the first and chief cause of the ordered world, and
such understanding of his purposes as is possible for
us is a better explanation of things than the material
instruments that serve his ends.** This is the type of
explanation that the Socrates of the Phaedo desires
but cannot discover and that the Timaeus ventures
to present only in mythical and poetical form." It
has httle place in the Republic, though we may sup-
pose it to be in the background of Plato's mind and to
be suggested by his allegories. The idea of good in
Gorg. 513 e, 517 b-c, 504 d-e. Laws 705 d-e, 693 b-c,
770 D, 963 D, 963 a.
Polit. 309-310, Unity of Plato' $ Thought, p. 62, n. 481 :

Laws and Rep. passim.

' Cf. What Plato Said, 613 on Tim. 28 a-b.
p.
' Cf. What Plato Said, pp. 3-29, 346-347.
Cf. my Idea of Good, p. 232.
 INTRODUCTION
this sense, like the heat and light of the sun, is both
the cause of the things we think " real " and the con-
dition of our apprehension and understanding of
them. It is not the substance of things it is not
;

their " being," but something apart from and tran-

scending " being " in the ordinary sense of the word
(509 b). But the allegory and the transcendental
language apply equally well to the ethical and poli-
tical ideas which are the chief theme of the Republic,
and it is not necessary to look further. The cause of
any political or social institution is the purpose or
idea of good in some controlling mind, and, as Cole-
ridge said and Mill repeated after him, the best way
to understand any human institution or contrivance
is to appreciate that purpose. That will throw a
flood of light on everything."
I have never meant to deny the mystic and meta-
physical suggestions of Plato's language. I have
merely tried to bring out the residuum of practical
and intelligible meaning for the political and ethical
philosophy of the Republic. It is a meaning that is
still true to-day, and it is the only interpretation that
makes intelligible sense of what Plato says. That
surely creates a presumption which can be met only
by definite arguments.
Whatever the more remote suggestions of the idea
of good for general or ethical philosophy, this its
simple practical meaning for the Republic is clearly
indicated by Plato himself. It symbolizes the distinc-
tion between the ideal statesman and the politician
of decadent Athens and marks the purpose and goal
of all the studies of the Platonic higher education.
The guardians have already received in a purified
" Cf. my Idea of Good, p. 227.
 INTRODUCTION
form the normal Greek education in gjTnnastics and
"music," described in the Protagoras, 325 c ff., and
virtually repeated in the education prescribed for the
entire citizenship in the Laws. The product of this
Platonic elementary and secondary education would
be a band of healthy, wholesome, sunburnt boys and
girls, who, in Ruskin's phrase, " have had all the
nonsense boxed and raced and spun out of them."
They would have dipped into fewer books than our
graduates, but they would know a few of the world's
greatest books by heart, they would have no theory
of art or sentimentality about it, but their taste
would have been refined, almost to infallibility, by
hearing only the best music and seeing only the best
statues. They would have heard of fewer things
but would know what they did know perfectly.
They would have never studied a text-book of ci\ics,
ethics, or " sociology'," but the essential principles
of obedience, patriotism, modesty, order, temperance,
good manners, would have been so instilled into them
that the possibility of violating them would hardly
occur to their minds. They would not only be strong
and healthy, but through gymnastics, choral singing
and dancing, and military drill, would have acquired
the mastery of their bodies and a dignified and grace-
ful bearing.
But already in the age of the sophists Athens had
become too sophisticated for her ambitious youth to
remain content with this simple old Greek education
however reformed and idealized. There was a de-
mand for a higher university education, which was
met first by the sophists, and then in the next
generation by Plato himself and his great rival, the
orator Isocrates, who conducted academies side by
 INTRODUCTION
side in Athens for fox'ty years. The content of this
higher education is given in every age by the know-
ledge of that age. What else can it be ? These Greek
teachers did not offer " electives " in the chemistry
of the carbon compounds, or the origin of Shintoism
in Japan, or the evolution of the English novel from
Tom Jones to Ulysses, for the simple reason that these
interesting branches of study had not yet been de-
veloped. The sophists taught a practical theory of
politics and business and the new art of rhetoric,
promising to make their pupils effective speakers
and shrewd men of affairs." The publicist Isocrates
taught what he knew, the application of this sophistic
doctrine to the composition of more serious political
and ethical essays. Plato taught what we should
call ethics, sociology and philosophy, but what he

called dialectics the closely reasoned argumentative
discussion of problems of ethics, politics, social life,
philosophy and religion.
But with wider experience Plato came to feel that
the " Socratic method " of plunging mere lads
directly into these difficult questions was unwise.
It was doubtless stimulating but it unsettled their
;

moral faith, confused their minds, and converted

them into pert and precocious disputants.* Dia-
lectics demanded a preparatory training in some
simpler methods of close, consecutive, abstract
thinking. This preparation Plato found in the new
sciences of arithmetic and geometry and in the
sciences which he was among the first to constitute

or predict the sciences of mathematical astronomy,

Of. Protag. 318-319, Gorg. 452 e, 456-457.
*
Of. infra, p. 220, note a, on 537 d ff.
 INTRODUCTION
physics, and acoustics.< By these studies the youth-
ful mind could be gradually lifted out of the region
of loose pictorial thinking, habituated to the thin
pure air of abstractions, taught the essential nature
of definitions, axioms, principles, and rules of logic,
and made capable of following with continuous
attention long trains of reasoning. We value
mathematics and the exact sciences largely for their
practical appHcations.* In the Republic Plato prized
them as* the indispensable preparation for equally
severe abstract thinking about the more complex
and difficult problems of life, morals and society.*
In his Republic he combines this idea drawn from
the practice of his own school with his fundamental
poUtical and social ideal, the government of mankind
by the really wise, and not by the politicians who
happen to get the votes. We need not stop to ask
whether a Utopia designed for a small Greek city is
appUcable to a democracy of 120 milUons inhabiting
a territory of three million square miles. are We
concerned with the ideal and its embodiment in a
theory of education.
The Platonic rulers are chosen by a process of
progressive selection through ever higher educa-
tional tests applied to young men and women who
have stood most successfully the tests of the lower
education,** Through arithmetic, geometry, and astro-

"Cf. notes on Book vii. 521 flF., esp. on 521 c, 523 a, 527 a.
*C/. on 525 c.
'Herbert Spencer speaks of " Social science . . the
.

science standing above all others in subtlety and complexity

the science which the highest intelligence alone can master ."
. .

the science now taught to undergraduates who have not

received the Platonic preparation.
' Cf. 537 A, B, D.
 INTRODUCTION
nomy, mechanics and acoustics, so far as these admit
of mathematical treatment, they are led up to the
final test in ethics and sociology, which is not speech-
making or slumming, or the running of university
settlements, but the power of close, exact, consecu-
tive reasoning about complex moral phenomena. It
must not be forgotten, however, that this theoretical
discipline is supplemented by many years of practical
experience in minor offices of administration."
The consummation of it all is described poetically
as the " vision of the idea of good " (540 a)
which,
however, as we have seen, turns out to mean for all
practical purposes the apprehension of some rational
unified conception of the social aim and human well-
being, and the consistent relating of all particular
beliefs and measures to that ideal a thing which
can be achieved only by the most highly disciplined
intelligence. For in Plato's time as in ours the
opinions of the average man are not so unified and
connected, but jostle one another in hopeless con-
fusion in his brain, Plato's conception of the higher
education, then, may be summed up in a sentence :

" Until a man is able to abstract and define rationally

his idea of good, and unless he can run the gauntlet
of all objections and is ready to meet them, not by
appeals to opinion but to absolute truth, never
faltering at any stage of the argument unless he
can do all this he knows neither the idea of good nor
any other good. He apprehends only a shadow of
opinion, not true and real knowledge." ^
Starting from the sound psychological principle
that the old-fashioned rote recitation of a text-book
Cf. 539 E-540 A.
' See Rep. 534 b-c and notes.
xl
 INTRODUCTION
is an abomination, that verbal knowledge is no know-
ledge, that the concrete must precede the abstract,
that we must visualize before we theorize, and
apprehend objects before we analyse relations, we
have in practice abandoned altogether the attempt
to teach young people hard consecutive abstract
thinking. We scorn to drill them in the old-
fashioned studies that developed this power, such
as grammatical analysis, " parsing," puzzling prob-
lems in arithmetic, algebra, or mechanics, elementary

logic,
mental science, as it was called, and the
exact, if incomplete, methods of the orthodox
political economy ; and instead of this we encourage
them to have and express opinions about large and
vague questions of literary criticism, aesthetics,
ethics and social reform. A true apprehension of
Plato's ideal of education would not swing the
pendulum back again to the other extreme, but it
would help us to realize that no multipHcation of
entertaining knowledge, and no refinements of the
new psychology, can alter the fact that all instruction
is wasted on a flabby mind, and that true education,
while it will not neglect entertainment, useful know-
ledge, and the training of the eye and hand, will
always consist largely in the development of firm,
hard, intellectual muscle. The studies best adapted
to this end will always retain a value independent
of practical utility or superficial attractiveness ; for
to change the figure and adapt Plato's own language :
By such studies the eye of the mind, more precious
than a thousand bodily eyes, is purged and quickened
and made more keen for whatever truth higher
education or life or business may present to it
(527 d-e).
 INTRODUCTION
Plato's own account of the curriculum of his higher
education ought to be a sufficient answer to the
charge that in the training of his guardians he
manifests an anti-scientific spirit. It is only by
wresting phrases from their context and refusing to
make allowances for the quality of Plato's rhetoric
that the imputation of hostility to modern experi-
mental science can be fastened upon him." As I
have shown elsewhere ^ and point out again in the
notes, Plato is (1) using scientific studies to develop
the faculty of abstract reasoning (2) incidentally ;

predicting the mathematical astronomy and physics

of the future. Both purposes tempt him to hammer
<=

his main point with Emersonian emphasis and to

surprise attention with Ruskinian boutades in order to
mark more clearly the distinction between himself
and contemporary empiricists. Hence his satire of
the substitution of experiment for mathematics in
acoustics (531 a-b), and the intentional epigram-
"
matic extravagance of his " leave the stars alone
(530 b). It is uncritical to quote these sentences
apart from their entire context and treat them as
if they were a deliberate and systematic attack on
modern experimental science.

The Four The description of the four degenerate types of

Polities,
state in the eighth book relieves the strain of dia-
lecticsand the tedium of continuous argument by
one of the most brilliant pieces of A\Titing in Plato.
Macaulay says it is " . . . beyond all criticism. I

Cf. on 529 A, 530 b.

* " Platonism and the History of Science," Am. Philos.
Soc. Proc. Ixvi. pp. 171 f.. What Plato Said, pp. 235-236
"
Cf. on 530 B.
xlii
 INTRODUCTION
remember nothing Greek philosophy superior to
in
tliis in profundity, ingenuity and eloquence." It
serves further to lead up to the embodiment in the
tyrant of the analogical argument that the unhappi-
-s of the worst man matches the misery of the worst
te. The objections to the book or to its place in
tlie economy of the Republic raised by Aristotle and
others are mostly captious irrelevances."
The transition from the ideal state is resumed at
the point where it was interrupted at the beginning
of the fifth book,* and it is pretended that Books V.,
\'I. and VII. are a digression, though they are
oljviously an indispensable part of the Republic."
Matter-of-fact critics have argued that an ideal
or perfect state would contain \Wthin itself no seeds
of destruction and could not decay. But as Plato
himself said, the philosophic state is a pattern or
ideal which retains its value even if imperfectly
realized.** It is a fundamental Platonic principle that
only the divine is eternal and unchangeable. All
created and material things are subject to change.
The universe itself is only as good as the Demiurgos
was able to make it, and the created gods are pre-
served from destruction only by his sustaining will.^
The riddle of the " nuptial " number that deter-
" Cf. Aristot. Pol. 1316 a I f. iv d^ ry HoXirdtf Xiyerai fup

Tepi Tuiv fiera^oKwv vnb rod '[Link], ov fiivroi Xeyerai koKws,

which is rather cool after all his borrowings from Rep. viii.
in the preceding: pages. And in 1286 b 15 he seems to
ff.

accept the development of Rep. viii. See also Frutiger,

Mythes de Platon, p. 42,
* Cf. Vol. I. on 449 a-b.

.
Cf. Vol. I. p. xvi. What Plato Said, p. 225.
' Cf. on 499 D and What Plato Said, p. 564.
'
Cf. Symp. 207-208, Rep. vii. on the heavens, 530 b.
f
Cf. Tim. 37 d, 41 c-D, What Plato Said, p. 335.
VOL. 11 d xliH
 INTRODUCTION
mines the beginning of the dechne has never been
solved to the satisfaction of a majority of competent
critics. The solution would contribute something to
our knowledge of early Greek mathematical termin-
ology but nothing to our understanding of Plato's
thought. Emerson's definitive word about it is,
" He (Plato) sometimes throws a little mathematical
dust into our eyes." The " meaning " of the number
is simply Burke's statement (iv. p. 312) in Regicide
Peace, p. 2, " I doubt whether the history of man-
kind is yet complete enough, if ever it can be so, to
furnish grounds for a sure theory on the internal
causes which necessarily affect the fortune of a
state."" But though the ultimate causes of de-
" For Aristotle's opinion cf. Pol. 1316 a 5 If. For dis-
cussions of the number cf. Zeller, Phil. d. Or. ii. 1*, pp.
857-860 ; Jowett's translation of the Republic (1888), pp.
cxxx ff. ; Adam, Republic, vol. ii. pp. 264-312 ; Ueberweg-
Praechter, Philos. des Altertums (1926), 94* ff. ; Paul
Tannery, " Le Nombre Nuptial dans Platon," Rev. Philos. i.,
1876, pp. 170-188 ; Georg Albert, Die platonische Zahl,
Wien, 1896, and " Der Sinn der plat. Zahl," Philologus, vol.
66(1907), pp. 153-156 ; J. Dupuis, " Le Nombre Geometrique
de Platon," Annuaire de V Assoc, des Et. grecques, vol. 18,
pp. 218-255 ; Frutiger, Mythes de Platon, pp. 47-48. Cf.
also Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, iii. p. 336, C. Ritter, Platons
Stellung zu den Aufgaben der Naturwissenschaft, pp. 91-94 ;
Friedlander, Platon, i. p. 108; G. Kafka in Philologus 73,
pp. 109-121 ; D. B. Monro in Class. Rev. vi. (1892) pp.
152-156 ; and Adam, ibid. pp. 240-244, and xvi. pp. 17-23 ;
Fr. Hultsch in Phil. Woch. xii. (1892) pp. 1256-1258. Cf.
further Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, p. 25 " It is to
be observed that Plato's perfect year is also 36,000
' '
solar
years (Adam's Republic, vol. ii. p. 302), and that it is probably
connected with the precession of the equinoxes " ; Carl
Vering, Platons Staat, p. 167 " Den Biologen wird die
Zahlenmystik Platons an die Mendelschen Vererbungs-
tabellen erinnern, durch welche die geniale Ahnung Platons,
dass as zahlenmassig darstellbare Vererbungsgesetze geben
xliv
 INTRODUCTION
generation escape our ken, Plato mentions a practical
point that is of considerable significance to-day.
Revolutions are due to the di\isions and discords of
the dominant and educated classes." The allegory
of the four metals is kept up. The dechne begins
when the rulers no longer breed true and the gold
is mixed with base alloy.*
The limitation of the degenerate types of stateto
four is conscious and artistic. It should not be used
to prove Plato's impatience of facts. There are end-
less minor varieties of social and pohtical structure
among the barbarians (5ii c-d). Plato leaves it to
Aristotle and the political and social science depart-
ments of the American universities to collect them."
The sequence, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and
tyranny does not always reproduce the actual history
of cities of Greece, but it anticipates many of the
vicissitudes of modem history more suggestively than
Aristotle's laborious collection of instances.** Plato
occasionally forgets himself or lets himself go in con-
temporary satire or allusion that points to Athens

musse, nach mehr als 2000 Jahren ihre wlssenschafUiche

Rechtfertigung gefimden hat." Cf. Baudrillart, J. Bodin
et son temps, p. 360 "... A tout cela Bodin ajoute des
calculs cabalistiques sur la duree des empires, sur le nombre
nuptial ..."
" R^. 545 D, Laws 683 e, 682 i>-e. Class. Phil. xvii.
pp. 154-155. Cf. .\ristot. Pol. 1305 a 39.
" 547 B. C/. 415 A-B.
* Aristotle says that there are not only more kinds of

government than these, but there are many sub-species of

each. Cf. Aristot. Pol. vi., 1288 ff., 1279 b, 1229 a 8, 1289 a 8,
Newman, vol. i. pp. 494 ff., and also Unity of Plato's Thought,
pp. 62-63.
''
The case of the French Revolution and the rise of
Napoleon is one of the most outstanding examples.

xlv
 INTRODUCTION
rather than to any one of his four or five types." But
the consistency of his hypothesis is sufficiently main-
tained to satisfy any reasonable reader. The in-
dividual types corresponding to the four political
patterns are the earliest and among the best system-
atic character-sketches in extant European literature
and may be counted among the sources of the
Characters of Theophrastus and their successors.*

Book IX. sums up and concludes the main ethical

argument of the Reptiblic. This is not the place for
a systematic exposition of the Platonic ethics.
Ethical philosophy as distinguished from exhortation
and the code can always be stated in the form of a
discussion of the validity of the moral law and the
motives for obedience to it, in other words, the quest
for the sanction." But this mode of statement is
especially suited to ages of so-called enlightenment
and transition when the very existence of a moral
law or its binding force is challenged, whether seri-
ously or as an intellectual game.
Such in Plato's opinion was the age in which he
lived. The main drift of the speculations of the
pre-Socratic philosophers had been in the direction of
materialism if not exactly atheism.** The populariza-
" Cf., e.g., 549 c and 553 a with Adam's notes, 551 b,
556 E, 562 D, 563 c, 565 b.
^
Cf. also Matthew Arnold's description of the Barbarians
and the Philistines in Culture and Anarchy.
" The question con-
"
Cf. Mill, Diss, and Disc. iii. p. 300
cerning the summum bonum or what is the same thing,
concerning the foundation of morality," etc.
"*
This has recently been denied. But the essential truth
of the generalization is not appreciably affected by a few
fragments whose religious, ethical and spiritual purpose is
doubtful.
xlvi
 INTRODUCTION
tion of these ideas by the so-called sophists and their
anplication to education, morals, politics and criticism
of life had further tended to do away \\'ith all tradi-
tional moral and religious checks upon instinct and
individualism. And the embittered class conflicts
and the long demoralization of the thirty years' war
had completed the work of moral and spiritual dis-
integration." The Greeks had lost their old stand-
ards and had acquired no new, more philosophic, prin-
ciples to take their place.* Plato's ears were dinned,
he said, by the negations of materialists, atheists,
relativists, and immoralists." How to answer them
was the chief problem of his ethical philosophy. To
satirize these immoralists or to depict their defeat
in argument was one of the main motives of his
dramatic art."^
The evidence in support of Plato's interpretation
of contemporary Greek life and thought has been
repeatedly collected from Aristophanes, Euripides,
and Thucydides, the fragments of the sophists and
the pre-Socratics and Plato's own writings.* This
"
conservative view of the Greek " enlightenment
has in turn often been challenged by modern his-
torians of liberal or radical tendencies, a Grote, a

" See T. R. Glover, Democracy in the Ancient World, pp.

7j-~7; supra. Vol. I. p. xxxvi; What Plato Said, pp. 6,
in-u2.
Cf. Rep. 538 c-e.
Cf. Rep. 358 c, Protag. 333 c,Euthydem. 279 b, Phileb.
(jt) E, Gorg. 470 d. Laws 662 c, 885 d. Soph. 265 c, Phaedo
93 D.
Cf. Gorg. 521 a-b. Rep. \., Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 25.
*

' Cf. What Plato Said, p. 503, on Goro. 461 c, for references,
and ibid. pp. 137, 145, 215 ff., 392-393, also W. Jaeger,
" Die griechische Staatsethik im Zeitalter des Platon," Die
Antike, Bd. x. Heft 1, esp. p. 8.
xlvii
 INTRODUCTION
Mill, a Gomperz, and their followers." The inter-
preter of the Republic need only note the sincerity
and intensity of Plato's conviction and its effect
upon the form of his presentation of ethics.
A complete study of the Platonic ethics would in-
corporate many other ideas drawn from the Prot-
agoras, the Philebus, the Laws, the minor Socratic
dialogues, and perhaps from the Phaedrus and
Symposium^' But the two chief ethical dialogues,
the Gorgias and the Republic, are cast in the form
of an answer to dogmatic and unabashed ethical
nihilism. What is to be said to an uncompromising
immoralist ? convince him, or failing
Is it possible to
that, to refute or seem to refute him to the edifica-
tion of the bystander ? " The serious aim of both
Gorgias and Republic is to convince and refute, but
there are parts of the Gorgias and of the first book
of the Republic in which the chief dramatic purpose
is the exhibition of Socrates' superiority in argument
to the sceptic.
Many commentators ancient and modern object
that Plato has not proved his case. They are not
necessarily such immoralists as Plato had in mind.
Such moralists as Grote, Mill and Leslie Stephen say
that all men of goodwill would like to believe in the
identity of virtue and happiness, but that the facts
of experience are against it.** It is at best a general

" Cf., e.g., Greek Thinkers, vol. i. ch. iv., esp. pp. 403-411.
" See International Journal of Ethics, Jan. 19:^9, pp.
232-233 ; What Plato Said, pp. 317, and 364 ; Unity of
Plato's Thought, pp. 9-27.
'
Cf. What Plato Said, p. 141.
"
Cf., e.g.. Science of Ethics, pp. 397-398, 434, and the
whole problem of the book of Job. Cf. also Sidgwick,
Method of Ethics, pp. 172-173.
xlviii
 INTRODUCTION
tendency or probability, not an invariable rule.
Dryden is not sure that the law can always be verified
on indiWduals, but is half humorously certain that it
infallibly applies to nations, because in their case
Pro\idence is too deeply engaged.
The problem is too large to be incidentally solved
by a commentator on the Republic. It is, as Plato
himself would admit, partly a question of faith,"
and partly of the kind of evidence that is admitted
as relevant. " Do you ask for sanctions ? " exclaims
John Morley. " One whose conscience has been
strengthened from youth in this faith can know no
greater bitterness than the stain cast by a wrong act
. and the discords that have become the ruling
. .

harmony of his days." * That is the kind of evidence

to which Plato appeals when he argues that his

Cf. Gorg. 526 d. Laws 728, 904 d-e, Crito 54 b-c ; and
Arnold, God and the Bible, chap. iii. p. 136 " These truths :

. .are the matter of an immense experience which is still

.

going forward. But if any man is so entirely without

. . .

affinity for them ... for him Literature and Dogma was not
written."
*
Cf. also Morley, Rousseau, ii. 280, 293;
Voltaire, p.
Fa^et, Pour qu'on Use Platon, pp. 99-101, 138 Gomperz,
;

Greek Thinkers, 257-258, 293-294 ;

iv. Huxley, Science and
Hebrew Tradition, and the entire controversy arising
p. 339,
out of his Evolution and Ethics ; Arcesilas apud Brochard,
Les Sceptiques grecs, p. 17 1. Cf. George Eliot's novels passim,
and Mill's " Those whose conscientious feelings are so weak
as to allow of their asking this question," which is practically
equivalent to Shaftesbury's " If any gentleman asks why he
should not wear a dirty shirt I reply that he must be a very
dirty gentleman to ask the question." Cf. also Cicero, De
officiis, iii. 29 ;Leslie Stephen, Science of Ethics, passim,
e.g. 426 ff., and the arguments of Hazlitt, Macaulay and
others against the Utilitarians. Such passages are a con-
chisrve answer to the objection that Plato has not proved his
case.
xlix
 INTRODUCTION
guardians will find more happiness in duty fulfilled
than they would by grasping at what are commonly
thought the good things of life." It is an argument
that will not appeal to men of stunted moral sensi-
bilities. The issue is, as Plato says, whether they are
the best judges.'' The question has always been
debated and always will be debatable, and there is
little to add to the considerations on either side which
Cicero develops in his perpetual reargument of the
Stoic paradox, that virtue alone suffices for a happy
life, and that the sage will be happy on the rack.
Matthew Arnold, Emerson and George Eliot are as
fixed in the faith as Plato. Experience, says Arnold,
is perpetually sending the denier who says in his

heart. There is no God, back to school to learn his

lesson better.'' The writers most in vogue to-day
would agree with Mill and Leslie Stephen, if not with
Thrasymachus and Callicles.'* It is not necessary to
determine this controversy in order to justify the
Republic. To condemn the Republic because it is not
a demonstration that leaves no room for doubt is to
affirm that the question is not worth discussing, or
that Plato's treatment of it falls short of what could
reasonably be expected. If it is not a proof, has any
one come nearer to a demonstration ? *
" Rep. 419-420. Cf. Vol. I. pp. 314-315.
"
Cf. Rep. 580 D ff., Laws 658-659.
" God and the Bible, p. xxxv.
^
La Morale de Platan, says "Aucun moraliste
Brochard, :

moderne n'entreprendrait de defendre la doctrine de Platon,

qui apparait comme une gageure." Cf. Westermarck, Origin
and Development of Moral Ideas, i. pp. 17, 18, 32 1 and pasm.
,

Cf. Leslie Stephen, Science of Ethics, p. 354 : " Evolution

'

implies that there must be at least an approximate coincidence,

and there is no apparent a priori reason why the coincidence
should not be indefinitely close."
1
 INTRODUCTION
As to the desirability of the attempt, Plato thought
that it is not safe to expose young minds to the un-
answered propaganda of philosophies of immoralism
and relativity. And recent experience of an amoral
and irreligious education of the masses has not yet
proved him WTong.** He beheved in his own argu-
ments and in the doctrine which he taught. But
apart from that he also beUeved that civilized society
would disintegrate if morahty were not effectively
preached.^ The charge hinted by Aristotle {Eth. x.,
1172 a 34-35) and often repeated that this implies the
" economy of truth " and the inner or double doc-
'^

trine is sufficiently refuted by the depth and intensity

of Plato's own " adamantine " moral faith.** But
however that may be, the question which he asks in
his Lawsstill brings heart-searchings to the parent
who has inherited a conscience from a generation
that had not been swept from its moorings What is :

a father to tell his son ? But I cannot give more

space to these eternal controversies and must turn
to the direct summing-up of Plato's argument in the
ninth book.
Plato sums up the conclusions of the Republic in
three formal arguments. The first is the broad
" See my article in the June, 1934, number of the Atlantic

Monthly, pp. 722-723.

"
Cf. Laws 890 d, 907 c, 718 d.
Laws 663 c-d (What Plato Said, p. 364) may imply
" economy " in theology, but not in ethical religion. Cf. also
What Plato Said, p. 626, and Isoc. Antid. 283 koL raPra
KoX rah dXry^etatj oCtcjs ?xf' i^"-'- (TVfKp^pei t'ov rpoirov tovtov
"KkyeadaL irepl axnCiv. Cf. Harnack, Hist, of Dogma, pp. 183-
184 : " Gregory of Nazianzus speaks of a necessary and
salutary olKOVotiridriva.L riqv dXTj^eiaf."

Cf. Rep. 618 E, Laws 662 b.
Cf. Laws 662 d-663 a, What Plato Said, p. 364.

li
 INTRODUCTION
analogy between the individual and the state, which
runs through the entire work." Plato feels that here
he is not only clinching the subject, but finally
grappling with the problem debated in the Gorgias
and to which he returns in the Laws. He is gather-
ing up all his forces for a defiant reply to the im-
moralist and ethical nihilist. The result is an elabora-
tion, an intensity, an insistency, a repetition that are
offensive to readers who feel distaste for anything
that savours of moral didacticism.
The argumentative force of such an analogy is the
cumulative impression of the detail that makes it
plausible. Plato points the application of this argu-
ment by a psychological portrait of the typical tyran-
nical man, developed out of the democratic man as
the democrat was developed from the oligarch. The
literary symmetry strains the logic a little, for while
the democratic man is the typical citizen of a demo-
cracy, the typical citizen of a tyranny is not the tyrant
himself, but any one of those whom he oppresses.
But it does not matter. To heighten his effect Plato
describes first the soul of the man destined to become
a Greek tyrant, and then the intensification of all
its defects and miseries by the actual possession
and exercise of usurped power.
Latent in all men are lawless instincts and appetites
which reason and disciplined emotion hold in check,
but which are sometimes revealed in dreams (571 b f.).
In the tyrannical soul these lower propensities are
unleashed. The censor, to borrow the language of
a fashionable modern psychology, is dethroned, all
control is abolished and the soul is at the mercy of
the instincts of the night. Plato depicts the rake's
" Cf. \'ol. I. p. XXXV.
lii
 INTRODUCTION
progress of what again in modern terminology we
may call the typical gangster and boss in a lawless
democracy. He is the son of a democratic father,
but, milike his father, does not settle down into a
tolerable compromise between the caprices of un-
regulated desire and the principles of tradition (572 d).
In him desire grown great, a monstrous Eros, a ruhng
passion with its attendant train of appetites, usurps
the throne and seizes the empty citadel of the mind,
vacant of the only true guardians, the precepts of
culture and right reason (573 a). He wastes his
portion of the family inheritance, encroaches on the
portion of his brothers, and if further advances are
refused him does not shrink from the last outrage
that Greek conservatism attributed to the " younger

generation" and "strikes his father."" He be-
comes the chosen leader of a gang of like-minded
roisterers from whom he is distinguished only by a
more enterprising spirit and the greater strength of
the principle of desire in his soul and the gang,
;

if few, terrorize the city with crime (575 a-b),

if many, strike the father- and mother-land, over-
throw the constitution and estabUsh a tyranny
(575 d).
A modem moralist might improve the text that
tile gangsterlives in an atmosphere of greed, sus-
picion and fear, and is destined finally to be shot
by an ambitious rival. Plato, speaking in terms of
Greek experience, makes the " tyrannical man " ful-
fil his nature and perfect his type by becoming an

actual tyrant of a Greek city. And he then de-

scribes, perhaps in reminiscence of his own observa-
tions at the court of Dionysius at Syracuse, and in
674 c. Cf. Aristoph. Cloud 1321 flF., 1421 flF.

Uii
 INTRODUCTION
prophetic anticipation of Caligula and Louis Napoleon,
the hell of suspicion, fear and insatiate and un-
satisfied desires in which such a tyrant lives." As
the city which he misrules is, for all the splendour of
the court and the courtiers, as a whole the most
miserable of states, so is he, to the eye that can
penetrate the dazzling disguise of pomp and power,
" the farced title running 'fore the king," the most
miserable of men (577-579).
It is obvious that Plato forces the note a little
in the interest of his thesis. In actual history the
tyrant need not be the sensualist of Plato's descrip-
tion. He may be only a cold-blooded, hard-headed

Machiavellian, in Plato's language a lover of honour
and victory, not a lover of the pleasures that money
purchases. But these cavils of a meticulous logic are
beside the mark. The real argument, as we have
said, is the psychological analysis and the facts of
Greek experience that lend plausibility to the ana-
logy. It prepares us to receive the more strictly
philosophic and scientific arguments that are to
follow.
The gist of the second argument is that the intel-
lectual, the philosopher, has necessarily experienced
all three kinds of pleasure in his life, while the repre-
sentatives of the two other types have no experience
of the pleasures of pure intelligence (581-582). To this
is added the consideration that the organ or instru-
ment of all such judgements, reason and rational
" neque frustra praestantissimus
<
Cf. Tacitus, Ann. vi. 6
sapientiae firmare solitus est, si recludantur tyrannorum
mentes, posse aspici laniatus et ictus, quando ut corpora
verberibus, ita saevitia, libidine, malis consultis animus
dilaceretur."
Uv
 INTRODUCTION
speech, is the special possession of the philosopher
(582 a). This argument is never mentioned again
by Plato and is by many critics, including Leslie
Stephen," rejected as a fallacy. But John Stuart
Mill accepts and makes use of it.
The issue thus raised is really the old question of
a distinction of quality and value in pleasure. No
one can judge or prescribe another's pleasure, it is
argued pleasure qua pleasure admits no differences.*
;

But is there any such thing as pleasure qua pleasure ?

Are there not always inseparable accompaniments
and consequences ? And though the hog may be
sole judge of his owti pleasures, is it on the whole as
desirable or as pleasurable to be a hog as a man ? "
There is room for interminable argument, for the
entire problem of relativity is involved. If all judge-
ments are relative, Plato elsewhere argues, we are
committed to chaos. The dog-faced baboon, and
not man or God, is the measure of all things.'* The
very existence of the arts and the sciences pre-
supposes that things are measured against standards
and not merely against one another.^ Thus, though
the argument is not repeated by Plato in this form,
it suggests and implies most of the fundamental
questions of his ethical philosophy.
" He calls it " a familiar short cut to the desired con-
clusion " {Science of Ethics, p. 399). Cf. also Sidgwick,
Method of Ethics, p. 148.
" Cf. Gorg. 494 e {What Plato Said, p. 508) and 499 b.

See too Leslie Stephen, Science of Ethics, p. 400.

Cf. Phileh. 67 b. What Plato Said, p. 611. There is no
space to repeat or quote here the arguments against the utili-
tarian point of view set forth by Macaulav and others.. Cf.
also Sidg\iick, Method of Ethics, pp. 93-94, 121.
" Cf. Theaet. 161 c. Laws 716 c.

Cf. Politicus 284 B-c, 285 a-b.
Iv
 INTRODUCTION
The third argument, drawn from the negativity of
the pleasure of sense, is the basis of the Platonic
ethics, so far as it is an arguable doctrine. It is
necessary to dwell upon this point, for it is commonly
said that Plato's ethical philosophy is deduced from
the idea of good.** That is true only from one quite
special point of view. The idea of good, as we have
seen, is a postulate of the logic of ethics and of the
higher education of the philosopher. It is a blank
cheque that supports the credit of the system but
which is not filled in. No virtue and no particular
" good " is adequately defined until it is explicitly
related to an idea of good (505 a, 506 a). It may
be defined provisionally and sufficiently for a given
purpose in terms of psychology or tradition or with
a tacit reference to an implied conception of good
(504 a-b). But nowhere in Plato's writings are de-
finite controversial arguments or substantive prin-
ciples of ethical philosophy or rules of practice de-
duced from the idea of good. It is merely said that
an ethical philosophy is not complete until we have
decided what is our sanction.
But such principles are deduced from the negativity
of the "lower " pleasures throughout Plato's writings.^
This supplies the missing link in the argument of the
Protagoras that virtue and happiness depend on the
correct estimate of pleasures and pains.'' The doc-
trine is implied in the Phaedo (83-84). It is distinctly
suggested in the Gorgias (493 ff.). It crowns the

"
Of. W. H. Fairbrother, " The Relation of Ethics to
Metaphysics," Mind, xiii., 1904, p. 43; Martineau, Types
of Ethical Theory, 1886, p. xxvi. Gf. supra, p. xxvi.
"
Cf. supra, p. xxvi.
"
Cf. What Plato Said, pp. 130-131.
ivi

11
 INTRODUCTION
argument of the Republic (583 b fF.). It is elaborated
illthe Pkilebus in order to reach a final settlement
of the controversy dramatized in the Gorgias. It is
tacitly employed in the endeavour of the Laws (660
E-663 e) to attach a practicable edifying conclusion
to the utilitarian arguments of the Protagoras. The
statement of the doctrine in the Republic, though
briefer than that of the Pkilebus, touches on all the
essential points, as the notes will show. It cannot be
proved to be either a resume or an imperfect anticipa-
tion of the developed theory. It cannot be used to
date the ninth book of the Republic relatively to the
Pkilebus.'^
I am not here speaking of the absolute truth of
the doctrine, but only of its demonstrable relation
to Plato's ethical philosophy. As I have elsewhere
said,^ Plato teaches that sensuous pleasures are in
their nature impure and illusory. They are precon-
ditioned by, and mixed with, desire, want, pain.
" Surgit amari aliquid " is ever true of them. They
are the relief of an uneasiness, the scratching of an
itch, the filling of a vacuum." To treat them as real,
or to make them one's aim (except so far as our
human estate requires), is to seek happiness in a pro-

' Though the Philehus is in fact later than the Republic, as

Mill said long before style statistics were thought of.
* Unity
of Plato's Thought, p. 24.
* Already in the Gorgias, 493 e, 494 c and the Phaedrus

258 E wv irpoXvTrjdrjvai 5u fj firjde rjcrdTJvai, etc. ; Rep. 584

A-B, It has even been argued that the Phaedrus passage
takes for granted the fuller discussion of the Pkilebus
(W. H. Thompson, Phaedrus, ad loc.), and why not?
Anything may be argued if the dialogues are supposed
to grow out of one another and not out of Plato's
mind.

Ivii
 INTRODUCTION
cess rather than a state,** in becoming rather than in
being. It is to bind oneself to the wheel of Ixion
and pour water into the bottomless jar of the
Danaids.^ Far happier, far more pleasurable, is the
life that consistently aims at few and calm pleasures,
to which the sensualist would hardly give the name,
a hfe which he would regard as torpor or death."
Both the physiology and the psychology of this
doctrine have been impugned. It has been argued
that, up to the point of fatigue, the action of healthy
nerves involves no pain, and must yield a surplus
of positive sensuous pleasure. It is urged that the
present uneasiness of appetite is normally more than
counterbalanced by the anticipation of immediate
satisfaction. Such arguments will carry no weight
with those who accept Plato's main contention, that
the satisfactions of sense and ambition, however
" necessary," have no real worth, and that to seek
our true life in them is to weave and unweave the
futile web of Penelope. Whatever qualifications
modern psychology may attach to the doctrine, it is
the logical basis of Plato's ethics. The unfeigned

Phileb. 53 c ff., 54 e virtually = (?or5r. 493 e. Cf. What

Plato Said, pp. 322-323. The literal-minded objection of
Aristotle, Eth. Nic. 1174 b, and some moderns, that pleasure
is not literally KlvrjCTis, is beside the point.
* Gorg. 493 b TTpr)/j.^vos widos, etc., Phaedo 84 a av-
Ijvvrov ipyov . . .UrjveXdirrjs 1<tt6v, Gorg. 507 E, Phileb.
54 E.
" Phaedo 64 b, Gor^. 492 e, Phileb. 54 e Kai (paai ^rjv ovk

&v Si^aadai, etc. In Laws 733, 734 b, the hedonistic calculus

of the Protagoras is retained, but is applied not directly to
the individual acts, but to types of life. The life of moderate
pleasures is a priori the more pleasurable because it neces-
sarily yields a more favourable balance than the life of intense
pleasures.
Iviii
 INTRODUCTION
recognition of the inherent worthlessness of the lower
pleasures removes at once the motive and the lures
to evil." It is the chief link in the proof that virtue
is happiness. It insures the domination of reason
over feeling and appetite. It moulds man into
that likeness to the divine pattern which is Plato's
expression for the ethical ideal," for the divine life
knows neither pleasure nor pain." It is the serious
argument that explains Plato's repudiation of the
hedonistic formulas of the Protagoras ^ and justifies
the noble anti-hedonistic rhetoric of the Gorgias,'
the Phaedo/ and the Philebus (in fine).
Regarded as a logical system, then, and meta-
physics apart, the Platonic ethics is not to be de-
duced from the idea of good. It is best studied and
expounded under a few simple heads (1) illustrations
:

in the minor dialogues of the necessity and the diffi-

culty of defining ethical terms (:2) the search for
;

arguments that vdW convince, or at least confute, the

ethical nihilism of a war-weary, cynical and over-

enhghtened generation for proof, in short, that
virtue and happiness coincide ; (3) the attempt to
find a compromise between the necessity of acknow-
ledging the truth in a certain sense of hedonistic
utilitarianism and our justifiable idealistic distaste
for that way
of describing the moral life ; (l) as an
essential part of the argument of both (2) and (3), the
principle of the comparative worthlessness of the

Phaedo &Q c. Rep. 586 a-b, 588.

Theaetet. 176 b ff.. Laws 716 d, 728 a-b, Rep. 352 a-b,
12 E, Phileh. 39 E.
Phileb. 33 b.
Cf. What Plato Said, p. 500.
512 D-E, What Plato Said, p. 149.
' 69 A, What Plato Said, pp. 171 and 174.

VOL. 11 lix
 INTRODUCTION
lower or sensual pleasures, which, except so far as
necessary, are bought at too high a price, because
they are preconditioned by pain."
These categories are not of my invention. They are
the topics on which ethical discussion actually turns
in the dialogues. The Republic supplies ample illus-
tration of all these topics. The first book, like the
Gorgias, dramatizes Socrates' dialectic superiority
to the immoralist. The second book restates the
most fundamental form. The fourth book
issue in its
resumes and for practical purposes provisionally
solves the puzzles of the definition of the virtues in the
minor Socratic dialogues. The allegory of the idea of
good, rightly understood, shows what Plato meant in
these minor dialogues by making the failure to define
virtue always turn on the inability to discover the
" good." The ninth book, as we have seen, sums up
the argument and adds a sufficiently explicit exposi-
tion of the doctrine of the negativity of pleasure,
which, as the Philehus shows, is the indispensable basis
of the scientific and calculating ethics postulated in
the Protagoras.
But true virtue is something more than argument,
and its mood, as an eloquent passage of the Phaedo
protests, is not that of the prudential, calculating
reason. And so the argument of the ninth book,
''

like that of the fourth, culminates in an appeal through

imagery and analogy to the imaginative reason and
the soul. There (444-145) it was urged that the health
and harmony of the soul must be still more indispens-
<
my review of Lodge in International Journal of
See
Ethics, xxxix. pp. 232-233, and for the ethical argument
of the Republic as a whole my " Idea of Justice in Plato's
RepubHc," The Ethical Record, January 1890, pp. 185-199.
" Phaedo 69 a f., What Plato Said, p. 500.

Ix
 INTRODUCTION
able to true happiness than that of the body. And
we saw that the most scientific of modern ethical
philosophies is finally forced back upon the same
analogy." In the conclusion of the ninth book the
motif recurs with still greater elaboration and in a
more eloquent chmax. Every animal of the barn-
yard, Plato says in anticipation of Emerson and Freud,
has found lodgement ^vithin this external sheath of
humanity. And the issue for every human soul is
whether it chooses to foster the snake, the lion and
the ape, or the man, the mind, and the god A^ithin the
mind.* Surely the wiser choice is that which values
all the so-called goods, for which men scramble and
contend, only as they tend to preserve or destroy the
true constitution and health of the soul. This polity
of the sober and righteous soul is the symbol of that
City of God which may exist nowhere on earth but
on which as a pattern laid up in heaven he who will
may fix his eyes and constitute himself its citizen.*'
A characteristic feature of Plato's art both in great The Banish-
and Uttle matters the climax after the apparent poetry.
is
climax.'* The tenth book of the Republic, which is in
a sense an appendix, adds the climax of the originally
disavowed religious sanction of immortality to that of
the appeal to the imaginative reason. The interven-
ing digression in defence of the banishment of the
poets is in effect, if not in Plato's conscious intention,
a relieving interval of calm between the two peaks of
feeling. For the rest, the deeper psychology of the
" Cf. Vol. I. p. xvi.
Rep. 589 Cf. Tim. 90 a-b.
i>-E.
*
Cf. Vol. I. pp. xlii-xliii.
*
Cf. supra. Vol. I. pp. xxi-xxii, Wfiat Plato Said, pp. 140,
189, 248, infra, p. 104.
Ixi
 INTRODUCTION
philosophic books and the theory of ideas expounded
there invited a reconsideration of the subject and
provided arguments based, not on the content of the
Homeric epic, but on the essential nature of poetry
and its influence.
The two arguments that have exercised the de-
fenders of poetry from Aristotle to Arnold * are that
poetry is not truth but imitation, a copy of a copy,
and that poetry fosters emotion and so weakens the
salutary control of feeling by the reason and the will.
In support of the first the theory of ideas is invoked
in a form so intentionally simplified that it has given
rise to the fantastic hypothesis that this book must
represent an earlier period of Plato's philosophy.^
God made one idea of a couch. The artisan copies it
in many material couches. The artist with words or
colours copies, not the idea, but the copy. This argu-
ment of course could be and has been answered in its
own terms by the claim of Browning's Fra Lippo
Lippi that the genius of the artist does directly appre-
hend the idea or essence of things and reveal it to
those who can see only through his eyes." But the
real question whether art deals with truth or appear-
ance is independent of Plato's half-serious formulation
of it in the language of the theory of ideas. It is
still debated, and it is the business of the interpreters

of Plato to understand, not necessarily to pronounce

judgement.
The question whether poetry's chief function is to
" Sidney's Defense of Poesy is probably the most familiar.
*
Cf. What Plato Said, p. 249, supra, p. xviii.
" For, don't you mark, we're made so that we love
First when we see them painted, things we have passed
Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see ;

And so they are better, painted better to us.
Ixii
 INTRODUCTION
stimulate and exercise emotion, or to relieve, purge,"*
refine, purify, sublimate and exalt it, likewise raises
an issue which still di\'ides psychologists, educators
and critics. Its determination perhaps involves a
great and deliberate choice in the acceptance and
management of life as a whole. Plato's decision to
banish the honeyed Muse from his ideal city repre-
sents only one aspect of his many-sided nature. It is
obviously not, as is sometimes absurdly said, an
expression of his insensibiUty to Hellenic poetry and
art. It was his o\\"n sensitiveness that made him fear
its power. He himself wrote verse in youth.* His
imagery, the invention of his myths and the poetic
quality of his prose rank him with the world's major
poets." He quotes poetry with exquisite and fond
aptness throughout his writings.** And there are no
more mstful words than his reluctant dismissal of the
supreme poet, the author and source of all these
beauties of epic and tragedy, the Ionian father of the
rest
Homer.* However, Plato's ethical convictions
gave him the courage of Guyon (Faery Queene, il. xii.
83) in dealing with these enchantments :

" Aristotle's doctrine of Kd6ap<ns. Cf. my review of

Finsler, " Platon and die aristotelische Poetik," Class. Phil.
iii. pp. 461-462 ; also The Xation, xc. (1910) p. 319 ; Sikes,
Greek View of Poetry, pp. 118-125.
"
Cf. What Plato Said, pp. 17 ff.
'
Cf. Friedlander, Platon, i. pp. 196 and 200 ; Sidney, in
English Men of Letters, p. 150 " Of all the philosophers he
is the most poetical ; " Chesterton, The Resurrection of Rome,

p. 57 " But when we remember that the great poet Plato (as
he must be called) banished poets from his Republic, we have
a glimmer of why the great Greek Emperor banished sculptors
from his empire."
"*
Cf. What Plato Said, pp. 7-9 ; Unity of Plato's Thought,
pp. 81-82.
' Rep. 607 c-D ;
cf. What Plato Said, p. 250.

Ixiii
 INTRODUCTION
But all those pleasaunt bowres and Pallace brave
Guyon broke downe with rigour pittilesse
Ne ought their goodly workmansnip might save
Them from the tempest of his wrathfulnesse."
i^eDoctrine The guerdons of righteousness, worldly or other-
lity. worldly, were explicitly excluded in the original
formulation of the question whether justice is or is
not intrinsically its own reward. But now, having
**

proved his case independently of these, Plato thinks

that no one can fairly object if he points out that in
fact honesty is usually the best policy even in this
world, and that there is good hope that the legends
of a life and judgement to come are in essence true."
There are hints of a life after death earlier in
the Republic.'^ And nothing can be inferred from
Glaucon's perhaps affected surprise at Socrates' offer
to prove it. The immortality of the soul as an article
of faith and hope, a sanction of moral law, an inspira-
tion of poetry, will be treated lightly by no student of
humanity. But there is a certain lack of intellectual
seriousness in taking it seriously as a thesis of meta-
physical demonstration.^ Plato's belief in immortal-
ity was a conviction of the psychological and moral
impossibility of sheer materialism, and a broad faith
in the unseen, the spiritual, the ideal. The logical
obstacles to a positive demonstration of personal
immortality were as obvious to him as they are to
his critics./ The immortality of the individual soul
" See also my review of Pater, Plato and Platonism in The
Dial, xiv. (1893) p. 211.
<-
Cf. Bk. ii., esp. 367 b-e.
" Cf. What Plato Said, p. 251.
" Cf. 330 D-E and Vol. I. p. 16.
*
Cf. Wfiat Plato Said, pp. 180, 177, 535.
' See my review of Gaye, The Platonic Conception of
Immortality, in Philos. Rev. xiv., 1905, pp. 590-595,
Ixiv
 INTRODUCTION
is for Plato a pious hope " and an ethical postulate ^
rather than a demonstrable certainty.'' He essays
various demonstrations, but nearly always in con-
nexion ^vith a myth, and of all the proofs attempted
but one is repeated.** In the Apology Socrates,
addressing his judges, affects to leave the question
open.* But we cannot infer from this that the
Apology antedates Plato's belief in immortality, and
Socrates' language in Crito 54 b is precisely in the
tone of the Gorgias and the PhaedoJ
Immortality was affirmed before Plato by Pyth-
agorean and Orphic mystics, and in the magnificent
poetry of Pindar's Second Olympian Ode it is distinctly
associated with a doctrine of future rewards and
punishments. But Plato was the first great writer
to enforce it by philosophical arguments, or impress
it upon the imagination by \i\id eschatological myths.
And the Platonic dialogues, as Rohde shows , re-
mained the chief source of the hopes and aspirations
of the educated minority throughout subsequent
antiquity. Plato's name was the symbol and rally-
ing point of the entire reUgious and philosophic
" Phaedo 1 14 d xPV '' roiavra. Siairep [Link] eavrt^, Gorg.
524 A-B, Phaedo 67 b.
Rep. 608 c ff.. Laws 881 a, 967 d-e, 959 a-b
; with rbv
Hi 6vTa (KavTov 6vtus dddvarov [ehai] ^I'X^" cf.
i)ixQjv

Phaedo 115 d-e, and with the idea, 959 b, that the only
Pofri0ia at the bar of Hades is a just life in this world, cf.
Gorg. 522 c-d, 526 e, Crito 54 b.
* Phaedo 85 c t6 niv craipii eidevcu iv rtp yOv /3t<(> ^
ASwarov elfai ij TrayxaXfirov ri. Cf. 107 A-B, Tim. 72 d,
Meno 86 a-b, Phaedr. 265 c.
" That based on the theory that the soul is the source of all
motion, Phaedr. 245 c flF., I^ics 893 b flF.
40 D.
Cf. also Phaedo 91 b.
' Cratylus 403 d-e implies the doctrine of Phaedo 67, 68.
" Pg^yche 5thand 6th ed., vol. ii. p. 265.
 INTRODUCTION
opposition to the dogmatic materialism of the
Epicureans and of the positive wing of the Peri-
patetics. Cicero and Plutarch were in this his
disciples. The more wistful and religious spirits of
Stoicism a Seneca, a Marcus Aurelius came more
and more to see in Platonism the hopeful " alterna-
tive " of the great perhaps. Neo-Platonists and
Neo-Pythagoreans never grew weary of expanding
and allegorizing the great myths of the Gorgias,
Phaedo, and Republic. They were directly or in-
directly the chief inspiration of the sixth book of
the Aeneid, and in the majority of later sepulchral
epigrams that express the hope of immortality a
Platonic colouring is perceptible. All this was due
far more to the spell of Plato's genius than to the
force of his arguments. That the soul is the principle
of motion {Phaedr. 245 c ff., Laws 893 b fF.), that it
must have pre-existed because its apprehension of
the ideas is reminiscence (Phaedo 72 e ff.), that it
could be destroyed only by its own specific evil,
injustice, which does not in fact destroy it (Rep.
608-611), that it cannot cease to exist because the
idea of life which is essentially present with it will

not admit its opposite (Phaedo 105 d-e) these argu-
ments may convince metaphysicians, but they will
not stir the " emotion of conviction " that is fostered
by the serene confidence of Socrates in the hour of
death (Phaedo 114-118), by the vivid vision of the
scarred and naked soul shivering at the bar of
Rhadamanthus (Gorg. 524 d-e), by the detailed
verisimilitude of the message brought back by the
" Angel from there," Er, the son of Armenius (Rep.
614 B ff.).
The Epicureans and the more austere Stoics
Ixvi
 INTRODUCTION
I ensured this mythological symbolism as unworthy
of a philosopher and Emerson contrasts Plato's
;

license of affirmation with the self-restraint of the

Author of Christianity, who refused to entertain the
populace with that picture. But Plato has antici-
pated their saying in substance
criticism, No :

reasonable man will that these things are

affirm
])recisely as I have described them. But since the
soul is immortal, something of the kind must be true,
and we ought to repeat and croon it over to ourselves
in order to keep faith and hope alive {Phaedo 114 d).
This plea could be rejected only by those who are
willing to affirm that Plato's poetical imaginings have
been more harmful in the encouragement of super-
stition than helpful in the maintenance of religious
hope and moral faith."
But what of the metaphysical arguments ? Did
Plato himself take them seriously ? And are they,
therefore, to be taken seriously by the interpreters
of his philosophy ? Are they essential links in a
svstem ? Can we find in them clues to the progress
and development of his thought and even date the
dialogues with their aid ? It is not necessary to
answer these questions here. On the validity of the
arguments it would be idle to waste words. Some of
them, reinforced bv the Theaetetus, may help to show
the inadequacy of a dogmatic materialistic psychology
At the most they prove the eternity of something
other than " matter " which may be called " soul."
They do not prove the immortality of the individual
soul, which is nevertheless plainly taken as proved
in the eschatological myths and their ethical applica-

* Cf. my article in the June, 1934, number of the Atlantic

Monthly, p. 1-21.

Ixvii
 INTRODUCTION
tions. That the supreme dialectician, Plato, was him-
self unaware of that which is so readily perceived by
every puny whipster who thinks to get his sword is
to me unthinkable. A semblance of precedent proof
was essential even to the literary effect of the con-
cluding myths. And Plato himself in the Laws has
warned us that an affirmative answer to some questions
is required for the salvation of society and the moral
government of mankind."
But the myth itself is the really significant ex-
pression of Plato's hope and faith, and of its influence,
hardly less than that of some national religions, upon
the souls of men. After enumerating the blessings
that normally attend the old age of the righteous
man in this world, he says, we may fitly allow our
imagination to dwell upon the rewards that await
him in the world to come.
The enormous literature of the Platonic myths ^
deals partly with their conjectural sources, partly
with their place and function in Plato's art and philo-
sophy, and too little with the framework of definite
meaning as distinguished from the remoter and more
fanciful suggestions with which the ingenuity of
commentators has sometimes obscured it. Leaving
the translation and the notes to speak for themselves,
I need here say only a few words on this last point.

" Cf. supra, p. li.

*
Cf., L. Couturat, De mythis Platonicis, Stewart,
e.g.,
The Myths of Plato, with my review in Journal of Philos.,
Psy. and Scientific Method, 3, pp. 495-498 P. Frutiger, Les
;

Mythes de Platon Karl Reinhardt, Platons Mythen, Bonn,

;

1937; Friedlander, Platon, i. pp. 199 ff

. W. Willi, Versuch
;

einer Grundlegung der platonischen Mythopoiie; J. Tate,

" Socrates and the Myths," Class. Quarterly, xxvii. (April
1933) pp. 74-80; V. Brochard, "Les Mythes dans la philo-
sophic de Platon," UAnnee Philos., 1900, pp. 1-13.
Ixviii
 INTRODUCTION
If I may use without entirely adopting Professor
Stewart's distinction between myth and allegory, the
distinctive feature of the Platonic myth is that it
embodies and reconciles the conflicting excellences

of both -the transcendental feeling, the poetic
mysticism of the true myth and the, to Professor
Stewart, almost offensive lucidity of the allegory.
In this it only exalts and intensifies a feature of
Plato's style as a whole. He is unique in his power
to reconcile formal dialectic and deliberate rhetoric
with imagination and sincerity of feeling. He
announces the effect that he intends to produce and
produces it in defiance of the psychology of Goethe's
" Da fuhlt man Absicht und man wird verstimmt."
He can pour his imagination, his poetry, his mysti-
cism, his exhortation, and his edification into a pre-
determined logical mould. He modulates from one
chord to the other at the precise moment when
satiety begins." He starts from a definition, pro-
ceeds by analysis and division through firsthes and
secondlies to perorations that sweep the emotional
reader off his feet and make him forget or deny the
dialectic that conducted him to the mount of vision.
As Emerson puts it, " He points and quibbles and ;

by and by comes a sentence that moves the sea and

land." ^

Phaedo 115 a, 77 e-78 a, Euthyphro 6 b-c, 11

Cf., e.g.,
B-c, Gorg. 507 e. The little sermons scattered through the
Laws have the same effect. C/. in Goethe's Faust the chorus
of angels followed by the devil. Cf. Carl Vering, Platans
Staat, p. 7 " Ein Dialog Platons wirkt niemals ermudend ;
jedesmal greift der Dichter Platon sofort ein, wenn der
Philosoph durch ein schweres Problem dem Leser hart
zugesetzt hat." Cf. also Sikes, Greek View of Poetry, p. 128.

Cf, e.g., Symp. 211-212, Gorgias, in fine, Phaedo 114 c.
Rep., in fine.
Ixix
 INTRODUCTION
The definite thoughts embodied in the myth of Er
the son of Armenius belong to Plato's permanent
stock of opinions and do not differ appreciably from
those of his other myths or the implied conclusions of
his arguments." The saving faith in immortality and
judgement to come cannot rest on scientific demon-
stration only. It needs the confirmations of imagina-
tion, intuition, vision, revelation. The universe is a
wonderful place whose structure is known to us only
imperfectly and in part. Symbols are the fit expres-
sion of our dim apprehensions of its infinite possi-
bilities. Heaven and hell are symbols of the most
vital of all divisions, that which separates the virtuous
from the vicious will. Purgatory may mark the dis-
tinction between remediable and curable wrong and
that which admits of no pardon.* They are perhaps
states of mind rather than places, but imagination
may use what our imperfect science knows or divines
of the world beneath our feet or the universe above
our heads to give them a local habitation and a
name, and our fancy may play in like manner Avith
the ultimate unanswerable questions of philosophy :

Whence comes evil " ? and are our wills free ? If the **

soul is immortal and lives through endless transforma-

tions and transmigrations, it may be that the evil
which baffles us here had its origin in some defect of
will in worlds before the man {Rep. 613 a). Perhaps
a great choice was offered to us and we chose wrong
under the influence of mistaken ideas acquired in
a former misspent life (618-619). Whatever the

" Cf. the notes on 614 ff.

*
Cf. What Plato Said, p. 536, on Phaedo 113 d and 113 e.
'
Cf. What Plato Said, p. 578, on Theaet. 176 a.
<*
Cf. What Plato Said, pp. 644-645, on Laws 904 c.
Ixx
 INTRODUCTION
measure of truth in these fancies two principles of
religion and morals stand fast. God is blameless
17 e), and we must always blame rather ourselves."
iir wills are somehow ours to make them his though ;

we must think of the sins of others as due solely to

i'rnorance.'' It matters not that the Aristotelians
^^ill argue that this is reasoning in a circle." We
know and must believe that virtue is free (617 e).
And the divinations of the soul and all the pro-
all
founder interpretations of experience reiterate the
lesson that the way of life that will present us fearless
at the bar of eternal justice is the way that ^vill yield
the truest happiness here.'' If we hold to that faith,
then both in our earthly pilgrimage and in all the
adventures of the soul hereafter, with us it will be
well.

The Text
As regards the text I to add to what was
have little
said in the first volume, except a few qualifications to
avoid misunderstanding. I have tried to be a little
more careful than I was in the first volume in correct-
ing minor inconsistencies due to the reprinting of the
Teubner text of Hermann. But the opportunities
which these might afford to captious criticism do not
in the least affect the main principle or its applica-
tions. That is simply that the variations between the
" Cf. Laws 727 b, Rp. 619 c, Phaedo 90 d, Cratyl. 411 c,
etc.
"
Cf. Protag. M5d-e, 358 c-d. Laws 734 b, and What Plato
Said, p. 640, on 860 d.

Cf. Aristot. Eth. 1114b 19.
* R^. 621 c. Cf. Gorg. 526 d-e, Phaedo 114 e.
Ixxi
 INTRODUCTION
chief modern editions rarely make any difference for
Plato's thought or even for his style, and that the
decision between different readings in the case of
Plato should usually turn, notonanyscientificprinciple
of text criticism, but on knowledge of Plato and
knowledge of the Greek language. To put it drasti-
cally : for all practical purposes of the student of the
Greek language, literature and philosophy, Her-
mann's text of the Republic is quite as good as the
more scientific text of Burnet or the text that might
be constructed from the critical notes in Wilamowitz'
appendix. Hermann's judgement on questions of
Greek idiom and Platonic usage was quite as good as
theirs. This is not meant as an illiberal disparage-
ment of the great and indispensable special disciplines
of text criticism and palaeography. It is merely a
commonsense vindication of the intellectual right of
those who prefer to do so to approach the study of
Plato from another point of view.

The Translation
As regards the translation, I impenitently reaffirm
the principles that I stated in the preface to the first
volume whatever errors of judgement I may commit
in their application. Much of the Republic can be
made easy reading for any literate reader. But some
of the subtler and more metaphysical passages can be
translated in that way only at the cost of misrepre-
sentation of the meaning. In order to bring out the
real significance of Plato's thought it is sometimes
necessary to translate the same phrase in two ways,
sometimes to vary a phrase which Plato repeats or
Ixxii

I
 INTRODUCTION
rrj>eat a synonym which he prefers to vary. It is
(itten desirable to use two words to suggest the two-
fold associations of one. To take the simplest ex-
ample, it is even more misleading to translate eidos

" Form " than it is to translate it " idea " " idea or
form " (without a capital letter) is less likely to be
misunderstood.
Again, Plato did not write in the smooth, even
style which Dionysius of Halicamassus admired in
Lysias and Matthew Arnold in Addison, and it is not
the business of the translator to clothe him in the
garb of that style.
Pro\"ided the meaning is plain and the emphasis
right, he allows himself unlimited freedom in ana-
coluthons, short cuts, sharp corners, ellipses and
generally in what I have elsewhere called illogical
idiom. Anyone who does not hke that style should
give his days and nights to the study of Isocrates and
Lysias. According to his mood and the context
Plato's style ranges from Attic simplicity to meta-
physical abstraction, from high-flown poetical prose
to plain colloquial diction. And his colloquialism,
though usually kept within the bounds of Attic ur-
banity, is not lacking in Aristophanic touches which,
if rightly rendered, shock the taste of critics who

approach him with a stronger sense of the dignity of

philosophy than they have of Greek idiom. In defer-
ence to friendly criticism I have generally suppressed
or transferred to footnotes my attempts to reproduce
this feature of Plato's style. But I am not con\inced.
As Taine aptly says {Life and Letters, p. 53), " M.
Cousin's elegant Plato is not at all like the easy . ..

but always natural Plato of reality. He would shock

us if we saw him as he is."

Ixxiii
 PLATO
THE REPUBLIC
BOOKS VI

VOL. II
 nOAITEIA
[h nEPI AIKAIOr, nOAITIKOS]

TA TOT AIAAOrOT HPOSfiHA

2nKPATH2, TAATKON, nOAEMAPX05, PASTMAXOS,
AAEIMANT02, KE*AA05

St. T. II. p.
^ ^

484 I- 01 w TXavKcuv,
fiev hrj (fnXoaocjiOL, '^v 8' iyco,
Kal ol Sta fiaKpov tlvos Bie^eXdovTos^ Xoyov
fxrj \

fjLoyLs TTCos ave(l)dvrjaav ol elaiv eKarepoL. "lacos ;

yap, e^Tj, Sia /3pa;^eos' ov paSiov. Ov ^atVerat,

CLTTOV epLOL yovv eri. hoKet av ^eXriovcx)? (f)avrjvai, el >

TTepl rovTov fxovov eSet pr^drjvai, Kal firj ttoXXo. to. ',

XoLTTO. SieXdcLV fxeXXovTi Karoifjeadai ri hi,a(j)pi '

"B ^ios St/cato? aSiKov. Tt ovv, (f>r], to fiera tovto ]

rjfitv; Ti 8' aAAo, ^v 8' iyco, ^ to e^rjs; eTretSi^ !

^iX6uo(j)OL jxev ol rov aet Kara ravra ojaavrcos \

XOVTOS 8vvd{JLvoi iifxiTTreadaL, ol 8e pL-q dXX iv I

1 die^eXOofTos ADM, die^eXdSvres F. '

" The argument is slightly personified. Cf, on 503 a. I

* captious to object that the actual discussion of the
It is I
philosopher occupies only a few pages. '

' This is the main theme of the Republic, of which Plato

never loses sight.

2
 THE REPUBLIC
[on ON JUSTICE : political]

CHARACTERS
SocHATES, Glaucox, Polemahchus, Thrastmachus,
Adeimaxtcs, Cephall'S

BOOK VI
I.
" So now, Glaucon," I said, " our argument after
winding" a long * and wear\' way has at last made clear
to us who are the philosophers or lovers of wisdom
and who are not." " Yes," he said, " a shorter way
erhaps not feasible." " Apparently not," I said.
i, at any rate, think that the matter would have
been made still plainer if we had had nothing but this
to speak of, and if there were not so many things left
which our purpose " of discerning the diiference be-
tween the just and the unjust life requires us to
"
discuss." " What, then," he said, " comes next ?
" WTiat else," said I, " but the next in order ? Since
the philosophers are those who are capable of appre-
hending that which is eternal and unchanging,** while
those who are incapable of this, but lose themselves and

* For /card Toirrd wra&rui ^Xo^^os cf. Phcudo 78 C, Soph.

248 A, Tim. 41 d, 82 b, Epin. 982 b and e.
3
 PLATO
TToXXoLs /cat TTavToicos la)(ovaL TrXavtvfievoL ov ^lAd-
ao(j>ot, TToripovs St) Set TroAeo)? riyefjLovas efrat;
Uios o6v XiyovTes av avro, <f)r], jxerpicos Xeyoifxev;
'OTTorepoL av, -^v S' iyw, Svvarol (f)aivcx}VTai
(f)vXd^aL vofiovs re /cat eTTLnqhevpLara noXecov,
C Tovrovs Kadtaravai (ftvXaKas. 'Opdws, (f)r]. ToSe
oe, i)v o eyco, apa ot^Aov, etre rvcpAov etre ogw
6pa)vra XPV ^i^Aa/ca rrjpelv otiow; Kat Tro;?,
ec^ry, ou St^Aoi^; '^H ow hoKOvai rt TV(f)XcL)v
St,a(f)epiv ol rep ovri rod ovros eKaarov iarepr)p,e-
voi ri]s yvcocrecos, Kat /itrySev ivapyes iv rfj ifjvxfj
e^ovres 7rapaSety/xa, jLtTjSe Sum/xev'oi wavep ypa(f)LS
15 ro dXrjdeararov aTTO^XcTTOvres KOLKelae del
dvacf)povres re /cat decjpivoL ojs olov re a/cpijSe-
D arara, ovrco St) /cat to, ivddSe t'd/xt/Lta /caAcDt' re
Trept /cat SiKaccov /cat aya^cDr rideadal re, edv Sey
rideadai, /cat ra Keip^eva (f)vXdrrovres uco^eiv; Oi)
/xa TOi' Ata, 1^ S' o?, oj} TToAu rt Sta^epet. Toutous'
oi;p /LtaAAov ^uAa/ca? ar-qaop-eda, ^ rovs eyvtoKora?
p,ev eKaarov ro ov, epTreipia he pi-qhev eKeivojv
iXXeiTTOvras p-^jS* ev dXXco p,r)Sevl pepei dperrjs
varepovvras ; "Aronov pevr dv, e(f>r], eir] dXXovs
alpeladai, e'i ye rdXXa pirj eXXeiTTOivro' rovrcp yap
485 avrcp axehov ti rto pieyiarcx) dv Trpoexoiev. Ovkovv
Tovro hi) XeycopLev, rlva rpovov oXoi r eaovrai ol

Cf. p. 89, note h, on 505 c.

* Cf. Luke vi. 39, Matt. xv. 14, John xix. 39-41.
"
(if. Polit. 277 B, 277 d f., etc., Soph. 226 c, Parmen.
132 D.
diro^XiwovTei belongs to the terminology of the ideas.
**

Cf. supra 472 c, Cratyl. 389 a, Gorg. 503 e, Tim. 28 a,

Prot. 354 c, and my What Plato Said, p. 458 on Euthyph. 6 e.

4
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

wander** amid the multiplicities of multifarious things,

are not philosophers, which of the two kinds ought to
be the leaders in a state ? " " What, then," he said,
" would be a fair statement of the matter ? " " Which-
ever," I said, " appear competent to guard the laws
and pursuits of society, these we should establish as
guardians." " Right," he said. " Is this, then," said
I,
" clear, whether the guardian who is to keep watch
"
over anything ought to be blind or keen of sight ?
" Of course it is clear," he said. " Do you think,
then, that there is any appreciable difference between
the bhnd ^ and those who are veritably deprived of the
knowledge of the veritable being of things, those who
have no vi\dd pattern " in their souls and so cannot,
as painters look to their models, fix their eyes'* on
the absolute truth, and always \\ith reference to that
ideal and in the exactest possible contemplation of
it establish in this world also the laws of the beautiful,
the just and the good, when that is needful, or guard
and preserve those that are established?" "No,
by heaven," he said, " there is not much difference."
" Shall we, then, appoint these blind souls as our
guardians, rather than those who have learned to know
the ideal reality of things and who do not fall short
of the others in experience* and are not second to
them in any part of virtue ? " " It would be strange
indeed," he said, " to choose others than the philo-
sophers, pro\ided they were not deficient in those
other respects, for this very knowledge of the ideal
would perhaps be the greatest of superiorities."
" Then what we have to say is how it would be pos-
sible for the same persons to have both qualifications,

Cf. infra 539 e, 531 b, Phileb. 62. Cf. Introd. p. xl;
Apelt, Republic, p. 490.
5
 PLATO
avrol KOLKelva /cat ravra ex^iv; lldvv fxev ovv.
Toivvv apxofievoi rovrov rov Xoyov iXeyofxev, Trjv
cf)vaLv avTwv Trpcorov Setv Karafiadeiv /cat olfiai,
eav iKeivrjv LKavcbg oixoXoyqawfiev , ofioXoyqaeiv /cat
oTt oloi re ravra ^x^lv ol avroi, on re ovk dXXovg
TToXecov rjyefxovas Set etvat rj rovrovs. IlaJS';
II. Tovro jxev brj rojv (l)iXoa6(f)a)v <^vaecov Tre'pt

B (OfioXoyT^adco on, fiad-qfiaros ye aet ipcoaiv,

rjfjuv,
o av avrois StjXol eKeiv7]s rrjs ovalas ttjs del ovarjs
/cat /xTj TrXavcofjievrjs vtto yeveaecog /cat (f)dopds.
\ Q-lxoXoyrjaOio . Kat p-riv, rjv
8' iycv, /cat on ndtjrjs
apuKpov ovre pieil,ovos ovre rt/xto)-
avrrjg, /cat ovre
repov ovre dnpiorepov [xepovg eKovres dcjilevrai.,
oio-rrep iv rot? Trpoadev rrepi re rwv (f)tXonfjicov /cat
ipconKoJv Si-^Xdofjiev. ^Op6a>s, ecfjT], Xeyeis. TdSe
roivvv /xerd rovro a/coTret et dmy/CTj e;^etv Trpos
C rovrcp ev rfj ^vaei,, ot av [xeXXcoaiv eaeadai olovs
eXeyofxev. To ttolov; Tr/v diffevheiav /cat to
eKovras elvat /xi]a/x7y TrpoaSex^odac ro i/(eu8o?,
aAAa fiLaelv, rrjv 8' aAi^^etav' crrepyeiv. Et/cos y',
e(f)r). Ov fjiovov ye, o) ^t'Ae, et/coy, dXXd /cat Trdaa
dvdyKT] rov epeoriKcos rov (f>vaeL exovra vrdv ro
^vyyeves re /cat olKelov roJv 77at8t/ca)i' ayaTrai'.
Opdojs, e^rj. 'H ovv otKeiorepov ao(f>La dXrj- n
deias dv evpois; Kai ttcos; "^ 8' o?. *H ovv
Svvarov elvat ttjv avrrjv (f)V(nv <f>LX6ao(f)6v re /cat

" Lit. " is not made to wander by generation and decay."

Cf. Crat. 411c, Phaedo 95 e, whence Aristotle took his title.

See Class. Phil. xvii. (1922) pp. 334-352.
* Supra 474 c-d.
" For similar expressions cf. 519 b, Laws 656 is, 965 c,
Symp. 200 a.
^ This and many other passages prove Plato's high regard
6
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

is it not r " " Quite so." " Then, as we were saying

at the beginning of this discussion, the first thing to
understand the nature that they must have from
is

birth ; think that if we sufficiently agree on this

and I
we shall also agree that the combination of qualities
that we seek belongs to the same persons, and that
we need no others for guardians of states than these."
" "
How so ?

II. " We
must accept as agreed this trait of the
philosophical nature, that it is ever enamoured of the
kind of knowledge which reveals to them something of
that essence which is eternal, and is not wandering
"
between the two poles of generation and decay."
" Let us take that as agreed." " And, further," said I,
^' that their desire is for the whole of it and that they
do not willingly renounce a small or a great, a more
precious or a less honoured, part of it. That was the
point of our former illustration * drawn from lovers and
men covetous of honour." " You are right," he said.
" Consider, then, next whether the men who are to
meet our requirements must not have this further
quality in their natures." " What quality ? " "The
spirit of truthfulness, reluctance to admit falsehood
in any form, the hatred of it and the love of truth."
" It is likely," he said. " It is not only likely, my
friend, but there is every necessity that he who is by
"^

nature enamoured of anything should cherish all that

is akin and pertaining to the object of his love."
" Right," he said. " Could you find anything more
akin to wisdom than truth"*?" "Impossible," he
said. " Then can the same nature be a lover of
for the truth. Cf. Laves 730 c, 861 d, Crat. 428 d, m^ra
882 A. In 389 b he only permits falsehood to the rulers as
a drastic remedy to be used with care for edification. Cf.
Vol. I. on 382 c and u.
 PLATO
D <f)tXoi/jv8rj ; OySa/xcD? ye. Tov apa to) ovti
^iXo/xadij Trdarjs aXrjdeia? Sei v6vs k viov 6 ri
jLiaAtara opiyeadai. Ilai'TeAcDs' ye. 'AAAa iirjv
oro) ye elg cv tl at eTndvfxiai acf^oSpa peTTovcnv,
LOfiev TTOV OTL CIS" TttAAa rovrcp aaOeviarepai,
wanep pevpia eKeZoe Tt p'qv;
d7Tco)(eTevp,evov.
Q.L St] rrpos TO, pLadrjpara to tolovtov /cat irdv
ippvrjKaai, irepl ttjv ttjs ifjvxrjs, ot/xat, rj8ovr]v av-
rrjs Kad avrrjv elev dv, ra? Se 8ia tov acop,aTOS
eKXeiTTOiev , el purj TreTrXaapLevcos dAA' dXrjdaJs (f)cX6-
E ao(j)6s Tis e'lrj. VieydXri dvdyKr).
Ha)(/)pa>v pirjv 6
ye ToiovTo? /cat ovSapfj (^[Link]' ojv yap
eveKa xP'^po-T^ /xera TToXXrjs SaTrdvrjs cnrovBd^eTai,
dXXo) TLvl pidXXov ^ TOVTCp 7TpoarjKL anovBdl^eiv.
OvTCxJS- Kat /xiyv TTOV /cat roSe Set aKOTreZv, OTav
486 Kpcveiv pLeXXrjs d>vaiv ^iX6(JO(f)6v re /cat p^rj. To
TTolov; Mry ae Xddr) p,eTexovcra dveXevdepias'
evavTLojTaTov ydp vov apiKpoXoyla ijjvxfj pieXXovarj
TOV oXov /cat TTavTos del eiTope^eadat deiov re /cat
dvdpcoTTLVOV. AX7]6aTaTa, e(f)7). 'Ht ovv virdp-
Xet Siavola pLeyaXoTTpeneia /cat deoipia TravTos pLeu
Xpovov, Trda'qg 8e ovaias, olov re otet tovtco p,eya

" For this figure cf. Laws 844 a and 736 b, Eurip. Suppl.

1111 irapeKTpeiroi/res oxerdv, Empedocles, Diels^ 195 Xcyyov

\6yov i^oxeTevoiv urretius ii. 365 " derivare queunt ani-
i

mum " ; and for the idea cf. also Laws 643 c-d.
*
Cf. my Unify of Plato's Thovghf, pp. 45-46, esp. n. 330,
followed by Apelt, Republic, pp. '490-491. Cf. also Fried-
lander, Platon, ii. pp. 579-580, 584.
" For TreirXaa/xivws
cf. Soph. 216 c /[Link] TrXaurtDs 6vTUi dW
^ Cf, Theaet. 144 d xpVf^<^''''^^ iXevOepidrTp-a.

i
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

Nvisdom and of falsehood ? " " By no means."

" Then the true lover of knowledge must, from child-
hood up, be most of all a striver after truth in every
form." " By all means." " But, again, we surely
are aware that when in a man the desires incline
strongly to any one thing, they are weakened for
other things. It is as if the stream had been diverted
into another channel." " " Surely." " So, when a
man's desires have been taught to flow in the channel
of learning and all that sort of thing, they will be con-
cerned, I presume, with the pleasures of the soul in
itself, and will be indifferent to those of which the body
is the instrument,* if the man is a true and not a sham "
philosopher." "That is quite necessary." "Suchaman
yn\\ be temperate and by no means greedy for wealth
for the things for the sake of which money and great
expenditure are eagerly sought others may take
seriously, but not he." " It is so." " And there is
this further point to be considered in distinguishing
the philosophical from the unphilosophical nature."
" What point ? " " You must not overlook any
touch of illiberality.'' For nothing can be more con-
trary than such pettiness to the quality of a soul that
is ever to seek integrity and wholeness* in all things
human and di\ine." " Most true," he said. "Dovou
think that a mind habituated to thoughts of grandeur
wid the contemplation of all time and all existence '
Cf. Goethe's " Im Ganzen, Guten, Schonen resolut zu

leben."
' C/. Theaet. 174 e, of the philosopher, e Siiraffav eltiidwi
tV and 173 e, infra 500 b-c. Cf. Marc. Aurel,
fTj" iSX^iren',
IL 35, Livy xxiv. 34 " Archimedes is erat linicus spectator
eaeli siderumque," Mayor, Cic. De nat. deor. ii. p. 128.
For iris x/xi""? cf. infra 498 d, 608 c, Phaedo 107 c, Gorg.
BQ5 c, Apol. 40 E, Tim. 36 e, 47 b, 90 d. Cf. Isoc. i. 11,
Pindar, Pyth, 1. 46.

9
 PLATO
Tt, BoKclv elvai, tov dvOpcomvov ^iov; ^ASvvarov,
B 7^ 8 OS". OvKOVv Kal ddvarov ov hecvov rt, rjyqcTerai,
o TOLovTog; "H/ctara ye. Aet,Xi] Srj /cat dveXev-
oepct) cpvaei (j>iXoao<jiias dX7]dLvrjg, coj eoiKev, OVK
av ixGreirj. Ov Tt ovv;
6 Koa/xios Kal
/xot So/cet.
fXT] ^LXoxprnxaros p,r]S^ dveXevdepos /(xt^S' dXa^cbv

fiTjoe SeiXos ead^ otttj dv Svaavpi^oXos t] dSiKos

yevoLTO ; Ovk cgtiv. Kat rovro Srj il/v)^r]v cxkottcov
(f>iX6ao(f)OV /cat fj,r] evdvs veov ovros eTnaKeipei, el
apa hiKaia re /cat rjfjie^ps ^ SvaKotvcovqros Kal
dypia. Tiai'u jxev ovv. Ov jjltjv ovSe roSe irapa-
C Xeiifjeis, (xts eyipjxai. To -notov; KvpiaOrjs t] Sva-
piadrjS' T] TTpoahoKag irore Tcvd rt iKavcos dv
arep^ai, o vpaTTCov dv dXydJv re Trpdrroi Kal [xoyis
apLLKpdv dvvTcov; Ovk dv yevotro. Tt 8'; el
fjLrjSev (Lv jjiddot aoit^eiv hvvaLro, XrjOiqs wv rrXecDS,
dp dv otos Kevos elvai; Kat
t' etr] eTnarrjjxris pcrj

TTo)?; 'AvovTjTa St] TTOvcbv OVK, oiei, dvayKaad-q-

arerat, reXevrcbv avrov re fxicretv Kal rrjv roLavTTjv

D npd^iv; rTaj? 8' ov; ^KTnXii^afxova apa ijjvx^v ev

rals LKavdJs cf)iXoa6(f)ois pLT] irore eyKpivcofiev, dXXd
fivrjfioviKTjv avTTjv ^rjTcbixev Selv etvac. nat-TaTT-acri
fiev ovv. 'AAA' ov [Link] ro ye rrjs dpiovaov re Kal
aa-)(rjpiovos ^vaecos dXXoae ttoi dv ^atpLev e'A/cetv t^

^
" Cf. Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1123 b 32, the great-souled man,
<j5 y' oi'Sfv fxiya, Diog. [Link]. vil. 1'2H irdvTiav vTiepduu, Cic.
De fin. iii. 8 "infra se omnia humana ducens." Cf. infra
on 500 B-c.
For similar pessimistic utterances about human life and
mankind cf. 60i b-c, 496 d-e, 500 b-c, 516 d, Laws 803 b.
Cf. also Laws 708 e-709 b.
*
Cf. Vol. I. pp. 200 f. on 386 b-c; Laws 727 n, 828 d,
881 A, Oorg. 522 e, Phaedo 77 e, Crito 43 b, Apol. 35 a,
10
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI
"
n deem this life of man a thing of great concern" ?
Impossible," said he. " Hence such a mian will not
appose death to be terrible ? * " " Least of all."
Then a cowardly and illiberal spirit, it seems, could
have no part in genuine philosophy." " I think not."
\\'hat then ? Could a man of orderly spirit, not a
lover of money, not illiberal, nor a braggart nor a
coward, ever prove imjust, or a driver of hard bar-
lins ?
" " Impossible." " This too, then, is a
"^

int that in your discrimination of the philosophic

and unphilosophic soul you will observe whether
the man is from youth up just and gentle or unsocial
and savage.** " " Assuredly." " Nor will you over-
look this, I fancy." " What ? " " Whether he is
lick or slow to learn. Or do you suppose that anyone
uld properly love a task which he performed pain-
I'uUy and with little result ' from much toil ? " " That
could not be." " And if he could not keep what he
learned, being steeped in oblivion,' could he fail to
be void of knowledge ? " " How could he " " And .'

Si >, having all his labour for naught, will he not finally

be constrained to loathe himself and that occupation ? "

Of course." " The forgetful soul, then, we must
not list in the roll of competent lovers of wisdom, but
we require a good memor}'." " By all means."
But assuredly we should not say that the want of
harmony and seemhness in a nature conduces to
anything else than the want of measure and propor-

40 c. Cf. Spinoza's " There is nothing of which the free

man thinks so httle as death."
'
Cf. swpra, \'ol. I. on 442 e. * Cf. 375 b.
'
Cf. Laches 189 a-b a.r]BQ,i fxavOa-vuv.
' Cf. Tlieaet. 144 b.
' Cf. Theaet. 144 b \r,dr)i -^ifxoinet. Cf. Cleopatra's " Oh,
my oblivion is a very Antony " {Ant. and Cleo. i. iii. 90).
11
 PLATO
Ls a^ierpiav. Tt htjv; ^AXrjOcLav 8e afierpia
rjyeZ ^vyyevrj elvai imxerpLa; ^Efxixerpta. "E/x-
rj

fierpov dpa Kal ev^apiv ^TjrcD/xer 7rp6? rot? dXXots

oiavoiav (f)vaL, rjv inl ttjv tov ovtos ISeav eKO.-
E arov TO avTO(f)ves evdyojyov Trape^ec. Ilcog 8' ov;
Tt ovv; fji-q TTT) SoKovfjiev aoi ovk dvayKola
e/cacTTa BieXrjXvdevaL Kal iTTO/xeva dXXyjXoLS rfj
jxeXXovar] tov ovtos iKavdJs re /cat TeXeoJS
0^X77
487 ixTaXijil/eadai ; ^ AvayKaiOTaTa jxev odv, (f)7].
ECTTIV ovv OTTTj fiefllljt TOLOVTOV eTTlTT^SeU^Lia, O fXT]

TTOT av Tij oios re yevoiTo iKavcbs eTnTiqhevaai,

ei piiq <f>vaei etrj fiv^fxcov, evpLadrjS, jjLeyaXoTrpeTnrjs
evxctpis, cf)t,Xos T Kal ^vyyevrjs dXrjdeias, St/cato-
Gvvqs, dvSpelas, aco(/)poavvr]s ; Oj)S' dv 6 Mcopbos,
(1)7], TO ye TOLOVTOV ixefii/jaiTo. 'AAA', ^v 8' iyd),
TeXeicoOelai toIs tolovtols 7rai8eta re Kal rjXLKta
dpa ov fxovoLs dv Trjv ttoXlv irrLTpeTTOis
III. Kat o ASei/xavTos, ^O Sco/c/aares', (f)r],
B TTpos fiev TavTa aoi ouSei? dv olos t' etr] dvTenreZv
dXXd yap Toiovhe tl TTda)(ovat,v ol dKovovTes

" idiav is not exactly " idea." Cf. Cratyl. 389 b. What
Plato Said, p. 458 on Euthyph. 6 d, ibid. p. 560 on Rep.
369 A and p. 585 on Par men. 130 c-d. Cf. Class. Phil. xx.
(1925) p. 347.
* Lit. " following one upon the other." Cf. Tim. 27 c
fTTO/u^i'cos, Laws 844 e.
" frequently ironical in Plato, but not here.
tiya\oirpeirr]s is
For the of qualities of the ideal student cf. also 503 c,
list
Theaet. 144 a-b, and Friedlander, Platon, ii. p. 418. Cf. Laws
709 E on the qualifications of the young tyrant, and Cic.
Tusc. V. 24, with Renaissance literature on education.
**
The god of censure, who finds fault with the gods in
Lucian's dialogues. Cf. Overbeck, Schriftquellen, p. 208,
12
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

tion." " Certainly." " And do you think that truth

is akin to measure and proportion or to dispropor-
tion ? " " To proportion." " Then in addition to
our other requirements we look for a mind endowed
with measure and grace, whose native disposition will
make it easily guided to the aspect of the ideal'' reahty
in all things." " Assuredly." " Tell me, then, is
there any flaw in the argument ? Have we not
proved the qualities enumerated to be necessary and
compatible with one another for the soul that is to
**

have a sufficient and perfect apprehension of reahty?"

" Nay, most necessary," he said. " Is there any
fault, then, that you can find ^vith a pursuit which a
man could not properly practise unless he were by
nature of good memor\^ quick apprehension, magni-
ficent,'' gracious, friendly and akin to truth, justice,
bravery and sobriety ? " " Momus himself," he said,
<*

" could not find fault with such a combination."

' Well,
then," said I, '" when men of this sort are
perfected by education and maturity of age, would
you not entrust the state solely to them ? "
III. And Adeimantus said, " No one, Socrates,
would be able to controvert these statements of yours.
But, all the same, those who occasionally hear you *
n. 1091, Otto, p. 227, s.v. Momus. C/. Callimachus, fr. 70;
and Anth. Pal. xvi. 262. 3-4.
avTos 6 3Iu)/ios
(pdfy^erai, 'Aicpr/ros, Zev xrdrep, i) a-o<plv,
" Momus himself will cry out Father Zeus, this was perfect
'

skill.' "
(L.C.L. translation.) Stallbaum refers to Erasmus,
Chiliad, i. 5. 75 and interpreters on Aristaenet. Epist. i. 1,
p. 239, ed. BoLssonade.
Cf. Unity
of Plato's Thought, p. 35, n. 236, and What
Plato Said, p. 468 on Crito 46 b. A speaker in Plato may
thus refer to any fundamental Platonic doctrine. Wilamo-
witz' suggested emendation (Platon, iL p. 205) 4 &i> hiyrjs is
due to a misunderstanding of this.
13
 PLATO
eKaaTOTG a vvv Aeyeis" rj-yovvTai hi aireLpiav rod
ipcordv /cat OLTTOKpiveadai vvo rod
Xoyov Trap'
eKaarov ro ipcorrjfia apuKpov Trapayofxevoi, ddpoi-
adevTCOV rihv ajXLKpoJv eirl TeXevrrjs tcDv Xoycov
fieya ro acfxiXfia /cat evavriov rots Trpcorois ava^ai-
veadai, koL worrep vtto ra>v Trerreveiv heivcov ol
liT] reXevrwvres aTro/cActovrat /cat ovk cxovglv 6
C Tt (f>pajaLV, ovro) /cat a^els reXevroyvres aTro/cAet-
eadat, /cat ovk ^x^tv 6 ri XeywoLV vtto Trerreias av
ravrrjs rivos irepas, ovk iv ifjT^(f)0Lg dXX' iv Xoyoig-
eTTCt ro ye dXr]6S ovSev Tt [jidXXov ravrj) e)(et,v.
Xeyco 8' et? to Trapov dTTo^XciJjas . vvv yap ^atTy
dv Tt? crot Xoyo) p,ev ovk ^x^i-v Kad eKaarov ro
ipa>r(jL)[Xvov evavriovoQai, epycp 8e opdv, oaoi dv

' Alocus classiciis for Plato's anticipation of objections.

Cf. 475 B, Theaet. 166 a-h, Rfip. (;09 c, 438-439, and Apelt,
liepuhlic, p. 492. Plato does it more tactfully than Isocrates,
e.g. Demon. 44.
* Cf. Apelt, Aufsatze, p. 73, Minto, Logic, Induction and

Deduction, pp. 4 ff. ; also Gorg. 461 d, 462 a. Soph. 230 b.

Cf. Phaedrus 262 it.

<*
Cf. supra 451 a, and Theaet. 166 a, 168 a, infra 534 c
aiTTQlTl.

Cf. Phaedr. 262 Cleitophon 410 a, Gorg. 495 a, schol.,
b,
TOi''j irpiliTovs X670US Tovs eavTov dri\oi'6Ti, Gorg. 457 E ols t6

irpCiTov ?Xe76s, and also Agathon in Symp. 201 b.

' For this figure cf. Laws 739 a, 820 c-n, 903 d, Eryxias
395 A-B, Hipparchus 229 e, Eurip. Suppl. 409.
Aristotle, iSopA. i?/. 165 a 10 ff., borrows the metaphor, but
his i/'7}</>oi are those of book-keeping or reckoning. Cf. also
Dem. De cor. 227 f.
Cf. Hipp. b-c and Grote ii. p. 64 " Though
Minor 369
Hippias admits each successive step he still mistrusts the
conclusion " also Apelt, p. 492, supra 357 a-b and Laws
;

903 A ^td^ecrdai rols \6yois, and also Hipparchus 232 b for

14
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

argue thus feel in this way " They think that owing
:

to their inexperience in the game of question and

answer * they are at every question led astray a little '^

bit by the argument, and when these bits are accumu-

lated at the conclusion of the discussion mighty is their
fall"* and the apparent contradiction of what they at

first said* and that just as by expert draught-players^

;

the unskilled are finally shut in and cannot make a

move, so they are finally blocked and have their
mouths stopped by this other game of draughts
played not with counters but \yiih words yet the ;

truth is not affected by that outcome.'' I say this

with reference to the present case, for in this instance
on^ might say that he is unable in words to contend
against you at each question, but that when it comes
to facts * he sees that of those who turn to philosophy,*

the idea that dialectic constrains rather than persuades. In

the Ion, 533 c, Ion says he cannot dvTcXeyeiv, but the fact
remains that he knows Homer but not other poets. Cf. also
536 D. The passage virtually anticipates Bacon's Novum
Organum, App. XIII. " (syllogismus) . .assensum itaque
.

constringit, non res." Cf. Cic. De fin. iv. 3, Tuac. i. 8. 16,

and the proverbial ov yap iretVets, oiib' f^v Treiff-gs, Aristoph.
Plutus 600,
* See Soph. 234 z for a different application of the same
idea. There is no change of opinion. The commonplace
Greek contrast of word and deed, theory and fact, is valid
against eristic but not against dialectic. See What Plato
Said, p. 534 on Phaedo 99 e, and supra on 473 a ; also What
Plato Said, p. 625 on Laws 636 a.
A favourite formula of Aristotle runs, "This is true in
theory and is confirmed by facts." Cf. Eth. Nic. 1099 b 25,
1123 b 22, 1131 a 13, Pol. 1323 a 39-b 6, 1326 a 25 and 29,
1334 a 5-6.
* Scholars in politics cut a sorry figure. For this popular
view of philosophers cf. Theaet. 173 c ff., 174 c-d, Gorg. 484-
486 c, Phaedo 64 b. Cf. also Isoc. passim, e.g. Ant id. 250,
312.
13
 PLATO
7tI(l)i\oao^lav opfji-^aavres /ii7 rov TTeTTaiSevcrOai
D VKa ailidfjievoi vioi ovres diraXXdrTcovrai , dAAa
jxaKporepov ivSiaTpiifjcoaL, rovs fxev TrAeiarou? /cat
TTavv aXXoKOTovs yiyvofxevovs, tva p-rj TrapTTOvq-
povs tovs S' iTneLKcardrovs hoKovvTas
eLTTOjpiev,
op,a)s TOVTo ye vtto rod iTnTTjBevp^aros ov av
eTTaivels Trdcrxovras, dxpT^crrovs rat? voXeai yiyvo-
p.4vovs. KOL eycb aKovaas, Otet ovv, cittov, tovs
Tavra Xeyovras ijjevheadai; Ovk olha, rj 8' 6s,
E dAAa TO crol Sokovv rjSecos dv aKovoipn. 'Akouoi?
dvy ort, [Link] ^aivovrai TdXrjOrj Xeyeiv. na;? ovu,
<l>rj, ev ex^i- Xiyetv, on ov nporepov KaKcbv Trau-

aovrai at TToXeis, rrplv dv iv avrals ol (jiiXoao^ot

dp^ojaiVy ovs dxprjOTovs [Link],v avrats elvai;
EpcoTtt?, '^v S' iyo), ipwTTTjpa Seof-ievov diroKpi-
aeoj? St' eLKOvos Xeyop,vr)s . 2u 8e ye, (f)rj, ot/xat,
OVK eXcodas St' eiKovcov Xeyeiv.
IV. Etev, ecTTOv aKcorrreLs ip^^e^XrjKws pe els
Xoyov ovro) SvaaTToBeLKTOv ; aKove S' ovv ttjs
488 eiKovos, Iv krc pidXXov tSrjg, cbs yXiaxp(os elKdt,o).
ovTU) yap x^^Xenov to Trddos rcov inieiKeaTdrcov, o
irpos rd? TrdAetj TTCTrovdaaiv , oiore ovV eariv iv
ovSev dXXo roLovrov Treirovdos , dXXd Set enr ttoX-
Xd)v avTO ^vvayayelv et/cd^ov'Ta /cat dTToXoyov-

" The perfect tense is ironical in Crat. 384 b, serious in

Laws 670 a-b. In Gorg. 485 a it is replaced by Sffov Traiddas

Cf. What Plato

Said, p. 506 on Gorg. 484 c.
'
Cf. e, Protag. 346 a, and for the idea
Euthydem. 306
without the word. Soph. 216 c.
<*
Cf. Eurip. Medea 299, and on 489 b.

Cf. supra 487 a. In Euthydem. 307 b Plato uses both
iviT'qdevfxa and irpdyna.
16
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

! "t merely touching upon it to complete their educa-

tion " and dropping it while still young, but lingering

> long** in the study of it, the majority become

iiks,"^ not to say rascals, and those accounted the

tiiiest spirits among them are still rendered useless'' to

society by the pursuit * which you commend." And I,
on hearing this, said, " Do you think that they are
mistaken in saying so ? " "I don't know," said
he, " but I would gladly hear your opinion." " You
may hear, then, that I think that what they say is
true." " How, then," he replied, " can it be right
to say that our cities will never be freed from their
evils until the philosophers, whom we admit to be
useless to them, become their rulers ? " " Your
question," I said. " requires an answer expressed in
a comparison or parable.-^ " " And you," he said, "of
course, are not accustomed to speak in comparisons " !

I\ .
" So," said I, " you are making fun of me after
driving me into such an impasse of argument. But,
all the same, hear my comparison so that you may
still better see how I strain after ^ imagery. For so
cruel is the condition of the better sort in relation to
the state that there is no single thing'' hke it in nature.
Ihit to find a likeness for it and a defence for them
one must bring together many things in such a com-

^ Cf. Gorff. 517 D, Laws 644 c, Symp. 215 a with

Bury's
note. Cf. the parable of the great beast in/ra 493, and of
the many-headed beast, 588-589.
" The word yXicrxfx^s is untranslatable, and often mis-
understood. In 553 c it means " stingily " ; in Cratyl. 414 c
it is used of a strained etymology, and so in 435 c, usually

Illi^understood ; in Crito 53 e of clinging to life ; cf. Phaedo

117 a; in Plutarch, De Is. et Osir. 2% of a strained allegory
and ibid. 75 of a strained resemblance; in Aristoph. Peace
48:2 of a dog. Cf. Laws 747 b,

VOL. II C 17
 PLATO
ljivov VTTp avTCov, olov OL ypa^et? rpayeXd^ov?
Kai ra roiavTa jJnyvvvTes ypd(f)ov(n. vorjaov yap
TOiovTovl yevofxevov etre ttoXXojv vecov Tripi etre
puds' vavKXrjpov p,eye9c piv /cat po^p-J} VTrep rovs
B iv rfj vr]t Trdvras, vtt6kix}(J>ov 8e /cat opcovra cba-
avTios Ppaxv rt Kat yiyvcuaKovra Trepl vavrtKiLv
erepa roiavra, tovs 8e raura? CTTaata^ovTa? irpos
aXX-qXov Trepl rrjs Kv^epvT^aecos, eKaarov ol6p,evov
hlv KV^epvdv, [Link] piadovra TTOJTTOTe ttjv re'^v^jv
P^tJtc exovra dnoSeL^at, SiSdaKaXov iavrov pur^Se
Xpovov iv <L ep-dvdave, irpos 8e tovtois (f)daKOVTas
/LtrjSe SiSaKTOV etvai, dXXd /cat rov Xeyovra (os
C StSa/CTOv eroipiovs Kararipveiv, avTOVS Se avrco
dei TO) vavKXrjpo) TrepiKexvcrdai 8eopievovs /cat

" Cf. Horace, Ars Poetica, init. ; Wliat Plato Said, p. 550
on Phaedr. 229 d-e, and infra 588 c f. The expression is
still used, or revived, in Modern Greek newspapers.
^ The syntax of this famous allegory is anacoluthic and

perhaps uncertain but there need be no doubt about the

:

meaning, Cf. my article in the Classical Review, xx. (1906)

p. 247.
Huxley commends the allegory, Methods and Results,
p. 313. Cf. also Carlyle's famous metaphor of the ship
doubling Cape Horn by ballot. Cf. Class. Phil. ix. (1914)
p. 362.
' The Athenian demos, as portrayed
[Link]. in Aristophanes'
Knights 40 ff. and passim. Cf. Aristot. Rhet. 1406 b 35 Kal
ri eis Tov Syuov, on 6/xoios vavK\ripLiJ icrx^'pi? Mf'' viroKih(pifi d4,
Polyb. vi. 44 del yap wore tov tOiv 'A07]vaiwv Sfj/xov irapair^riaiov
dvai Toh ddeawSTois aKacpeat, etc. Cf. the old sailor in Joseph
Conrad's Chance, ch. i. " No ship navigated ... in the
happv-go-lucky manner . would ever arrive into port."
. .

For the figure of the ship of state cf. Polit. 302 a ff..
299 B, Euthydem. 291 d, Aesch. Seven against Thebes 2-3,
Theognis 670-685, Horace, Odes i. 15 with my
note, Urwick,
18

11
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

bination as painters mix when they portray goat-

stags " and similar creatures. " Conceive this sort of

thing happening either on many ships or on one :

Picture a shipmaster in height and strength surpass-
'^

ing all others on the ship, but who is slightly deaf

and of similarly impaired \'ision, and whose know-
ledge of navigation is on a par A^th * his sight and
hearing. Conceive the sailors to be wrangling \\-ith
one another for control of the helm, each claiming
that it is his riffht to steer though he has never learned
the art and cannot point out his teacher ' or any time
when he studied it. And what is more, they affirm
that it cannot be taught at all,' but they are ready to
make mincemeat of anyone '' who says that it can be
taught, and meanwhile they are always clustered
about * the shipmaster importuning him and sticking
The Message of Plato, pp. 110-111, Ruskin, Time and
Tide, xiii: "That the governing authority should be in the
hands of a true and trained pilot is as clear and as constant.
In none of these conditions is there any difference between
a nation and a boat's company." Cf. Longfellow's The
Building of the Ship, in fine. Cf. Laics 7.58 a, 945 c.
For the criticism of democracy by a figure cf. also Polit.
297 Eff.
" Cf. Aristoph. Knights 42-44.
Cf. 390 c, 426 D, 498 b, Theaetet. 167 b, and Milton's

"unknown and like esteemed," Comus 630.

.
' For and similar checks on pretenders to knowledge
this
ef. Laches 185 e, 186 a and c. Ale. L 109 d and Gorg. 514 b-c.
Plato of course believed that virtue or tiie political art
can be taught in a reformed state, but practically was not
taught at Athens. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 14,
infra on 518 d. What Plato Said, pp. 70 and 511, Newman,
Introd. Aristot. Pol. p. 397, Thompson on Me no 70 a.
A hint of the fate of Socrates.
Cf. infra 517 a, 494 f^
and Euthyphro 3 e.
The participle TrepiK^x^aevov^ occurs in Polit. 268 c, but
'

is avoided here by anacoluthon.

19
 PLATO
TTavra TTOtovvras, ottojs av acfiiai ro TTrjSdXtov
iTTiTpdipr], VLOT S' oiv ixT] Treidioaiv dAAa aXXoi
fxaXXov, Tovg fiev dXXovs 7) drroKTLVVvrag rj eK-
^dXXovrag e/c rrjs veojs, rov 8e yevvaZov vavKXrjpov
fxavSpayopa rj fxedrj rj nvi dXXcv ^VjjLTToSiaavras
rrjs VU)s apx^Lv xP<^P-^^o^S rols ivovat, /cat ttivov-
rds T Kal va>xovijivovs TrXelv (Ls to cIkos tovs
TOIOVTOVS, TTpOS Se TOVTOLS 7TaiVOVVTas VaVTLKOV
D />tev KoXovvTas Kal KV^epvrjrtKov /cat e7nard[ivov

Ta Kara vavv, o? dv ^vXXafx^dveiv Setvos fj, ottcos

dp^ovcriv rj TreiQovTcs ?) ^la^opievoi rov vavKXripov,
rov Se pLT] roLovrov ifjeyovras d)S dxpyjcrrov, rov 8e
dXr]6ivov KV^epvrjrov rrepi pL-qh^ irraLovras,^ on
avayKTj avra> tt]v iTTipueXeiav TTOteiadai, iviavrov
* fTraioi'ras q, fTraio^'Tes AFDM.
For the idiom TrdvTa irouw cf. Etithyph. 8 c, infra 504 d-e,
"
571 c, 575 E, 494 e, Gorg. 479 c, Phaedr. 252 e, Apol. 39 a,
and, slightly varied, Eurip. Heracleidae 841.
* The word eK^dWoura^ helps the obvious allegory, for it

also means banish.

" Here figurative.
Cf. Gorg. 482 e, Theaet. 165 e. Infra
615 E it is used literally.
Cf. Pol it. 297 E.
**
The expression is slightly ironical.
Such is frequently the tone of 7fi'i'a?os in Plato. Cf. Rep.
454 A, 363 A, 544 c, 348 c, Hipp. Min. 370 d. Soph. 231 b,
Hipp. Maj. 290 e, PoUt. 274 e.
* Cf. Polit. 302 A, Laws 906 e, Jebb on Soph. Antig.
1 89-190.
'Cf. 407 D with Thucyd. iv. 26, vi. 69, vii. 25.
Cf. 427 e, Laws 905 c, Eryx. 396 e, Aristoph. Knights 229.
'
* Neither here nor in d-e can ottws with the future mean
"in what way," and all interpretations based on that
assumption are plainly wrong. The expression in both cases
refers to getting control. Cf. 338 e, Laicn 757 d, 714 c,
962 D-E, Xen. Rep. Lac. 14. 5. Cf. Class. Phil. ix. (1914)
pp. 358 and 362.
* For Tov di fir] ToiovTov
cf. Ale. II. 145 c.

20

ii
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

at nothing" to induce him to turnover the hehn to

ihem. And sometimes, if they fail and others get
iiis ear, they put the others to death or cast them out *

from the ship, and then, after binding " and stupefying
the worthy shipmaster with raandragora or intoxica-
"^

tion or otherwise, they take command of the ship,

consume its stores and, drinking and feasting, make
such a voyage * of it as is to be expected^ from such,
and as if that were not enough, they praise and cele-
brate as a navigator, a pilot, a master of shipcraft,
the man who is most cunning to lend a hand ^ in per-
suading or constraining the shipmaster to let them
rule,'' while the man who lacks this craft' they censure
as useless. They have no suspicion^ that the true
pilot must give his attention * to the time of the year,

' The ppl. must refer to the sailors; hence the ace. (see
crit. note).
Whatever the and the amount of probable anacoluthon
text
meaning is that the unruly sailors (the
in this sentence, the
mob) have no true conception of the state of mind of the
real pilot (the philosophic statesman), and that it is he
i;iilopting Sidgwick's ot'o/ue^'y for the ms. oionevoi in e) who
not believe that the trick of getting possession of the
-.

I is an art, or that, if it were, he could afford time to

in
practise it. Those who read oi6,uvoi attribute the idea of the
incompatibility of the two things to the sailors. But that
overlooks the points I have already made about oirws, and
rfxvr) and is in any case improbable, because the sentence as
- whole is concerned with the attitude of the true pilot
itesman), which may be represented by the words of Burke
iiis constituents, " I could hardly serve you as I have done

and court you too."

Cf. Sidgwick, "On
a Passage in Plato's Republic,''*
' irnal of Philology, v. pp. 274-276, and my
notes in A.J.P.
p. 361 and xvi. p. 234.
.

For the force of the article cf. Thucvd. ii. 65 to iirl(pdoi'O0

iv^vfi, and my
article in T.A.P.A. 1893, p. 81, n. 6. Cf.
o Charm. 156 e and Rep. 496 e.

21
 PLATO
/cat (hpoJv Kai ovpavov Kal darpajv Kal Tn'ev/JidTwv
/cat Trdvrojv rcbv tjj t^xvtj TrpoarjKOVTCov, el yae'AAet

TO) ovTi V(xjs apxtKos eaeadai, ottcos 8e Kv^pvT]at

E eav T rives ^ovXoivrai idv re pL-q, [Link] rexvrjv rov-

rov pi-qre pLeXerrjv [Link]}^ Svvarov elvai Xa^eZv
a/ta /cat rrjv KV^epvrjrLKTJv. roLovrojv 87) vepl rds
vavs yiyvopieviov rov cos dXrjdcos Kv^epvrjriKov ov^
7)yel dv ru) ovrL fierecopoaKOTTOv re Kal dBoXeaxrjv
489 /cat dxpr](Tr6v a(f>Lai KaXeladat vtto rcov ev rats
ovro} KareaKeva(jp,vats vaval TrXiori^pcov ; Kai
pidXa, e^Tj 6 'ASei/xavTo?. Ov Sry, riv 8' eytL, olp,at

heladai ae i^eral,op,evriv rrjv eiKova Ihelv, on rals

TToXeai TTpos rovs dXrjdLvovs (f>iXoa6(f)Ovs rrjv 8ia-

decTLv eoLKev, dXXd fiavddveiv o Xeya>. Kat pidXa,

e(f>r). Upcorov pLev roivvv eKeZvov rov 9avp,dl^ovra,

on OL (f)iX6ao(f)OL ov npicovrai, ev rats TToXeai,

SiSaCT/ce re rrjv eiKova /cat Treipco neideiv, on ttoXv

B dv 6avp,aar6repov -^v, el inpicovro. 'AAAd StSa^oj,

^ oioixivip Sidgwick : oiofievoi mss.

" 'Jttws . . . Cf. p. 20, note h.

Kv^pvrj(Ti.
The translation gives
''
the right meaning. Cf. infra
518 D, and the examples collected in emendation of my
Gorgias 503 u in Class. Phil. x. (1 9 1 5) 325-326. The contrast
between subjects which do and those which do not admit of
constitution as an art and science is ever present to Plato's
mind, as appears from the Sophist, Politicus, Gorgias, and
Phaedrus And he would normally express the idea by a
genitive with t^x^V' Cf. Protag. 357 a, Phaedrus 260 e,
22

11
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

the seasons, the sky, the winds, the stars, and all
that pertains to his art if he is to be a true ruler of a
ship, and that he does not believe that there is any
art or science of seizing the helm " with or without the
consent of others, or any possibihty of mastering this
alleged art and the practice of it at the same time
''

with the science of navigation. With such goings-on

aboard ship do you not think that the real pilot
would in very deed be called a star-gazer, an idle
"^

babbler, a useless fellow, by the sailors in ships

managed after this fashion ? " " Quite so," said
Adeimantus. " You take my meaning, I presume,
and do not require us to put the comparison to the
proof'* and show that the condition* we have described
is the exact counterpart of the relation of the state

to the true philosophers." " It is indeed," he said.

" To begin with, then, teach this parable f to the man
\\ ho is surprised that philosophers are not honoured

in our cities, and try to convince him that it would

be far more surprising if they were honoured." " I

aho Class. Rev. xx. (1906) p. 247. See too Cic. De or. i. 4
" neque aliquod praeceptum artis esse arbitrarentur," and
i'ffra 518 D.
6vTi. verifies the allusion to the charge that Socrates
T($
a babbler and a star-gazer or weather-prophet. Cf.
-

.>oph. 225 D, Polit. 299 b, and What Plato Said, p. 527 on

Phcedo 70 c; Blaydes on Aristoph. Clouds 1480.
^ Plato like some modern writers
is conscious of his own
imagery and frequently interprets hLs own symbols. Cf.
517 A-B, 531 B, 588 b, Garg. 493 d, 517 d. Phaedo 87 b.
Laws Q4A> c, Meno 72 a-b, Tim. 19 b, Polit. 297 e. Cf.
also the cases where he says he cannot tell what it is but
onlv what it is like, e.g. Rep. 506 e, Phaedr. 246 a, Symp.
^215 a 5.
' oidd(Tii and f^ts are not discriminated by Plato as by
Aristotle.
' Cf. 476 D-E.
23
 PLATO
6(^17. Kat oTi Toivvv TaXrjdfj Xeyei, <I)S d)(pr]crTOi
rots' TT-oAAot? OL 7TLiKaTaTOL TcSv iv ^iXoao(f)ia'
TTJs fxivroi axpriarias tovs jxr) ;^;/3co/xeVous' KeXeve
aLTidaOaL, aAAa /xt] toi)? eTneiKels. ov yap ^x^t-
<f>vaLv KV^pvr)Tr]v vavratv SeXadai apx^adat v^*
avTov, ovSe rovg aocjiovs cttI ras tcov TrXovaiojv
dvpas tevai, dAA' o rovro KOfjufjevadfievos ii/jevaaro
TO Se aXrjOeg 7Te(f)VKV, idv re ttXovglos edv re
TTV7]s Kdfivrj, dvayKOLOv etvai ctti larpcbv dvpas
C levai /cat Trdvra rov dpx^odai Seofievov inl rds tou
apx^LV 8vvap,vov, ov rov dpxovra Seladai rdyv dpxo-
fievcovdpx^adai, ov dv rfj dXrjdeia o^eAo? fj. n
aXXd TOVS vvv TToXiTiKovs dpxovras dneiKd^ajv ols
dpri iXiyofxev vavrais ovx dixapTrjoei, /cat tovs vtto
rovTcov dxp'TTicTTOvs Xeyo/xdvovs /cat fieTcajpoXeaxcis

" This passage illustrates one of the most interesting

cliaracteristics of Plato's style, namely the representation of
thought as adventure or action. This procedure is, or was,
familiar to modern readers in Matthew Arnold's account in
God and the Bible of his quest for the meaning of God, which
in turn is imitated in Mr. Updegraff's New
Word. It lends
vivacity and interest to Pascal's Provinciales and many
other examples of it can be found in modern literature. The
classical instance of it in Plato is Socrates' narrative in the
Phaedo of his search for a satisfactory explanation of natural
phenomena, 96 a ff. In the Sophist the argument is repre-
sented as an effort to track and capture the sophist. And
the figure of the himt is common in the dialogues {cf. svpra
Vol. I. p. 365). Cf. also Pep. 455 a-b, 474 b, 588 c-d,
612 c, Euthijd. 291 a-b, 293 a, Phileh. 24 a fT., 43 a, 44 n,
45 A, Lnws 892 d-e, Theaet. 169 d, 180 e, 196 d, Polit.
265 B, etc.
^
Cf. 487 D. Cf. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy, p. 3
24

il
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

will teach him," he said. " And say to him further:

You are right in affirming that the finest spirits
among the philosophers are of no service to the multi-
t But bid him blame for this uselessness,*" not the
ude.
finer spirits, but those who do not know how to make
u'^e of them. For it is not the natural " course of
things that the pilot should beg the sailors to be
ruled by him or that wise men should go to the
ors of the rich.** The author of that epigram * was a
r. But the true nature of things is that whether
e sick man be rich or poor he must needs go to the
i

lor of the physician, and everyone who needs to be i

iverned' to the door of the man who knows how to I

not that the ruler should implore his natural

'vern,
bjects to let themselves be ruled, if he is really good
1 ir anything."
1 But you will make no mistake in liken-
ing our present pohtical rulers to the sort of sailors we
^^ ere just describing, and those whom these call useless

" am
not sure that I do not think this the fault of our com-
I
iiuinitj-rather than of the men of culture."

For the idiom (pua-iv ^x" c/. 473 a, Herod, ii. 45, Dem.
26. .Similarly ?x' Xovo;-, Rep. 378 e, 491 d, 564 a, 610 a,
aedo 62 b and d, Gorg. 501 a, etc.
This saying was attributed to Simonides. Cf. schol.
^

Hfrmann, Plato, vol. vi. p. 346, Joel, Der echte und der
nophontische Sokrates, ii.^ p. 81, Aristot. Ehet. 1391 a 8.
'. Phaedr. 245 a iirl iroiyjTLKai dvpas, Thompson on Phaedr.
3 E, supra 364 b iirl TrXovcriwv dvpas. Laws 953 d eTri toi
: w\ovaiuiv Kai crocpQv dupas, and for the idea cf. also infra
^ a and Theaet. 170 a, Tiinon of Athens iv. iii. 17 "The
rned pate ducks to the golden fool."
' For Plato's attitude toward the epigrams of the Pre-
Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 68-69.
'cratics cf.
and infra 590 c-d.
Cf. Theaet. 170 b
^ For the idiom with 6(j>e\o^
cf. 530 c, 567 e, Euthyphro
K, Apol. 36 c, Crito 46 a, Euthydem. 289 a. Soph. O.C.
39, where it is varied.

25
 PLATO
TOLS COS dXrjdaJs KV^epv-qraig. 'Opdorara, (f)r].

Ek re Tolvvv tovtcov koL iv tovtols ov pahiov

v8oKtfiiv TO ^iXriaTov eTnrrjhevpa vtto tcov
D Tavavria cti ir-qSevoJ^TCov , noXv Se jxeyiaTTq Kal
i(j-)(yporarri Sia^oXrj yiyveraL (fiiXocto^ia 8ta rovs
TO. Totavra cfxiaKovras eTTirr^Seyetv, ovs Brj ov (f>f]s
Tov eyKaXovvra rfj (f)iXoao(j)La Xeyetv d)s TrapTTOviqpot,
oi TrXeiaroL raJv I6vra>v ctt' avrr^v, ol he ctti-

eiKeoTaroi a\/3TycrT0t, /cat iyoj auvexcoprjaa dXr]9r]

ere Xiyeiv. rj yo.p; Nat.
V. OvKOVV TTJS fXeV TU)V 7nLKCOV dxprjCTTLaS TTjU
aiTtaf hieXriXvdapev ; Kai pdXa. Tijg Se rcov
TToXXoJv dvdyKTjv ^ovXet,
TTovrjpias rrjv to /xera
TOUTO BieXdcopev, Kal otl ovSe tovtov (f)iXoao(f>ia
E atVta, ai' Svvcop^eOa, Treipadcopev Seifat; Ilavu
fiev ovv. ^AKovcopcv Brj Kal Xeycopev cKeidev
avay-
dva/xmrjcrdevTes , odev Sifjp,v ttjv cf)vatv, olov
490 Krj TOV KaXov re KdyaOov iaopevov. Tyyetro
(f)vvai
S* ayro), el vw exits', Trpwrov pev dX-qdeia, 7]v
StcoKeiv avTov TrdvTOJS Kal TravTrj eSet ^ dXai^ovi
ovTi pr)8apfj peTetvat, (f)i,Xoao(f)ias dX7][Link]' Hv
yap ovT(o Xeyopevov. pev tovto Ovkovv ev
(T(f)6Spa ovTco vapd 86^av tois vvv boKOvpevocg
trepl avTOv; Kat pdXa, e(f>y]. 'Ap' ovv 87] ov
peTplcos dTToXoyrjaopeda, otl Trpos to ov TrecpvKOJS

" Cf. Theaet. 173 c, why speak of unworthy philosophers?

and infra 495 c ff.
Possibly " wooers." Cf. 347 c, 521 b. Plato frequently
*

employs the language of physical love in speaking of

philosophy. Cf infra 495-496, 490 li, Theaet. 148 e ff.,
Phaedo 66 e, 3feno 70 b, Phaedr. 266 11, etc.

Cf. Theaet. 169 t>.

26
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

and star-gazing ideologists to the true pilots."

'
Just so," he said. " Hence, and under these con-
ditions, we cannot expect that the noblest pursuit
should be highly esteemed by those whose way of
lite is quite the contrary. But far the greatest and
chief disparagement of philosophy is brought upon
it by the pretenders " to that way of life, those whom

vou had in mind when you affirmed that the accuser

of philosophy says that the majority of her followers *
are rascals and the better sort useless, while I ad-
"
mitted that what you said was true. Is not that so ?
"^

" Yes."
V. " Have we not, then, explained the cause of
the uselessness of the better sort ? " " have." We
" Shall we next set forth the inevitableness of the
degeneracy of the majority, and try to show if we
can that philosophy is not to be blamed for this
either ? " " By all means." " Let us begin, then,
what we have to say and hear by recalling the start-
ing-point of our description of the nature which he
who is to be a scholar and gentleman ^ must have from
Ijirth. The leader of the choir for him, if you recol-
lect, was truth. That he was to seek always and
altogether, on pain of ' being an impostor without part
|>r lot in true philosophy." " Yes, that was said."
Is not this one point quite contrary to the prevaihng
'finion about him ? " " It is indeed," he said. " Will
it not be a fair plea in his defence to say that it was

the nature of the real lover of knowledge to strive

The quality of the (ia\6s KuyaOot gave rise to the abstrac-
'^

tion KaXoKOiyadia used for the moral ideal in the Eudemian

Kthics. C/. Isoc. Demon. 6, 13, and 51,. Stewart on Eth.
V'>. 1124 a 4 (p. 339) and 1179 b 10 (p. 460).
' For t5 = " or else " cf. Prot. 333 a and c, Phaedr. 237 c,
Jo'J A, 245 D, Gorg. 494'a, Crat. 426 b, etc.

27
 PLATO
eiTy dfiiXXdadai o ye ovtcos (f>LXoixa6-qs , koi ovk
B 7TLfxevoL em toXs So^a^ofxevois elvai ttoXXoIs e/ca-
CTTOt?, dAA toi OVK OLfx^XuvoiTO ovh^ [Link]'nyoi
/cat
rod epojTOSt avrov o eariv eKaarov rrjs
Trplv
(fivaecxis difjaadai o) rrpoa-qKei ^vx^^ ecfxtTrrecrdai
Tov TOiovTOV TTpoGTjKei Sc ^vyyevel' S TrXnTjaiaaas
Koi pay els Tip ovri ovtcos, yevv^aag vovu /cat aA?^-
Qeiav, yvoLT] re /cat dXrjdcos (.cot] /cat Tpe<f}oiro /cat
ovTco XrjyoL (Lhlvos, Trplv S' ov. 'Q.s olov t', 6(^77,
pLerpiojrara. Tt ovv; tovtco ri pLerearai i/jev8os
C dyaTTCLV ^ rouvavriov pnaelv; Mxaelv, e<f)'r].
Trdv
'
HyovfxevTjs dX-qdeias ovk dv -noTe, 6lp,ai,
8')7

(f>alp,V avTjj "xopov KaKcov aKoXovdrjaai. 11 a)?

yap; 'AAA' vyies re /cat SiKaiov rjOos, a) /cat
aco(l>poavvr]v erreadai. ^OpOcos, ^ff>'^1' Kat hrj tov
dXXov TTjS (f)iXoa6(f)ov (f)vaea}s x^P^^ "^^ ^^^ TraAti'
^ dpx^js dvayKdl,ovTa raTTetv; [Link] yap
TTOV, OTL ^vve^Tj TTpoarJKOv TOVTOis dvhpela, fxeya-
XoTTperreia, evp-ddeia,
[Link]]' /cat aov eTTiXa-
J) ^ofxevov, OTL dvayKaaOyjaeTac opioXoyelv
TTO-s p-ev
OLS Xeyop,ev, edoas 8e tovs Xoyovs, els avTovs
dTTO^XeiJjas rrepl cbv 6 Xoyos, (jiairj opdv avTcov
TOVS piev dxprjOTovs, tovs 8e ttoXXovs KaKovs
TTaaav KaKiav, ttjs Sia^oXfjs ttjv atrtav eTTtcr/co-
" Similar metaphors for contact, approach and intercourse
with the truth are frequent in Aristotle and the Neoplatonists.
For Plato cf. Campbell on Theaet. 150 b and 186 a. Cf. also
supra on 489 d.
"
Cf. Phaedo 65 e f., Symp. 211 e-212 a.
' Lit. " be nourished."
Cf. Protag. 313 c-d. Soph. 223 e,
Phaedr. 248 b.
^ A Platonic and Neoplatonic metaphor. Cf. Theaet.
148 E if,, 151 A, and passim, Symp. 206 e, Eplst. ii. 313 a,
Epictet. Diss. i. 22. 17.
28
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

emulously for true being and that he would not linger

over the many particulars that are opined to be real,
but would hold on his way, and the edge of his passion
would jiot be blunted nor would his desire fail till he
came into touch with" the nature of each thing in itself
by that part of his soul to which it belongs ^ to lay hold

on that kind of reality the part akin to it, namely
and through that approaching it, and consorting with
reality really,he would beget intelligence and truth,
attain to knowledge and truly hve and grow,"^ and so
"
find surcease from his travail** of soul, but not before?
" No plea could be fairer." " Well, then, ^vill such a
"
man love falsehood, or, quite the contrary, hate it ?
" Hate it," he said. \" \\Tien truth led the way, no
choir* of e\ils, we, I fancy, would say, could ever follow
initstrain." " How could it " "But rather a sound
."*

and just character, which is accompanied by temper-

ance." " Right," he said. " What need, then, of re-
peating from the beginning our proof of the necessary
order of the choir that attends on the philosophical
nature ? You surely remember that we found per-
taining to such a nature courage, grandeur of soul,
aptness to learn, memory.' And when you interposed
the objection that though everybody will be com-
pelled to admit our statements,' yet, if we abandoned
mere words and fixed our eyes on the persons to whom
the words referred, everj-one would say that he actu-
ally saw some of them to be useless and most of them
base with all baseness, it was in our search for the
' For the figurative use of the word xopos cf. 560 z,
580 B, Euthydem. 279 c, Theaet. 173 b.
' For the list of virtues cf. supra on 487 a.
' Cf. for the use of the dative Polit. 258 a crx.'^fX'^oih oTv
oh \i~,eL, Phaedo 100 c ry Toiade airia ffi'yx'^pf^^t Horace, Sat.
ii. 3. 305 " stultum me fateor, liceat eoncedere veris,"

29
 PLATO
TTOvvres em rovrto vvv yeyovafiev, rt ttoO^ ol ttoAAoi
KaKOL, Kal TOVTOV Srj evcKa TrdXtv aveiX-q^ajxev rrjv
Tcov aXrjOa)? (f)iXoG6(l>a)v (f)vcnv Kal i^ dvdyKr]?
E d)pLaafjLe6a. "EiCttw, (f>rj, ravra.
VI, Tavrrjs hrj, rjv 8' iyco, Trjs (f>vaco? Set
ueaaraadai rds (f)6opdg, cu? StdAAurat iv ttoXXols,
ajXLKpov 8e Ti K(f)evyet,, ovs 817 '<:at ov TTOvrjpovs,
axprjOTOvs 8e KaXovai- Kal pLcrd rovro av rds
491 fiLfiovfjievas ravTTjv Kal els to eTTiTrihevp.a KadiOTa-
fjLevas avT7]g, olai ovaai (f)vaeig tjjvxcov ^Is dvd^Lov
/cat fxell^ov eavTcvv d(^iKvovpievai eTnTqhevixa, ttoX-

Xaxfj TrXrjuixeXovaaL, Travraxf] Kal eirl Trdvras

So^av oiav Xiyeis (f){,Xoao(f)La Trpoarjipav. TtVa? 8e,
e<^7], TCLS hia^Oopds Xeyeis; 'Eyoi crot, elTTOV, av
OLOs re yevcofiai, TTeipdaop-ai SieXdelv. roSe fiev
ovv, ofjLtat, 775? rjixLV [Link], Toiavrrjv ^vaiv
/cat Trdvra exovaav, oaa Trpoaerd^afiev vvv S'q,
B t reXecos /xe'AAot yeveadai, oAtya/cis
(/)LX6(TO(f)os
ev avdpa)7TOis (f)vea9ai Kal oAtya?" rj ovk otei;
2(/>dSpa ye. Tovrcov Srj rcov oXiycov OKOTrei d)s
TToXXol oXedpoL Kal fxeydXoL. TiVe? 8?]; "O fiev
TrdvTCov davfiaaroTarov aKovaai, on ev eKaarov
ojv eTTTjveGapLev Trjg (f)vaews dnoXXvai ttjv exovaav
ijjvx'r]v /cat aTToaTTa (f>LXoao(f)ias' Xeyoj 8e avSpeiav,
aw(f)poavvrjv, Kal irdvra a [Link]. "Atottov,
C ^<f)f), aKovaai. "Ert rolvvv, rjv 8' eyo), Trpos

" Le petit nombre des elus.

Cf. infra 496 a-b and Phaedo
69 c-D, Matt. XX. 16, xxii. 14.
* For the Greek double use of dfios and di-dfios
cf. Laics
943 E, Aesch. Ag. 1527. Cf. " How worthily he died who
died unworthily " "
and Wyatt's line Disdain me not with-
out desert."
80

fl
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

cause of this ill-repute that we came to the present

question :Why is it that the majority are bad ?
And, for the sake of this, we took up again the nature
of the true philosophers and defined what it must
necessarily be ? " " That is so," he said.
VI. " Wehave, then," I said, " to contemplate the
causes of the corruption of this nature in the majority,
while a small part escapes," even those whom men
call not bad but useless ; and after that in turn we are
to observe those who imitate this nature and usurp
its pursuits and see what types of souls they are that
thus entering upon a way of life which is too high ^ for
them and exceeds their powers, by the many dis-
cords and disharmonies of their conduct everywhere
and among all men bring upon philosophy the repute
of which you speak." " Of what corruptions are you
speaking ? " "I ^11 try," I said, " to explain them
to you if I can. I think everyone will grant us this
point, that a nature such as we just now postulated
for the perfect philosopher is a rare growth among
men and is found in only a few. Don't you think so ? "
" Most emphatically." " Observe, then, the number
and magnitude of the things that operate to destroy
these few." " What are they ? " " The most sur-
prising fact of all is that each of the gifts of nature
which we praise tends to corrupt the soul of its pos-
sessor and divert it from philosophy. I am speaking
of braver}', sobriety, and the entire list.'' " " That does
sound Uke a paradox," said he. "Furthermore," said I,

Cf. Burton,Anatomy, i. 1 " This St. Austin acknow-

ledgeth of himself in his humble confessions, promptness of
wit, memory, eloquence, they were God's good gifts, but he
did not use them to his glory."
Cf. Meno 88 a-c, and Seneca, Ep. v. 7 " multa bona
nostra nobis nocent."
31
 PLATO
TOVTOis TO. XeyojJLeva dyada Travra (f>9eLpeL Kal dvo-
GTTa, KctAAo? Kal ttXovtos Kal laxvs aco/xaTog Kal
^vyyeveta eppcofxevr) iv TToAet Kal rravra rd rov-
Tcov oiKela' kx^ts yap rov tvttov wv Aeyo). "Ep^co,
(f>r)' Kal TjSecos y' dv dKptBearepov d Xeyetg ttvOol-

IJ-fjv. Aa^ov TOLVvv, rjv 8' eyco, oXov avrov opdojg,

Kai aoi v87]X6v re (jiavelrai Kal ovk droTra Sofet
ra TTpoeipr^jxeva
jrepl avrcjv. Yichg ovv, e^f],
D KeXevcLs; Ilavros, -^u S' iyco, aTtepfxaTos Ttepi ^
<j)VTOv, LT eyyeioiv etre rcov t^axxtv, tcrfiev, on to

H'l Tu;y;ov Tpo<prjs rjs Trpoar^Ket, eKaaroj /xtjS' oipas

fiiqoe TOTTOV, oao) dv ippcofxeueurepoi' fj,
roaovro)
irXeLovoiv iySel rcbv TrpeTTOvriov dyado) yap ttov
KaKov evavTLCiirepov -q ro) firj dyadco. IIcD? 8' ov;
E;^ei 87^, otfiaL, Xoyov, ttjv dpLarrjv (f)vcnv iv
dXXorpicorepa ovaav rpocjifj KaKiov dTTaXXdrreiv rrjs
(f)avXrjg. "E;\;ei. Ovkovv, t^v 8' iyco, c5 'A8ei-
E fjLavT, Kai rds ipv^dg ovtco ^djfiev rds V(f>ve-
araras KaKrjs Traihayojyias TV)(ovaag StacfyepovTCos
KaKas yiyveaOai; rj otei rd (xeydXa dSiKT^/xara
Kat, T7}v aKparov TTOvrjpiav iK <j)avXrjs, dAA' ovk
CK veaviKTJs <l>va(os rpo<j>fi [Link] yiyveadai,,

" Cf. What Plato Said, p, 479 on Charm. 158 a. For

" goods " cf. ibid. p. 629 on Laws 697 b. The minor or
earlier dialogues constantly lead up to the point that goods
are no good divorced from wisdom, or the art to use them
rightly, or the political or royal art, or the art that will make
us happy. Cf. What Plato Said, p. 71.
' This is for Plato's purpose a sufficiently clear statement

of the distinction between contradictory and contrary op-

position. Plato never drew out an Aristotelian or modern
logician's table of the opposition of propositions. But it is
a misunderstanding of Greek idiom or of his style to say
that he never got clear on the matter. He always understood
32
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

all the so-called goods " corrupt and divert, beauty

*'

and wealth and strength of body and powerful family

connexions in the city and all things akin to them
you get my general meaning?" " I do," he said, " and
I would gladly hear a more precise statement of it."
"Well," said I, "grasp it rightly as a general proposition
and the matter will be clear and the preceding state-
ment will not seem to you so strange." " How do you
bid me proceed ? " he said. " We know it to be univer-
sally true of every seed and growth, whether vegetable
or animal, that the more vigorous it is the more it
falls short of its proper perfection when deprived
of the food, the season, the place that suits it. For
"
evil is more opposed to the good than to the not-good.*
"Of course." "So it is, I take it, natural that the best
nature should fare worse than the inferior under con-
"^

ditions of nurture unsuited to it." "It is." "Then,"

said I, " Adeimantus, shall we not similarly affirm that
the best endowed souls become worse than the others
under a bad education ? Or do you suppose that great
crimes and unmixed wickedness spring from a slight
nature and not from a vigorous one corrupted by its
'^

it. Cf. Symp. 202 a-b, and supra on 437 a-b, What Plato
Said, p. 595 on Soph. 257 b, and ibid. p. 563 on Rep,
436 b ff.
' " Corruptio optimi pessima." Cf. 495 a-b, Xen. Mem.
L 2. 24, iv. 1. 3-4,Dante, Inferno, vi. 106:
*; Ed egli a me : Ritorna a tua scienza
Che vuol, quanto la cosa e piii perfetta.
Pill senta 11 bene e cosl la doglienza.

Cf. Livy xxxviii. 17 " generosius in sua quidquid sede gigni-

tur: insitum alienae terrae in id quo alitur, natura vertente
se, degenerat," Pausanias vii. 17. 3.
' Cf. 495 b; La Rochefoucauld, Max. 130 "la faiblesse
est le seul ddfaut qu'on ne saurait corriger " and 467 " la
hiblesse est plus oppos^e a la vertu que le vice." i

VOL. II D S3
 PLATO
aadevrj Se <f}V(nv fxeyaXiov ovre dyadcov ovre icaKOiv
aLTiav TTore eaeaoai; Uvk, aAAa, rj o os, ovtcos.
'2 Hv Toivvv edejxev rod (f)L\oa6(f)OV <f)V(JLV, av fXv,
olfjLaL, TrpoarjKovarjs tvxJ], ls Trdaav
fxadiqaeois
dperrjv dvdyKr] av^avofxevrjv d<^LKveladai, idv Se
fiTj iv TrpoarjKovarj OTrapelad re Kal (f>VTevdeiaa
rpe^rjraL, et? vravra rdvavria av, idv p.'q ti? avrfj
^orjOijcras dewv 'tvxJ)- '^ Kal av 'qyeZ, cooTrep ol
TToAAoi, hia^deipop^evovs TLvds elvat vtto aotftLarcov
veovs, hia^deipovras he rivas aocfyLards ISiajrtKovs,
6 Ti Kal d^Lov Xoyov, dAA ovk avTovs rovs ravra
B Xeyovrag pieyiaTovs fiev elvai ao(f)icrrds , TratSeueij/
Se TeAec^TaTa /cat dTrepydl^eaOai olovs ^ovXovrai
etvai, Kal veovs Kal Trpea^vrepovs Kal dvSpag Kal
yvvoLKag; Ilore Stj; rj 8' os. "Orav, eiTTOv,
^vyKaOel^opievoL ddpoot ol ttoXXoV els eKKXiqaias
Tj els hiKaarripLa r) dearpa rj arparoTTeha rj riva
dXXov Koivov TrX-qdovs ^vXXoyov ^vv ttoXXo) dopv^co
^ oi TToXXoi Hermann: ttoWoI mss., ol seel. Cobet.

Cf. infra 497 b, Tim. 4:3 d.

* This is the d^ia /xoipa of 498 a and Meno 99 e. Cf. What
Plato Said, p. 517.
" See What Plato Said, pp. 12 fF. and on Meno 93-94. Plato
again anticipates many of his modern critics. Cf G rote's
defence of the sophists passim, and Mill, Utility of Religion
{Three Essays on Religion, pp. 78, 84 ff.).
"*
iSiojTiKovs refers to individual sophists as opposed to the
great sophist of public opinion. Cf. 492 d, 493 a, 494 a.
* For Kal d^Lov \6yov
cf. Euthydem. 279 c, Laches 192 a,
Laws 908 b, supra 445 c, Thucyd. ii. 54. 5, ArLstot. Pol.

1272 b 32, 1302 a 13, De part. an. 654 a 13, Demosth. v. 16,
Isoc. vi. 56.
f
Cf. Gorg. 490 b, Emerson, Self-Reliance :
" It is easy
|

... to brook the rage of the cultivated classes. ...

But . .
. when the unintelligent brute force that lies at the
34
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

nurture, while a weak nature wiU never be the cause

of anything great, either for good or evil ? " " No,"
he said, " that is the case." " Then the nature
which we assumed in the philosopher, if it receives
the proper teaching, must needs grow and attain to
consummate excellence, but, if it be sown** and planted
and growTi in the WTong en\dronment, the outcome
will be quite the contrary unless some god comes to
the rescue.* Or are you too one of the multitude who
beheve that there are young men who are corrupted
by the sophists,*' and that there are sophists in private
life ^ who corrupt to any extent woi'th mentioning,*
and that it is not rather the very men who talk in this
strain who are the chief sophists and educate most
effectively and mould to their own heart's desire
young and old, men and women ? " " When ? " said
he. " Why, when," I said, " the multitude are seated
together ^ in assembUes or in court-rooms or theatres
or camps or any other pubhc gathering of a crowd,
bottom of society is made to growl and mow, it needs the
habit of magnanimity and religion to treat it godlike as a
trifle of no concernment," Carlyle, French Revolution:
" Great is the combined voice of men. . . . He who can
resist that has his footing somewhere beyond time."
For the public as the great sophist cf. Brimley, Essays,
p. 224 (The Angel in the House) : " The miserable view of
life and its purposes which society instils into its youth of
both sexes, being still, as in Plato's time, the sop'hist par
excellence of which all individual talking and writing sophists
are but feeble copies." Cf. Zeller, Ph. d. Gr.* ii. 1 601 " Die
.

sophistische Ethik ist seiner Ansicht nach die elnfache Kon-

sequenz der Gewohnlichen." This is denied by some recent
critics. The question is a logomachy. Of course there is
more than one sophistic ethics. Cf. Mill, Dissertations and
Discussions, iv. pp. 247 n., 263 ff., 275.
For Plato's attitude toward the sophists see also Polit.
303 c, PlMedr. 260 c,'What Plato Said, pp. U-15, 158.
35
 PLATO
. Ta fiev t/jeycoai rwv Xeyofievcjv rj TTparrofxevoiv, to.
8e eTTaLvcocnv, vvep^aXXomcos iKdrepa, /cat e/c-
C ^oajvres Kal Kporovvres, npos 8' avrols at re
TTerpai /cat o av d)cnv e7T'r]-)(ovvres
tottos ev (h
hnrXdaiov dopv^ov rov ipoyov /cat
Trapexoiai
eTTaLvov. iv Srj rep roiovnp rov viov, ro XeyopLevov,
riva otei Kaphiav tax^tv; ^ TToCav av avra> Trat-
oetap IBnorLKTjv dvOe^eiv, rjv ov KaraKXvadeZaav
V7TO rov roLovrov ipoyov rj eTraivov olxTjcreadai
([Link]'qv Kara povv, fj av ovros <f>^pijt Kal
(f)'qaLV re ra avra rovroLS /caAo. /cat alaxpa elvai,

D Kal eTTLrrjSevoeLv aTvep av ovroi, Kal eaeaQai

rotovrov; HoXXij, -^ S' os, & ^coKpares, dvdyKrj.
VII. Kat fji-qv, rjv 8' eyco, ovrrco rrjv fieyiarrjv
avdyK-qv elprjKap.v Hotav; e^i?. "Wv epyco Trpoa-
.

riOeaai, Xoyco fxrj Treidovres, ovroi ol TraiSevrai

re /cat ao(f>iaraL. rj ovk otuda, on rov firj vetdo-
puevov art/xtat? re /cat xpiqpaaL Kal OavdroLS
KoXdi,ovaiv; Kat pidXa, e<f)r], a^ohpa. TtVa ovv
dXXov aro(f)t,arrjv otet -^ ttolovs IBiconKOVs Xoyovs
E evavria rovrois reivovras Kpar-qaeiv ; Otfiat. fxev
ovoeva, i] o os. Uu yap, r\v o eyoi, aAAa /cat ro
eiTLX^i-p^Zv voXXr] dvota. ovre yap yiyverai ovre
yeyovev ovhe ovv p,rj yevqrai [aAAo '^^] aXXotov
^dos TTpos dperrjv Trapd rrjV rovra)v rraiheiav
1 (JXXo 7) was added by Hermann, unnecessarily.
" Cf. Eurip. Orest. 901, they shouted cbs KaXuJs \iyoL,
also Euthydem. 303 b oi kIovs, 276 b and d, Shorey on
Horace, Orf^-s i. 20. 7 "datus intheatrocumtibiplausus," and
also the account of the moulding process in Protag. 323-326.
* What would be his plight, his state of mind; how would

he feel? Cf. Shorey in Class. Phil. y. (1910) pp. 220-221,

Iliad xxiv. 367, Theognis 748 /cai riva dvfibv ^x'^" > Symp, j

36
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

and Mritli loud uproar censure some of the things that

are said and done and approve others, both in excess,
with full-throated clamour and clapping of hands,
and thereto the rocks and the region round about
re-echoing redouble the din of the censure and the
praise." In such case how do you think the young
man's heart, as the saying is, is moved within him?*
WTiat private teaching do you think \vill hold out and
not rather be swept away by the torrent of censure and
applause, and borne off on its current, so that he will
affirm " the same things that they do to be honourable
and base, and will do as they do, and be even
such as they ? " " That is quite inevitable, Socrates,"
he said.
V^II. "And, moreover," I said, " we have not yet
mentioned the chief necessity and compulsion."
"What is it.'' " saidhe. " That which these educators '

and sophists impose by action when their words fail to

conWnce. Don't you know that they chastise the
recalcitrant \vith loss of civic rights and fines and
death ? " " They most emphatically do," he said.
" What other sophist, then, or what private teaching
do you think will prevail in opposition to these " .''

" None, I fancy," said he. " No," said I, " the very
attempt"* is the height of folly. For there is not, never
has been and never will be,* a divergent tvpe of char-
acter and \lrtue created by an education rimning
919 D 3 rlva oteaOe fxe didvoiav ^x^'-" i Eurip. I. A. 1173 rir
iw S6iJXHiKapSiav i^etv hoKtis ;
fie
* Adam translates as if it were Kai (p-qaei. " Platon- my
Cf.
ism and the History of Science," Avier. Philos. Soc. Proc.
Ixvi. p.174 n. See Stallbaum ad loc.
.
* [Link]. 317 a-b. Soph. 239 c. Laws 818 d.
Cf. Od. xvi. 437. See Friedlander, Platon, ii. 386 n.
who says aXKolov yiyvfff6ai can only = a\\oiov<T$ai, "be made
different."
37
 PLATO
TTeTTaiSevfievov , av6pd)TTiov, (h eraipe* deXov fxevroi
Kara ttjv rrapoLfMiav i^aipwiiev Xoyov ev yap
Xpy] eiSeVai, o Tt Trep av acodfj re Kal yevrjTai otov
493 Set iv TOiavrr) Karaardaei TToXcreiaJv, deov {xoZpav
avro acooaL Xeyojv ov KaKcog ipeis. OuS' e^uot
^4'V> So/cet. "Ert roivvv aoi, rjv 8
dXXcjos, eycu,
irpos Tovrots /cat roSe So^aro). To ttoZov; E/ca-
CTTo? fjLtadapvovvrojv tStwrcDv, oy? St^ ovroi
TcDi'

ao(l)taTasKaXouGL Kal avrnexvovs 'qyouvrai, (jlt)

aXXa TTaiSeveLv t) ravra ra rcDr ttoXXu)v Soyp-ara,
d So^d^ovGLV orav ddpoiaOojai, /cat aocf)iav ravrrjv
KaXelv olovnep dv el dpep,p,aTOS [Link] /cat
laxvpov rp<f)op,vov rds opyds tls /cat inLdvpias
B Karepidvdavev, ottt] re TrpoaeXOeiv XPV '^^''
^'^V
difjaadai avrov, /cat OTTore ;)(;aAe7rcyTaTOt' t) irpao-
Tarov Kal e/c rivcov yiyverai, Kal <f)a>vds 817 e0'
01? eKdaras elojde (f)deyyeadat, Kal olas av dXXov
(f>[Link] rjpepovrai re /cat dyptaivei, Kara-
p,add)v 8e raura irdvra ^vvovoia re Kal xpovov
rpL^fj aoj)iav re KaXeaeiev Kal (hs rexvrjv avarrjad-

" Cf. 529 c for the idiom, and Laws 696 a ov yap ^^7 ""ore
yivqrai irais Kai dvrjp Kal yepwv ^k ravrrji ttjs rpoipTJs diaipepuv
irpos ap^T-qv.
"
Cf. Symp. 176 c (of Socrates), Phaedr. 242 b, Theaet.
162 D-E,
"
Cf. supra on 492 a, Apol. 33 c, Pliaedo 58 e, Protaj.
328 z, Mem 99 e, Phaedr. 244 c, Laws 642 c, 875 c. Ion 534 c.
"*
Cf. Arnold, Preface to Essays in Criticism; Pliaedo
60 D, Laics 817 B, Ora Virtue 376 d.
'
Cf. Epist. V. 321 D ^(jTiv yap 8ri m
(puivrj tCiv [Link]

iKdcrrrjs KaddirepeL rivuiv t;'(foov, " each form of government has

a sort of voice, as if it were a kind of animal " (tr. L. A. Post),
Hackforth says this is a clumsy imitation of the Republic
which proves the letter spurious. Cf. Thomas Browne,
Religio Medici, ii. 1 " If there be any among those common
38
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

counter to theirs^ humanly speaking, I mean, my
friend; for the divine, [Link] fail.*
And you may be sure that, if anything is saved and
turns out well in the present condition of society and
government, in saying that the providence of God "
preserves it you will not be speaking ill." "Neither do
I think otherwise," he said. " Then," said I, " think
this also in addition." " What ? " " Each of these
private teachers who work for pay, whom the politicians
call sophists and regard as their rivals,** inculcates
nothing else than these opinions of the multitude
which they opine when they are assembled and calls
this knowledge \^'isdom. It is as if a man were acquir-
ing the knowledge of the humours and desires of a
great strong beast * which he had in his keeping, how
it is to be approached and touched, and when and by
what things it is made most savage or gentlel yes,
and the several sounds it is wont to utter on the
occasion of each, and again what sounds uttered by an-
other make it tame or fierce, and after mastering this
knowledge by living with the creature and by lapse
of time should call it wisdom, and should construct

objects of hatred I do contemn and laugh at, it is that great

enemy of reason, and religion, the multitude
virtue, one . . .

great beast and a monstrosity more prodigious than Hydra,"

"
Horace, Epist. i. 1. 76 belua multorum es capitum." Also
Hamilton's " Sir, your people is a great beast," Sidney,
^ircadia, bk. ii. " Many-headed multitude," Wallas, Human
Nature in Politics, p. 172 " .like Plato's sophist is learn-
. .

ing what the public is and is beginning to understand the '

passions and desires of that huge and powerful brute,'

'
'

Shakes. Coriolanus iv. i. 2 "The beast with many heads

Butts me away," ibid. ii. iii. 18 "The many-headed multi-
tude." For the idea cf. also Gorg. 501 b-c fF., Phaedr. 260 c
So^as 6e wXridovs ^f/ifXeTT/Ktis, "having studied the opinions
of the multitude," Isoc. ii. 49-50.
39
 PLATO
\ fievos 7tI ScSaaKaXlav TpenoLTO, [Link] etScu? rfj
'
aXrjdeia tovtcov rcov Soyfjudrajv re /cat imdvinajv,
6 Ti KaXov T] aLO^pov ^ ayaOov ^ /ca/cov ^ hiKaiov
C f] aSiKov, ovoixdt,oi Se Trdvra ravra im raXs tov
fieydXov ^q)ov So^aig, ots fieu x^^^poi- Kelvo dyadd
KaX(ov, ots Be dxOoLTO /ca/ca, d'AAoi/ 8e fi-qheva e^oi
Xoyov 7Tpl avra)v, dXXd rdvayKaZa SiVaia KaXol
/cat KaXd, TTjv 8e rov dvayKacov /cat dyadov (fivcriv,

j
oaov Si,a(f)epL rip ovtl, p,rjTe ecupa/ccb? eir] fxi/jTe
dXXo) Svvaros Set^at. tolovtos Btj cov irpos Ato?
OVK droTTog dv crot So/cet eti'at TratSeuri^s'; "E/xoty ,
6^17. ^H ow Tt Toyroy 80/cet Siac^epeti' o ttji' tcDv

D 77oAAa)t' /cat iravTohaTTibv ^vvlovtcov opy^v /cat

^Sovd? Karavevor^Kevai ao(f)i,av rjyovp,evos, etr ei'

ypa(f)LKfj etr' ei^ jiovaiKfj etre 8t) et' 7ToXiTtKfj;f otl

fikv ydp, idv tls tovtois opiXfj eTnheLKvvpLevos t]

TToirjaLV tj riva dXXrjv Srjpiovpyiav t] TrdAet 8ta-

Koviav, Kvpiovs avrov ttolwv rovs ttoXXovs Trepa
rdjv dvayKaioiv , rj Ato/x7j8eta Xeyopivq dvdyK-q
TTOLctv avrdi ravra a dv oSroL iiratvcbcFLV d)s 8e
/cat dya^d /cat /caAd ravra rfj dX'qdeia, 17877

Cf. Class. Phil. ix. (1914) p. 353, n. 1, ibid, xxiii. (1928)

p. 361 {Tim. 75 d), What Plato Said, p. 616 on Tim. 47 e,
Aristot. Eth. 1120 b 1 oux tiis Ka\6v ws dfayKaiov, Emer-dW
son, Circles, " Accept the actual for the necessary," Eurip.
J.A. 724 KaXuis dvayKaiws re. Mill iv. 299 and Grote iv. 221
miss the meaning. Cf. supra Bk. I. on 347 c, Newman,
Aristot. Pol. i. pp. 113-114, lamblichus, Protrept. Teubner
148 K. dyvoovvTOS oaov SLfary^Kiv ef [Link]^ to. dyadh /cat ra
. . .

avayKaia, " not knowing how divergent have alwajs been the
good and the necessary."
40
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

thereof a system and art and turn to the teaching of

it, knowing nothing in reality about which of these

opinions and desires is honourable or base, good or evil,

just or unjust, but should apply all these terms to the
judgements of the great beast, calling the things that
pleased it good, and the things that vexed it bad,
having no other account to render of them, but should
call what is necessary just and honourable," never
having observed how great is the real difference
between the necessary and the good, and being in-
capable of explaining it to another. Do you not
think, by heaven, that such a one would be a stra nge^
educator ? " "I do," he said. " Do you suppose
that there is any difference between such a one and
the man who thinks that it is wisdom to have learned
to know the moods and the pleasures of the motley
multitude in their assembly, whether about painting
or music or, for that matter, politics ? For if a man
I

associates with these and offers and exhibits to them

his poetry or any other product of his craft or any
''

political service,*' and grants the mob authority over

himself more than is unavoidable j"* the proverbial
necessity of Diomede * will compel him to give the
public what it hkes, but that what it likes is really
good and honourable, have you ever heard an
*
Cf. Laws 659 b, 701 a, Gorg. 502 b.

Cf. 371 c, Gorg. 517 a, 518 b.
*
Plato likes to qualify sweeping statements and allow
something to necessity and the weakness of human nature.
Cf. Phaedo 64 e KaO' ocov [Link] xoXXi; dvd-y/ci;, infra 558 d-e,
500 D, 383 c.
* The scholiast derives this expression from Diomedes'
binding Odysseus and driving him back to camp after the
latter had attempted to kill him. The schol. on Aristoph.
Eccl. 10-29 gives a more ingenious explanation. See Frazer,
Pausanias, ii. p. 264.
41
 PLATO
7ra)7Torerov TJKovaas avrcov Xoyov SiSovTOS" ov
E KarayiAaaTov ; Oi/xai 8e ye, rj S' 6s, ov8
aKovao^ai.
VIII. Taura roivvv Trdvra iworjaas eKelvo
dvafj.v7^a6T]Tf avro ro KaXov, dAAo. [xr] to, TroAAa
KaXd, 7] avTO n eKaarov koX fir] rd TroAAa eKacFra,
crd' OTTCos vXtjOos dve^erai t] rjyrjaeraL elvai;
"IIkicttci y', (f)ri. OtAoao^ov' fxev dpa, rjv 8 eyoj,
494 ttXtjOos dSvvaTOV etvai. 'ASwarov. Kat tous
(f)LXoao(f)ovvras dpa dvdyK-q ipeyeadat, vrr avrcov.
^AvdyKrj. Kai vtto tovtcjjv Stj tcov tSuordJv, baoi
TTpoaofiiXovvTes op^Ao) dpeaKeiv avrw eTTidvpLOvaiv.
ArjXov. 'E/c S17 Tovrojv riva opag acjrrjpiav
(fiiXoaocfxx) (f}vaei, o^gt eV to) eTrtTTjSeujLtari //.et-

vacraj/ TT-po? reXos iXdeiv; evvoei 8' e/c tcDv e/x-

B Trpoadev. (hpLoXoyrjr ai yap 8?) T^/itv evjJidOeta Kat
Ixv-qpLT] Koi dvSpela /cat pLeyaXonpeTTeia ravTrjg eivai
rrjs J)vacos. Nat. Ovkovv evdvs eV Tratatt' d
roLOVTos TTpcoTOs cCTTat v aTTauLV, aAAois re /cat
edv TO orwjjLa (f)vfj 7Tpocr(f)pr)s rfj ijjvx'j]; Tt 8 ou
/xe'AAet; e^Siy. BoyAT^fforrai Sr^, ot/iat, auroi ^^t^"

KarayeKaarou is a strong word. " Make the very jack-

asses laugh" would give the tone. Cf. Carlyle, Past and
Present, iv. " Impartial persons have to say with a sigh
that . . - they have heard no argument advanced for it but
such as might make the angels and almost the very jack-
weep.
3,SSCS
Cf. also Isoc. Panegyr. 14, Phil. 84, 101, Antid. ^A,l,
Peace 36, and KarayeXaaros in Plato passim, e.g. Symp. 189 b.
A commonplace of Plato and all intellectual idealists.
*

Cf.503 B, Polit. 292 e, 29T b, 300 e. J

Novotnv, Plato's Epistles, p. 87, uses this to support his i
"

view that Plato had a secret doctrine. Adam quotes Gorg. 1

474 A Toh 5e ttoXKois ov8i diaXiyofjLai, which is not quite
42
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

attempted proof of this that is not simply ridiculous" ?"

" No," he said, " and I fancy I never shall hear it
either."
VIII. " Bearing all this in mind, recall our former
question. Can the multitude possibly tolerate or
believe in the reality of the beautiful in itself as
opposed to the multiplicity of beautiful things, or
can they beheve in anything conceived in its essence
as opposed to the many particulars ? " " Not in the
least," he said. " Philosophy, then, the love of
wisdom, is impossible for the multitude.^ " " Im-
possible." " It is inevitable,"^ then, that those who
philosophize should be censured by them." " In-
evitable." " And so likewise by those laj-men who,
associating with the mob, desire to currj- favour * with
it." "Ob\"iously." " From this point of view do
you see any salvation that will suffer the born philo-
sopher to abide in the pursuit and persevere to the
end ? Consider it in the light of what we said before.
We agreed* that quickness in learning, memory,
courage and magnificence were the traits of this
nature." "Yes." "Then even as a boy ^ among boys
such a one ^^ill take the lead in all things, especially
if the nature of his body matches the soul." " How
could he fail to do so " he said. " His kinsmen and
.?

relevant- Cf. Renan, Etudes d^histoire relicr. p. 403

"La
philosophie sera toujours le fait d'une imperceptible
ininorite," etc.
* It is ps\ chologically necessary.
Cf. supra. Vol. I. on
4T3 E. Cf. '527 A, Laws 655 e, 658 e, 681 c, 687 c, Phaedr.
239 271 B, Crito 49 n.
c,
" Cf. Gorg. 481 e, 510 d, 513 b.
' In 4S7 A.
f
Cf. 386 A. In what follows Plato is probably thinking of
Alcibiades. Ale. I. 103 a flF. imitates the passage. Cf. Xen.
Mem. i. 2. 24.
43
 PLATO
aOai, 7TiBav TTpea^vrepos yiyvrjrai, enl to. avrcjv
TTpdyixara ol re OLKeloL Kal ol TroAirat. Ilctj? o
C ov; *Y7TOKL(jovTaL apa Seofxevot Kal Tip^oJvreg,
TTpoKaraXapL^avovTeg /cat Trpo/coAa/ceyovres' ttjv

fieXXovGav avrov Svvap,iv. OtAet yovv, e^t], ovroi

yiyveadai. Ti ovv olei, rjv 8' eyco, top tolovtov
iv roLS ToiovTOis TTOLTjaeiv, dXXoJS re /cat eav tvxJ]
fjLeydXrjs TToXecos ctjv' Kal iv ravrr] rrXovaios re Kai
yewoLog, Kal en eveLhrjs Kal fieyas; dp ov
TrXrjpcodriaeadai dfjLrjxdvov eArriSos', r^yovp^evov /cat
Ta T(ji)v 'YiXk-qvcov Kal rd rdJv ^ap^dpojv iKavov
D eoreadai irpdrreLV, Kal eirl tovtols vipr]X6v e^apeXv

avTov, ax'^P'O-TLcrpov /cat (f>povripaTOS Kevov avev

vou epLTTLTrXdpievov ; Kai pdX , e(f)r]. To) hrj ovru)
SiaTidepevcp edv rt? rjpep.a TrpoaeXdwv TaXr^urj

Xeyr], on vovs ovk eveanv avrw, Setrat Se, to Be

ov KTrjTov pTj hovXevaavn rfj KT'qaei avrov, dp
evTrereg otet etv'at etaa/couCTat Sio. roaovra)v KaKcov;
HoXXov ye 'Eav 8' ovv, '^v 8' eyw,
Set, rj S' 09.

Sid ro ev Tre^VKevai Kal ro ^vyyeves rwv X6ya>v

E els alaOdvrjrai re nrj /cat Kapirr-qrai Kal eA/crjrat
TTpos (^iXoao(j)Lav , ri olopeda Spdaeiv eKeivovs rovs
rjyovp,evovs aTToXXvvat avrov rrjv ;)(/jetav re /cat

" For vwoKeiaovrai cf. Gorg. 510 c, infra 576 a vTroire<r6vTes,

Eurip. Orest. 670 Theaet. 173 a vireXdeiv.

v-jrorpex^Lv,
* i.e. endeavouring to secure the advantage of it for them-
selves by winning his favour when he is still young and
impressionable.
" Cf. Ale. I. 104 B-c ff,

* Cf. Ale. I. 105 B-c.

* iixj/riXbv i^apetv, etc., seems to be a latent poetic quotation.
44
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

fellow-citizens, then, will desire, I presume, to make

use of him when he is older for their own affairs."
"Of course." "Then they will fawn upon" him
with petitions and honours, anticipating * and flatter-
ing the power that will be his." " That certainly
is the usual way."
" How, then, do you think such
a youth will behave in such conditions, especially if
it happen that he belongs to a great city and is rich
and well-born therein, and thereto handsome and
tall ^ Will his soul not be filled with unbounded
ambitious hopes,'' and will he not think himself cap-
able of managing the affairs of both Greeks and
barbarians,** and thereupon exalt himself, haughty
of mien and stuffed with empty pride and void
of sense*?" "He surely will," he said. "And if
to a man in this state of mind^ someone gently'
comes and tells him what is the truth, that he has
no sense and sorely needs it, and that the only way
to get it is to work like a slave to win it, do you think
'*

it will be easy for him to lend an ear * to the quiet

voice in the midst of and in spite of these e\-il sur-
roundings ^ ? " " Far from it," said he. " And even
supposing," said I, " that owing to a fortunate dis-
position and his affinity for the words of admonition
one such youth apprehends something and is moved
and drawn towards philosophy, what do we suppose
will be the conduct of those who think that they are

' Or perhaps " subject to these influences." Adam says

it is while he is sinking into this condition.
Cf. supra Vol. I. on 476 e. Cf. 533 d, Prolog. 333 e,
Phaedo 83 a, Crat. 413 a, Tkeaet. 154 e.
Cf. Phaedo 66 d, Symp. 184 c, Euthydem. 282 b.
'
Cf. Epin. 990 a, Epist. vii. 330 a-b.
'
Cf. Ale. I. 135 E.

45
 PLATO
eraipeiav; ov ttolv fxkv epyov, ttolv S' eTTOj Ae-
yovrds t Kal Trpdrrovras /cat Trepl avrov, ottcos
av ixT) veLcrdfj, Kal nepl tou Treidovra, ottcos av fxrj
oios T 7], Kai iSta eTTipovXevovras /cat hrifjLoaia els
495 dycovas Kadiaravras; TioXXrj, rj 8' os, dvdyKT].
Kariv odv OTTOis 6 tolovtos (f>LXoao(f)-t^ai ; Ov
Trdvv.
lA. Upas ovv, rjv o eyco, on ov KaKws eAe-
yofiev (Ls dpa /cat aura ret rrjs (jiiXoao^ou (jivaeois

liiprj, orav eV /ca/cTy Tpo(f)fj yevrjraL, a'lria rpoTTOv

TLvd Tov eKveaetv e/c rov iTTiTrjSevfxaros, /cat rd
Aeyojxeva dyadd, ttXovtol re /cat vdcra 7) Toiavrr)
TrapaoKevq; Ov ydp, dAA' opdojs, e^i?, eXexdrj.
OvTOS 8'q, eiTTOV, J) davfxdaie, oXedpos re /cat

B ^La<j>dopd ToaavTf] re /cat roiavrr] rrjs ^eXrLarrjs

<j>vaea)s els ro dpiarov eTTcrrjSevfia, oXtyrjs /cat

dXXcos ytyvofxevTjs, cos rjixels (f>afjiev. /cat e/c tov-

Tcov St) rd fieyiara /ca/ca epya-
Tcbv dvSpojv /cat ol
rds TToXeis yiyvovrat /cat tovs tStcora?, /cat
t,[Link]

ol r dyadd, ot av ravrr) Tv^oiai pvevres' apuKpd

he ^vats ovhev fieya ovheTTore ovheva ovre ISloWtjv
ovT ttoXlv Spa. ^AXyjOeaTara, t^ S' os. Ovtoi
C p^ev Srj ovTOJS eKTTiTTrovres, ols pLoXiara TTpocriJKei,

eprjfiov Kal dreXrj (f)iXocro(f)iav XeiTTovres avroi re

^Lov ov rrpoaT^KOvra ovS' dXrjOrj ^cDcrt, rrjv Se

" For irai' ipyov cf. Sophocles, El. 613.

"
Cf. 517 A.
46
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

losing his service and fellowship ? Is there any word

or deed that they will stick at" to keep him from being
persuaded and to incapacitate anyone who attempts
it,* both by private intrigue and public prosecution
in the court ? " " That is inevitable," he said.
" Is there any possibility of such a one continuing to
philosophize ? " " None at all," he said.
IX. " Do you see, then," said I, " that we were not
wrongin saying that the very qualities that make up the
philosophical nature do, in fact, become, when the en-
vironment and nurture are bad, in some sort the cause
of its backsliding, and so do the so-called goods **
'^

riches and all such instrumentalities*?" "Xo,"
he rephed, " it was rightly said." " Such, my good
friend, and so great as regards the noblest pursuit, is
the destruction and corruption-'' of the most excellent
nature, which is rare enough in any case,'' as we affirm.
And it is from men of this type that those spring who
do the greatest harm to communities and individuals,
and the greatest good when the stream chances to
be turned into that channel,'' but a small nature ' never
does anything great to a man or a city." " Most
true," said he. " Those, then, to whom she properly
belongs, thus falling away and leaving philosophy
forlorn and unwedded, themselves Uve an unreal and
alien life, while other unworthy wooers ''
rush in and

' For iKit<xiiv cf. 496 c.

*
Cf. supra on 491 c, p. 32, note a.
'
Cf. Lysis 220 a ; Arnold's " machinery," Aristotle's
Xopi77ia.
' Cf. 491 B-z, Laws 951 b a5Ld<pdapT0i, Xen. Mem. i. 2. 24.
' For Kal a\\a;s cf. II. ix. 699.
* Cf. on 485 D ojairfp ptvfia.
'
Cf. on 491 E, p. 33, note d.
*
Cf. on 489 n, and Theaet. 173 c.

47
 PLATO
wcrnep 6p(f>avr^v ^vyyevcjv d'AAot eTreiaeXdom-es
dvd^LOi yjaxvi'dv re /cat dreiSry TrepLrjipav, oia Kai
av (f)fj? di/etSt^eiv tous dvetSi'^ovras', cvs ol ^vvovres
avrfj ol jjiev ovSevos, ol Se ttoAAoi ttoXXcov KaKcov
a^ioi eloLv. Kat yap ovv, (f>'q,
rd ye Xeyofxeva
Tavra. Klkotcos ye, rjv 8' eyco, Xeyo/jieva. Kad-
opayvTes yap dXXoi dvOpajTrioKOL KevrjV tt^v' xoopav
ravrrjv yLyvopbevrjv, KaXojv Se dvofidroiv /cat rrpo-
D crxrjfidrojv piearrjv, (Lanep ol e/c rdJv elpypucJov els
rd lepd dTroStSpaa/covre?' dafievoL /cat oStol e/c

TCi)v Te-)(ya)V eKTrrjScoaiv els ttjv (jyiXoaocJiiav, ol av

KopuporaroL dvres Tvyxdvaxjt, irepl ro avrcov rex'
viov. opLois yap Srj npos ye rds dXXas rexvas
KaiTTep ovTOJ npaTTOvarjs (f>i,Xoao(fHas to d^iiopia
fieyaXoTTpeTTearepov AetVeTaf oS Sr] (f)LeiJivoi
TToXXoc dreXeXs p-ev rds (f>vaeLS, vtto he tcov rexvcov
re /cat 8rjp,LovpyLa)v, (Lanep rd awpara XeXco^r^vrai,
E ovTO) /cat rds ifjvxds ^vyKeKXa<jp,evoL re /cat (ztto-
Tedpvfxp-evoL Stct rds ^avavaias rvyxdvovoiv. tj ovk
avayKT); Kat Ao/cetj ovv n, 8'
fidXa, e<f)r]. rjv

" Cf. Taine, a Sainte-Beuve, Aug. 14, 1865: " Comme

Claude Bernard, il depasse sa specialite et c'est chez des

specialistes comme ceux-la que la malheureuse philosophie

livr^e aux mains gantees et parfumees d'eau benite va
trouver des maris capables de lui faire encore des enfants."
Cf. Epictet. iii. 21, 21. The passage is imitated by Lucian
3. 2. 287, 294, 298.
For the shame that has befallen philosophy cf. Euthydem.
304 ff., Epist. vii. 328 e, Isoc, Busiris 48, Plutarch 1091 e,
Boethius, Cons. i. 3. There is no probabihty that this is
aimed at Isocrates, who certainly had not deserted the
mechanical arts for what he called philosophy, Rohde,
Kleine Schri/ten, i. 319, thinks Antisthenes is meant. But
48
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

defile her as an orphan bereft of her kin," and attach

to her such reproachesi as you sav her revilers taunt
her with, declaring that some of her consorts are of
no account and the many accountable for many
evils. "\ "
yes," he replied, " that is what they
Why,
do say." "And plausibly," said I; "for other
mannikins, observing that the place is unoccupied
and full of fine terms and pretensions, just as men
escape from prison to take sanctuary in temples, so
these gentlemen joyously bound away from the
mechanical arts to philosophy, those that are most
''

cunning in their For in comparison with

little craft. '^

the other arts the prestige of philosophy even in her

present low estate retains a superior dignity and this ;

is the ambition and aspiration of that multitude of

pretenders unfit by nature, whose souls are bowed
and mutilated by their vulgar occupations * even as
**

their bodies are marred by their arts and crafts. Is

not that inevitable " " Quite so," he said. " Is
.''

Plato as usual is generalizing. See What Plato Said, p. 593

on Soph. 242 c.
*
Cf. the dififerent use of the idea in Protag. 318 e.
' Tfx^iov is a contemptuous diminutive, such as are common

in Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Cf. also di'dpuirla-Koi.

in c, and \pvxdpiov in 519 a.
" Cf. infra 611 c-d, Theat. 173 a-b.
* For the idea that trade is ungentlemanly and incompat-

ible with philosophy cf. infra 522 b and 590 c, Laics 919 c ff.,
and What Plato Said, p. 663 on Rivals 137 b. Cf. Richard
of Bury, Philobiblon, Prologue, "Fitted for the liberal arts,
and equally disposed to the contemplation of Scripture, but
destitute of the needful aid, they revert, as it were, by a
sort of apostasy, to mechanical arts." Cf. also Xen. Mem.
iv. 2. 3, and Ecclesiasticus xxxviii. 25 f. " How can he get
wisdom that holdeth the plough and glorieth in the goad
. . and whose talk is of bullocks ? ... so every carpenter
.

and workmaster the smith

. . .the potter ..." . . .

VOL. II E 49
 PLATO
yu), Sia(f)epiv avrovs tSeiv dpyvpiov KTrjaaixivov
XOL^Kecos (f)aXaKpov /cat crfxiKpov, vecoarl [-lev e/c

SeapLcbv XeXvpievou, eV ^aXavecco 8e [Link],

veovpyov IpLartov exovros, cos vvpi<j)iov rrapeaKeva-
apievov, 8ta rreviav koI iprjptav rod Searrorov
496 T7]v dvyarepa pLeXXovros yapielv; Ov rrdw, ^(^r],
Siacfyepei. Hoi* drra ovv et/co? yewdv tovs tolov-
Tovs; ov voda Kal (f>avXa; HoXXtj dvdyKrj. Ti
Sat; Tous" dva^lovs rraihcvaecos, orav avTrj irXr^aid-
t,ovres opLiXwaL purj /car' d^lav, ttoV drra (f)d)pLV

yevvdv Stai'OT^/xara re /cat Sd^a?; a/>' ovx d)S

aXrjddJs irpoa'qKovra dKovaai ao(f>Lap,ara, /cat ov-
\ Sev yv-qoLov oi)Se (fipovrjaecDS dXrjdtvqs^ ixop^evov;
'
IlavTeXdJs piv ovv, e(f>r].
X. HdvapLiKpov St] ri, "qv 8' iyco, J) 'ASei/xarre,
B XeiireTai rwv /car' df tar opuXovvTcov ^lAoao^ta, 77
TTOV VTTO (f)vyrjg KaTaXrj(f>Qev yevvaiov /cat v redpap,-
p-evov TjOos, drropta tcov hia(j>9epovvroiv Kara
<f)vaLV pLelvav ctt' avrij, ^ iv apiKpa vrdAet orav
pLeydXi) ipvxrj (f)vij /cat drip-daaaa rd rrjs ttoXccos
VTrepiSr]- ^paxv Se ttov ri /cat aTr' dXXrjs rex^'V^
SiKaccos dripidaav V(f)ves iir* avrrjv dv eXdoL. L7j
8' dv /cat o rov 'qpuerepov iraipov Qedyovs xctAtfo?
d|ioy seel. Ast: d^iov aXTjdivrjs
^ d^iov AM, cjj dXrjdiyijs D,
dXjj^iv^s wj d^Lov F: d^/ws conj. Campbell.

" For a similar short vivid description cf. Erasfae 13i b.

Euthyphro 2 b. Such are common in Plautus, e.g. Mer-

cator 639.
''
It is probably fanciful to see in this an allusion to the
half-Thracian Antisthenes. Cf. also Theaet. 150 c, and Symp.
212 A.
Euthydem. 306 d.
Cf.
* Phaedrus 250 a 6\iyai
Cf. St] XetVocrai, and supra 494 a
and on 490 e.
50
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

not the picture which they present," I said, " pre-

cisely that of a httle bald-headed tinker'* who has
made money and just been freed from bonds and
had a bath and is wearing a new garment and has got
himself up like a bridegroom and is about to marry
his master's daughter who has fallen into poverty and
abandonment ? " " There is no difference at all," he
said. " Of what sort will probably be the offspring of
"
such parents ? Will they not be bastard ^ and base ?
" Inevitably." " And so when men unfit for cul-
ture approach philosophy and consort with her un-
worthily, what sort of ideas and opinions shall we
say they beget ? Will they not produce what may
in very deed be fairly called sophisms, and nothing
"
that is genuine or that partakes of true intelligence " r
" Quite so," he said.
X. " There is a very small remnant,** then, Adei-
mantus," I said, " of those mIio consort worthily ^th
philosophy, some well-born and well-bred nature, it
may be, held in check* by exile,' and so in the absence
of corrupters remaining true to philosophy, as its
quahty bids, or it may happen that a great soul born
in a little town scorns ' and disregards its parochial
affairs ; and a small group perhaps might by natural
affinity be drawn to it from other arts which they
justly disdain ; and the bridle of our companion
Theages^ also might operate as a restraint. For in the
' Perhaps "overtaken." Cf. Goodwin on Dem. De cor.
107,
' It is possible but unnecessary to conjecture that Plato
may be thinking of Anaxagoras or Xenophon or himself
or Dion. C/. Theaef. 173 b, infra 540 d.
* This bridle has become proverbial. Cf. Plut. De san.
tuenda 126 b, Aelian, Var. Hist. iv. 15. iPor Theages cf,
also Apol. 33 e and the spurious dialogue bearing his name.
 PLATO
otos Karaorx^Lv Kal yap Qedyet, to. jxev aAAa navra
C
TTapeGKevaarai rrpos to iKneaelv (f)iXoao(l)Las, r) 8e
rov acofxaros vo(JOTpocf)ia oLTreipyovaa avrov rcbv
!' TToXlTlKOJV KaTeX^I'- TO 8' r)fX,TpOV OVK d^LOV
Xdyeiv, TO Satp^ovLov a-qp^etov rj yap ttov tivi aAAo)
rj
. ovSevl tojv ep,7Tpoadev yeyove. /cat tovtcov St)

Tcov oXiycov ol yev6p.V0L /cat yevadp,VOL cos 7)ov

j /cat piaKaptov to KTfjp.a, /cat tcov ttoXXcov av LKavaJs
\ IBovTes TTjV piaviav, /cat ort onsets' ovhev vyt-es co?
eTTos eliTeiv Trepi to. tcov TToXecov npaTTei, ov8 eart
D ivp.p.axo9, p-ed^ otov tis Icov inl ttjv twv SiKaicov
^o-qdeiav crto^otT* dv, dAA' wanep et? Orjpia av-
dpojTTOS epLTreacov, ovtc ^vvahiKelv ideXcov ovTe
tKavos cov Ls ndaiv dypiois dvTX^t-v, irpiv tl ttjv

" The enormous fanciful literature on the daimonion does

not concern the interpretation of Plato, who consistently

treats it as a kind of spiritual tact checking Socrates from
any act opposed to his true moral and intellectual interests.
Cf. What Plato Said, pp. 456-457, on Euthyphro 3 b, Jowett
and Campbell, p. 285.
* FoTToiTwv .. 7ej'6/;t)'ot c/. Aristoph. Clouds 107 tovtu)!'
.

yevov fioi.
The irremediable degeneracy of existing governments is

the starting-point of Plato's political and social specula-

tions. Cf. infra 497 b. Laws 832 c f., Epist. vii. 326 a ;
B}'ron, apud Arnold, Essays in Crit. ii. p. 195 "I have
simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing
governments."
This passage, Apol. 31 e ff. and Gorg. 521-522 may be con-
sidered Plato's apology for not engaging in politics. Cf.
J. V. Novak, Platon u. d. Rhetorik, p. 495 (Schleiermacher,
Einl. z. Gorg. pp. 15 f.), Wilamowitz, Platon, i. 441-442
" Wer kann hicr die Klage iiber das eigene Los uberhoren ?"
There is no probability that, as an eminent scholar has
maintained, the Republic itself was intended as a programme
of practical politics for Athens, and that its failure to win
popular opinion is the chief cause of the disappointed tone
52
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

case of Theages all other conditions were at hand

for his backsUding from philosophy, but his sickly
habit of body keeping him out of politics holds him
back. My own case, the di\ine sign," is hardly

worth mentioning for I suppose it has happened to
few or none before me. And those who have been
of this little company and have tasted the sweetness
''

and blessedness of this possession and who have also

come to understand the madness of the multitude
sufficiently and have seen that there is nothing, if I
may say so, sound or right in any present pohtics,*^ and
that there is no ally with whose aid the champion
of justice'' could escape destruction, [but that he
would be as a man who has fallen among wild beasts,*
unwilhng to share their misdeeds' and unable to hold
out singly against the savagery of all, and that he
would thus, before he could in any way benefit his
of Plato's later wTitings. Cf. Erwin Wolff in Jaeger's Neue
Phil. Untersuchungen, Heft 6, Platos Apologie, pp. 31-33,
who argues that abstinence from politics is proclaimed in the
Apology before the Gorgias and that the same doctrine in
the seventh Epistle absolutely proves that the Apology is
Plato's own.
Cf. also Theaet. 173 c ff., Hipp. Maj. 281 c, Euthydem,
306 B, Xen. Mem. i. 6. 15.
*
Cf. supra 368 b, Apol. 32 e ei . . . i^oriBoiv roh SiKaiois
and 32 a fiaxovfJ-evov vtrip roc SiKaiov.
*
Cf, Pindar, 01. i. 64. For the antithetic juxtaposition
rf. also eiy irdo-if below ; see too 520 b, 374 a, Menex. 241 b,
Pkaedr. 243 c. Laws 906 d, etc.
More in the Utopia (Morley, Ideal Commonwealths, p. 84)
paraphrases loosely from memory what he calls " no ill simile
by which Plato set forth the unreasonableness of a philo-
sopher's meddling with government."
' Cf. Democrates fr. 38, Dielsfiev rdp
ii.' p. 73 KaXbv
dSiK^oifTa Kw\i-iv ft 8f fxri, firj well to prevent
^vvaSiKeiv, " it is

anyone from doing wrong, or else not to join in wrong-

doing."
53
 PLATO
':
noXiv ^ <f)iXovs ovfjaai 7Tpoa7ToX6fXvos ai^co^eAi^S'
avTO) T /cat TOLS d'AAot? O.V yevoLTO ravra Travra
Xoyiafjicp Xa^cbv rjavx^av ex^JV /cat ra avrov vrpctT-
I Tcov, OLOv iv ;^et/i,C(jvi Kovioprov /cat ^aAT^? vtto

I
TTvevfj-aros (f)pofievov vtto reix^ov aTToaTOLS, opcvv
f rovs dXXovs KaraTTLfXTrXa/jLevovs dvofjitas dyaTra, et
i
E TTj) avros Kadapos dSt/cta? re /cat dvoaicov epycov

Tov T ivddBe ^Lov ^Lcoaerai /cat rr^v dTToXXayqv

avrov jxerd KaXrjg eATrtSo? iXecos re /cat evjxevrjs
'AAAd rot, t^ 8' os, ov rd iXdxi-(^ra
drraXXd^eraL.
497 dv hiaTTpa^dpievos dTraXXdrrotro. OvSe ye, L7tov,
rd fxeytara, jirj rvxd)v noXiretag TrpoarjKovarrjs' ev
ydp TTpoarjKOvar] avros re jxdXXov av^r^aerai. /cat
fxerd rdJv ISicov rd Koivd aojaet.
XI. To [Link] ovv rrjs ^iXoaocj^ias , c5v eveKa 8ta-
^oXrjV etXrj^e /cat on ov St/cato)?, efiol {xev So/cet
fxerptajs elprjaOai, el firj er dXXo Xeyeis ri cry.
'AAA' ouSeV, rj 8' OS, en Xeyco Trepl rovrov dAAd
rrjv TTpoai]Kovaav avrfj riva rd)v vvv Xeyeis ttoXl-
B reLOJv; Oj33' rjvnvovv, eiTTOV, dAAd rovro /cat

" Maximus of Tyre 21. 20 comments, " Show me a safe

wall." See vStallbaum ad loc. for references to this passage
in later antiquity. Cf. Heracleit. fr. 44., Diels' i. 67, J.
Stenzel, Platon der Erzieher, p. 114, Bryce, Studies in
History and Jurisprudence^ p. 33, Renan, Souvenirs, xviii.,
P. E. More, Shelburm Essays, iii. pp. 280-281. Cf. also
Epist. vii. 331 u, Eurip, Ion 598-601.
*
Cf. supra Vol. I. on 331 a, infra 621 c-d. Marc.
Aurel. xii. 36 and vi. 30 in fine. See my
article " Hope " in
Hastings's Encyclopaedia of Relic/ion and Ethics.
"
Cf. Aristot. Eth. JVic. 1094 b 9 tieii^df ye /cat reXewrepoK
TO TTJs iriXewf (paiviTai. kclI Xafieii' /cat (Tw^eiv, " j'et the good of
54
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

friends or the state come to an untimely end without

doinfif any good to himself or others.
for all these
reasons I say the philosopher remains quiet, minds
his own affair, and, as it were, standing aside under
shelter of a wall** in a storm andblast of dust and sleet
and seeing others filled full of lawlessness, is content
if in any way he may keep himself free from iniquity
and unholy deeds through this life and take his
departure with fair hope,^ serene and well content
when the end comes." " Well," he said, " that is no
very slight thing to have achieved before taking his
departure." " He would not have accomplished any
very great thing either,*^ " I replied, " if it were not his
fortune to live in a state adapted to his nature. In
such a state only will he himself rather attain his full
stature"* and together with his own preserve the
common weal.
XI. " The causes and the injustice of the calumnia-
tion of philosophy, I think, have been fairly set forth,
unless you have something to add.* " " No," he said,
" I have nothing further to offer on that point. But
which of our present governments do you think is
suitable for philosophy } " f None whatever," I
but the very ground of my complaint is that no
'

said ; '

the state seems a grander and more perfect thing both to

attain and to secure " (tr. F. H. Peters).
* For av^Tjcrerai av^dvrj, and
cf. Theaet. 163 c Iva. koX

Newman, Aristot. Pol. i. p. 68 " As the Christian is said to

be complete in Christ so the individual is said by Aristotle
to be complete in the ttoXis," Spencer, Data of Ethics, xv.
" Hence it is manifest that we must consider the ideal man
as existing in the ideal social state." Cf. also infra 592 a-b,
590 A-c and Introd. Vol. I. p. xxvii.
* An instance of Socrates' Attic courtesy. Cf. 430 b,
Cratyl 427 n, Theaet. 183 c, Gorg. 513 c, Phaedr. 235 a.
But in Gorg. t62 c it is ironical and perhaps in Hipp.
J/aJ. 29lA.
55
 PLATO
a^iav elvat. rcov vvv /cara-
eTTaiTicoixaiy ix-qhefjiiav
araatv TToXecos (f)LXoa6(f)ov ^ucrecos"*! Sio /cat arpi-
^eadai re koL aXXoiovadai avrr^v, woTrep ^eviKOv
anepixa ev yfj aXXr) aTreLpofxevov i^LrrjXov els to
'
i7TLX<^P^ov ^tAet Kparovfievov levai, ovro) Kal
TOVTO TO yevos vvv fiev ovk tax^i'V ttjv avrov
Svvafiiv, dAA' els dXXorptov rjdos eKTrtTTreiv el 8e
C ATji/reratrrjv dptarrjv iroXiTeiav, oiOTrep koX (xvto
aptarov eari, rore SrjXcocreL, on rovro pcev tco ovti
deZov Se ctAAa drdpajTrLva, rd re tcov (f)vae(x)v
rjv, TO.

/cat TCOV eTnrrjhevpidTOJV hrjXos St) ovv el on fJLeTO,

.

TOVTO ep-qaei Tt? avTT) rj TToAtreta. Ovk eyvcos,

e<f)rj' ov yap tovto ep,eXXov, dXX el avrrj, rjv rjfxeZs

hieXiqXvdapiev olKc^ovTes ttjv ttoXiv ^ dXXrj. Ta

fxev dXXa, rjV S' eyw, avTT]- tovto 8e auro epp-qOr)
fjiev /cat Tore, OTt Seijaot tl del evelvai ev tjj voXet,
D Aoyov exov ttjs TToXiTeias tov avTov ovTrep /cat
CTj) o vofioOeT-qs excov tovs vofiovs eTideis. 'Ep-
prjdrjydp, e(f)rj. 'AAA' ovx tKavcos, eiTTOV, eSrjXcodri,
\

^o^cp (Lv [Link] dvTLXap.^[Link] SeSrjXcoKaTe

fiaKpdv /cat x^'-XeTrrjv avTov ttjv diroSeL^iv enel /cat
TO XoiTTov ov TrdvTOJS^ paarov SieXdelv. To ttoZov;
\ TiVa TpoTTOv /Lterap^etpi^o/xeVry TToAt? (f)iXoao(f)Lav ov
I StoAetrai. to. ydp Br] pueydXa TrdvTa ertiaifiaXrj, /cat
J * TrdjTwy AFDM : Trdi'Twi' conj. Bekker.

= constitution in both senses. Cf. 414 a, 425 d,

K-ardcrrao-is
464 A, 493 A, 426 c, 547 b. So also in the Laws. The word
israre elsewhere in Plato.
* For i^LTTjXov Critias 121 a.
cf.
" This need not be a botanical error. In any case the
meaning is plain. Cf. Tim. 51 b with emendation. my
For the idiom cf. avrb Sel^et Phileb. 20 c, with Stallbaiim's
**

note, Theaet. 200 e, Hipp. Maj. 288 b, Aristoph. Wasps

56
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

polity of to-day is worthy of the philosophic nature.

"

AThis just the cause of its perversion and alteration ;

is

as a foreign seed sown in an alien soil is wont to

be overcome and die out into the native growth,"^
*"

so this kind does not preserve its own quality but

falls away and degenerates into an alien type. But
if ever it finds the best polity as it itself is the
best, then will it be apparent <* that this was in truth
divine and all the others human in their natures and
practices. Obviously then you are next going to ask
what is this best form of government." " Wrong,"
he said* " I was going to ask not that but whether
;

it is this one that we have described in our establish-

ment of a state or another." " In other respects it
is this one," said I " but there is one special further
;

point that we mentioned even then, namely that

there would always have to be resident in such a
state an element having the same conception of its
constitution that you the lawgiver had in framing
its laws.^" "That was said," he replied. /"But it
was not sufficiently explained," I said, " from fear
of those objections on your part which have shown
that the demonstration of it is long and difficult.
And apart from that the remainder of the exposition
is by no means easy.^ " " Just what do you mean ? "
" The manner in which a state that occupies itself
with philosophy can escape destruction. For all
great things are precarious and, as the proverb truly

994, Frogs 1361, etc., Pearson on Soph. fr. 388. Cf. avrb
ai]fxave7, Eurip. Bacch. 476, etc.
Plato similarly plays in dramatic fashion with the order

of the dialogue in 523 b, 528 a, 451 b-c, 458 b.

' Cf. supra on 412 a and What Plato Said, p. 647 on

Laws 962 ; infra 502 d.

' Cf. Soph. 244 c. See critical note.
57
 PLATO
R TO Xeyofxevov ra KaXa to) ovti ^^aAeTra. AAA
I E ofxcos, .<f)7],
reXos rj dTToSei^is tovtov
Xa^eroj
cf)avpov yevofxivov. \0v ro [xr) ^ovXeadai, rjv 8
iyco, dXX eLTTep, to firj SvvaadaL Sia/ccoAucref
TTapdiv 8e TTiv y* i/jLrjv irpodvpiiav etcret. (jkottci he
KoX VVV, cos TTpoOvfJLOJS Kal TTapaKLvhwevTiKcos
fxeXXoj Xdyeiv, oti TovvavTLOv rj vvv Set tov eTrtrrj-
SevfiaTos tovtov ttoXlv dnTeadaL. UdJs; [xev, Nw
498 S' ^y<JO, ol Kal dTTTOfievoi, fieipaKia ovTa dpTt e/c
171^

TTalhoiv TO fxeTa^v olKovofxias Kal ;;^p7y/i,aTt(T)u.oi5

nXr^cndaavTcs avTov toj )(aXTTOjTdTcp drraXXaT-
TOVTai, ol ^iXoGO(f)d)TaTOL TTOLOvfievoL- Xeyco Se
XaXcTTCoTaTov TO TTepl Tovs Xoyovs' fv Se Ta> e-rreiTa,
idv Kal aAAcuv tovto TtpaTTovTOjv vapaKaXovfJievoi
edeXaxjLV dKpoaTal yiyveadai, jxeydXa rjyovvTai,
Trdpepyov olofievoi avTO Seiv TTpaTTCLV npos Se to
yrjpas cktos 817 tlvcdv oXtyojv dTToa^evvvvTai ttoXv
B fxdXXov TOV *Hpa/<rAetretoi rjXiov, oaov aiJ^tj ovk
i^dTTTOvTai. Aet Se 770)9; ^^'^- Hav TovvavTiov
fxeipdKia fXv ovra Kal TratSa? fxeipaKicLSr) TratSetav
" So Adam. Others take t(^ 6vtl with x'l^fTd as part of
the proverb. Cf. 435 c, Crat. 384. a-b with schol.
* For the idiomatic dXX' elirep
cf. Parmen, 150 b, Euthydem.
296 B, Thompson on Meno, Excursus 2, pp. 258-264, Aristot.
An. Post. 91 b 33, Eth. Nic. 1 101 a 12, 1 136 b 25, 1 155 b 30,
1168 a 12, 1174 a 27, 1180 b 27, Met. 1028 a 24, 1044 a 11,
Rhet. 1371 a 16.
' What Plato here deprecates Callicles in the Oorgias
recommends, 484 c-d. For the danger of premature study
of dialectic cf. 537 d-e ff. Cf. my Idea of Education in
Plato's Republic, p. 11. Milton develops the thought with
characteristic exuberance. Of Education " They present
:

their young unmatriculated novices at first coming with the

most intellective abstractions of logic and metaphysics . . .

58
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

says, fine tilings are hard."" "All the same," he said,

' our exposition must be completed by making this

plain." " It will be no lack of -svill," I said, " but if

I

anytliing,* a lack of ability, that would prevent that.

But you shall observe for yourself my zeal. And note
again how zealouslv and recklessly I am prepared to
-ay that the state ought to take up this pursuit in
just the reverse of our present fashion.*^ " "In what
way ? " " At present," said I, " those who do take
it up are youths, just out of boyhood,** who in the

interval * before they engage in business and money-

making approach the most difficult part of it, and

then drop it and these are regarded forsooth as
the best exemplars of philosophy. By the most
difficult part I mean discussion. ( In later life they
think they have done much if, when invited, they
deign to hsten^^ to the philosophic discussions of others.
That sort of thing they think should be by-work.
And towards old age,^ %\'ith few exceptions, their light
is quenched more completely than the sun of Hera-
cleitus,'' inasmuch as it is never rekindled." " And
what should they do ? " he said. " Just the reverse.
While they are lads and boys they should occupy

to be tossed and turmoiled with their unballasted wits n

fathomless and unquiet deeps of controversv," etc.
^ Cf. 386 A, 395 c. 413 c, 485 d, 519 a, Demosth. xxi. 154,

Xen. Ages. 10. 4, Ari-,tot. Eth. Nic. 1 103 b 24, 1 104 b 1 1 Isoc, ,

XV. 289.
Cf. 450 c.
' Cf. 475 D, Isoc. xii. 270 dXX' ov5' dWov deiKvvovroi rai
Tov-fjaafTOi 7jdf\r}<rev dArpoarns yevfffdat, " would not even be
"
willing to listen to one worked out and submitted bv another
(tr. Norlin in L.C.L.).
Cf. Antiphon's devotion to horsemanship in the Par-
menides, 126 c. For ttoos to 7^pas cf. 552 d. Laws 653 a.
* Diels i. p. 78, fr. 6. Cf. Aristot. Metfor. ii. 2. 9,
Lucretius v. 662.
59
 PLATO
Kal <j)i\oao<fiLav /xera^^etpi^ea^at, rchv re acofidrcDV,
iv (I> ^Xaardvei re Kal avSpovraL, ev fidXa im-
fieXeXadai, VTrrjpeaiav (jiiXoao(f)ia KTCOixevovs' Trpo-
'Covcrrjs 8e rrjs -qXiKtag, ev TeXeiovadai
fj
r) ipvxrj
dpx^Tai, eTTneLveiv rd CKeivrjs yvfxvdata' orav Se
C XTJyr] fiev rj pcofxr], ttoXitikwv Se Kal arpareicuv
e/CTo? ylyvriraiy rore rjSr] d(f)eTovs vefxeadai Kat,
fjLTjBev dXXo TTpdrreiv, o tl fxr) irdpepyov, rovs
fieXXovras evSaipLovajs ^icoaecrdaL Kal reXevTi]-
aavras to) ^lco to) ^^Lcop,eva} rrjv cKel fiotpav
CTTcar-qaeiv Trpeirovaav.
W\/'Q.S dXrjdibs /X06 hoKels, e(f)7], Xeyetv ye
HcoKpares' of/xat
TTpodv/jicos, c5 /jLevTOi rovs ttoXXovs
rcov aKovovrajv TrpoOvpiorepov en avTirelveiv oi)S'
ottojgtiovv TTeiaojJLevovs , aTTO dp- Qpaavjjidxov
^afxevovs. Mr] Std^aXXe, 'qv 8' iyco, efie Kal
D Qpacrvfiaxov dpri cf>LXovs yeyovoras, ovde irpo rov
exdpovs ovras. rreipas yap ovSev dvrjaofiev, ecos
dv -q 7TLaa>fxev Kal rovrov /cat rovs aXXovs, tj
rrpovpyov n
TTOL'[Link] els eKeZvov rov ^iov, orav

avOis yevofievoi rols roiovrois evrvxoidi Xoyois.

" Cf. 410 c and What Plato Said, p. 496 on Protag.

326 B-c.
* Like
cattle destined for the sacrifice. A
favourite figure
with Plato. Cf. Laws 635 a, Protag. 320 a. It is used literally
in Critias 119 d.
'
Cf. infra 540 a-b, Newman, vVristot. Pol. i. pp. 329-330.
Wilamowitz, Platon, ii. 207-208, fancies that 498 c to 502 a

isa digression expressing Plato's personal desire to be the

philosopher in Athenian politics.
<*
A
half-playful anticipation of the doctrine of immortality
reserved for Bk. x. 608 d if It involves no contradiction
.

and justifies no inferences as to the date and composition of

the Republic. Cf. Gomperz iii. 335.
60
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

themselves with an education and a culture suitable

to youth, and while their bodies are growing to man-
hood take right good care of them, thus securing a
basis and a support" for the intellectual hfe. But
with the advance of age, when the soul begins to
attain its maturity, they should make its exercises
more severe, and when the bodily strength declines
and they are past the age of political and military
ervice, then at last they should be given free range
'
f the pasture and do nothing but philosophize,"'
''

except incidentally, if they are to live happily, and,

when the end has come, crown the life they have lived
\nth a consonant destiny in that other world."
XII. " You really seem to be very much in earnest,
Socrates," he said " yet I think most of your hearers
;

are even more earnest in their opposition and will not

be in the least convinced, beginning with Thrasy-
machus." " Do not try to breed a quarrel between
me and Thrasymachus, who have just become friends
and were not enemies before either. For we will
-pare no effort until we either convince him and the
rest or achieve something that will profit them when
they come to that life in which they will be born
again and meet with such discussions as these." " A
**

Cf. Emerson, Experience, in fine, " which in his passage

into new worlds he will carry with him." Bayard Taylor
(American Men of Letters, p. 113), who began to study
Greek late in life, remarked, "Oh, but I expect to use it
in the other world." Even the sober positivist Mill says
Theism, pp. 249-250) " The truth that life is short and art
^ long is from of old one of the most discouraging facts of

ur condition: this hoj^e admits the possibility that the art

mployed in improving and beautifying the soul itself may
avaU for good in some other life even when seemingly use-
less in this."

61
 PLATO
El? afxiKpov y' , ehrj, )(p6vov etprjKag. Et? ovSev
fiev ovv, e(f)'rjv, ws ye Trpos rov anavra. ro
fievTOi pLTj TTeWeardai, rot? Xeyop^evois rovs ttoXXovs
uavfjLa ovSev ov yap ttcottot^ ethov yevop-evov ro
E vvv Xeyopievov , aAAo. ttoXv p,dXXov roiavT arra
p-qp-ara e^eTTiVr/Ses' dAAT^Aot? (hpoicopiva, dAA'
OVK avo rov avrofidrov waTrep vvv ^vp,7Ta6vra'
avopa Se aperfj TTapLaa>p,vov Kal (hpuoicopivov
P'^xpt' rov Svvarov reXecog cpyco re Kal X6ya>,
ovvaarevovra iv ttoAci irepq. roiavrrj, ov rroiTTore.
499 eiopoLKaoLV ovre era ovre TrXetovs' t] otei; OuSa-
p.a)s ye, Oi3Se ye av Xoywv, cS /xafcdpte, KaXaJv re
Kai eXevdepcov iKavcZg eTrrjKooi yeyovaaiv, otcov
C,7]rLV [Link] ro dXi]6s ^vvrerapevojs eK Travros
rpoTTov rov yvdjvai xdpiv, rd he Kopi/jd re Kal
epiariKa /cat /trjSa^oae dXXoae reivovra t) Trpo?
ho^av Kat epiv Kal ev SiKats Kal iv Ihiais avvov-
aiats" TToppojdev aarral^opievcov . Ovhe rovrojv, e(f>'r].
B Tovrcjv roL ;\;dpii', rjv 8' eyco, Kal ravra irpoopco-
p,evoL 7jp,LS rore Kal BeBiores op,o}g eXeyopev, vtto

" For ets here rf. Klaydes on Clouds 1180, Herod, vii. 46,
Eurip. Heracleidae 270.
* Cf. supra on 486 a. See too Plut. Cons. Apol. 17. 111c
" a tKousand, yes, ten thousand years are onlj' an Aipio-ros
point, nav, the smallest part of a point, as Simonides says."
Cf. also Lyra Graeca (L.C.L.), ii. p. 338, Anth. Pal. x. 78.
" yefSfxefov . \([Link].
. . It is not translating to make no
attempt to reproduce Plato's parody of " polyphonic prose."
The allusion here to Isocrates and the Gorgian figure of
irapiaw<ns and irapo/[Link](jo<ns is unmistakable. The subtlety of
Plato's style treats the " accidental " occurrence of a Gorgian
figure in his own writing as a symbol of the difference
between the artificial style and insincerity of the sophists and
the serious truth of his own ideals.
62
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

brief time" your forecast contemplates," he said.

" Nay, nothing at all," I replied, " as compared with
eternity.'' However, the unwillingness of the multi-
tude to believe what you say is nothing surprising.
For of the thing here spoken they have never
beheld a token, but only the forced and artificial
=

chiming of word and phrase, not spontaneous and

accidental as has happened here. But the figure of
a man * equilibrated and assimilated to virtue's self
'
'
'

perfectly, so far as may be, in word and deed, and

holding rule in a city of like quahty, that is a thing
they have never seen in one case or in many. Do you
think they have ? " " By no means." " Neither,
my dear fellow, have they ever seriously incUned to
hearken to fair and free discussions whose sole en-
deavour was to search out the truth at any cost for
'*

knowledge's sake, and which dwell apart and salute

from afar * all the subtleties and cavils that lead to
naught but opinion ^ and strife in court-room and in
private talk." " They have not," he said. " For
this cause and foreseeing this, we then despite our
fears ^ declared under compulsion of the truth * that

Cf. Isoc. X. 18 Xeyoixevo^

. . yeybfxeixK, What Plato Said,
.

p. 544 on Symp. 185 c, F. Reinhardt, De Tsocratis aemulis,

p. 39, Lucilius, bk. v. init. " hoc ' nolueris et debueris ' te
si minu' delectat, quod Texvlov Isocrateium est," etc.
* As the Platonic dialectic does iPhileb. 58 c-d,
cf. What
Plato Said, p. 611) in contrast with the rhetorician, the
lawyer (Theaet. 172 d-e) and the eristic {Euthydem. 272 b,
Hipp. Maj. 288 d).
Cf. Eurip. Hippol. 102,
* Psalm cxxxviii. 6 "the proud
he knoweth afar off."
' Cf. Phaedrus 253 d with Theaetet. 18T c, and Unity
of Plato's Thought, p. 48.
Cf. on 489 A.
Cf. Aristot. Met. 984 b 10, 984 a 19.

63
 PLATO
Td\y]9ovs 'qvayKaafxevoi, on ovre ttoXls ovre ttoXi-
reta ovhe y' avrfp ofxoicos fit] ttotc yiinqrac reXeos,
TTpiv av rois <^tAoCTo^ois' rovrois Tot? oXiyois Koi
ov TTOVTjpoTs, dxp'']crTois Se vvv KKXr]p,Vots, di'dyKT]
ris e/c rvxf]S trepi^dXri, etre ^ovXovr at etre jxt] tto-

XeuiS iTTifxeXrjdrjvai, /cat rfj ttoXcl Kar-qKooi yeveadai,

]
T] TU)v VVV ev SwaaTelais ^ ^aaiXetaLS ovtcov
C vUoLV ^ aVTOLS K TIVOS deLaS iTTLTTVOiaS dXr]dl,V7]S
<l>LXoao<^La<s dXrjdivog epcos ijJiTrearj. tovtcov Be
TTorepa yeveadac djXi^oTepa (Ls dpa iarlv dSvva-
}

rovy iydj fiev ovhiva ^r^piL e^^iv Xoyov. ovtco yap

dv rjpLeis hiKaiois KarayeXchpieda, cos dXXcos evxdcs
opLota XeyovTCs. iq ovx ovrcos; Outco?. Et roiwv
aKpoLs els cl)iXocrocf)Lav ttoXcws tis dvdyKrj ein-
pieXrjdrjvai r} yeyovev ev ra> diTeipcp rep rrapeXr]-
XvdoTi XP^^V 'H '^'^^ ^^^ eariv ev tlvl ^ap^apiKco
D TOTTip, TTOppOi TTOV CKTOS OVTL Trjs TJpLeTepaS 77-
6if/0)s, ^ /cat eTTeira yev-qaeTai, tovtov
Trepl
eroipLoi Tip Xoycp hiapidx^odai, yeyovev -q
(I)s

elprjpievr) TToXireia /cat eo-rt /cat yevrioerai ye, orav

avrr] r) pLovaa TToXecos eyKparrjs yevTjrai. ov yap
dSvvaTOS yeveaOai, ou8' rjp,eLs dSvvara Xeyopuev
Xo-Xend Se /cat Trap' r)pL.a)v opLoXoyetrai,. Kat epLoi,
e(f>'r], ovTOJ So/cet. Tot? he ttoXXoZs, r)V 8 eyw,

" Cf. Laws 747 e. But we must not attribute personal

superstition to Plato. See What Plato Said, index, s.v.
Superstition.
*
Cf, Laws 711 D, Thuc. vi. 24. 3; so iv. 4. 1 opfir] iviireae.
' We might say, "talking like vain Utopians or idle
idealists." The scholiast says, p. 348, tovto Kal Kev-qv (paai
fjLaKaplav, Cf. supra. Vol. I. on 458 a, and for evxai on 450 d,
and Novotny on Epist. vii. 331 d.
" Cf. Laws 782 a, 678 a-b, and What Plato Said, p. 627 on

64
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

neither city nor polity nor man either will ever be

perfected until some chance compels this uncorrupted
remnant of philosophers, who now bear the stigma of
uselessness, to take charge of the state whether they
wish it or not, and constrains the citizens to obey them,
\or else until by some divine inspiration" a genuine
passion for true philosophy takes possession * either
of the sons of the men now in power and sovereignty
or of themselves. ^To affirm that either or both of
these things cannot possibly come to pass is I say quite ,
,

unreasonable. Only in that case could we be justly

ridiculed as uttering things as futile as day-dreams are."
Isnotthatso?" "Itis." '^If, then, thebest philosophi-
cal natures have ever been constrained to take charge
of the state in infinite time past,** or now are in some
barbaric region * far beyond our ken, or shall hereafter
be, we are prepared to maintain our contention ^ that
the constitution we have described has been, is, or
will be' reahzed'' when this philosophic Muse has
taken control of the state.* It is not a thing impossible
to happen, nor are we speaking of impossibilities.
That it is difficult we too admit." " I also think so,"

he said. "But the multitude are you going to say ?

Laws 676 a-b also Isoc. Panath. 204-205, seven hundred

;

years seemed a short time. *

Cf. Phaedo 78 a.
' For the ellipsis of the first person of the verb cf. Parmen.

137 c, Laches 180 a. The omission of the third person is

very frequent.
Cf. 492 E, Laws 71 1 e, 739 c, 888 e.
* Cf. Vol. I. Introd. p. xxxii, and ibid, on 472 b, and What
Plato Said, p. 564, also infra 540 d, Newman, Aristot. Pol.
L p. 377.
* This is what I have called the ABA
style. Cf. 599 e,
Apol. 20 c, Phaedo 57 b. Laches 185 a, Protag. 344 c, Theaet,
185 A, 190 B, etc. It is nearly what Riddeil calls binary
structure. Apology, pp. 204-217.
VOL. II F 65
 PLATO
OTL ovK av 8o/cet, epelg; "lacog, (f)rj.
^Q. jxaKapie,
E rjv 8' eyco, fjcr] Trary ovtco rcbv ttoXXow Karriyopei,
dXXotav^ roL ho^av e^ovaiv, iav avTols jxr) 0tAo-
veiKojv dXXa Trapafivdovixevos Kal aTToXvofxevos ttjP
rrjs (fjiXofiad las Sia^oXrjv evdeiKvurj ovs Xeyeis tovs
(f)LXoa6<f)ov<: Kal hiopit^jj uiavep dpri tt^v re (jyvaiv
,

500 avrayv Kal rrjv imr'qSeva'iv, Iva p,rj rjycovrai ae

XeyeLV ovs avroi OLOirat. iq Kal iav ovto) deaJvrai,
dXXoiav T ov^ (fj-qaeis avrovs So^av X-^ipeadai koI
dXXa aTTOKpLvelaOaL ; t] oiet TLvd )(aXeTTaiveLV ro) pur]

XO-Xerrcp r^ <f>6ovlv rip pLTj (f)dovpa), dcf)9ov6v re /cat

vpdov ovra; iyu) pcev yap ae 7Tpo(/)ddaas Xeyco,
on ev oXiyois rialv rjyoupiai aAA' ovk ev rw TrXrjdei,

)(aXeTTrjv ovrco yiyveadai. Kai eyd) apceXei,,

(f)VGLV
B e^rj, ^vvoiop,ai. Ovkovv Kal avro rovro ^vvoUi,
rov x^XeTTCos rrpos <^iXoao<f)iav rovs ttoXXov? Sia-
Keiadai CKeivovs alriovs elvaL rovs e^ix)dev ov
TTpoorJKOv Xoihopovpievovs re
eTretCTKeKcopLaKoras ,
avrols^ Kal (fnXaTTexd^Qp-ovcos exovras Kal del Trepi
1 iXKoLav AD, dW
olav F, a\X o'lav M.
* t' 01^ Baiter rot mss. Burnet brackets the sentence.
:

' aiiTois Burnet and Adam, avrot^ Ast, Stallbaum, Jowett,

and Campbell.
" It is uncritical to find "contradictions" in variations of
mood, emphasis, and expression that are broadly human and
that no writer can avoid. Any thinker may at one moment
and for one purpose defy popular oj)inion and for another
conciliate it at one time affirm that it doesn't matter what
;

the ignorant people think or say, and at another urge that

prudence bids us be discreet. So St. Paul who says {Gal. i.
10) " Do I seek to please men ? for if I yet pleased men I
should not be the servant of Christ," says also {Bom. xiv. 16)
" Let not then your good be evil spoken of," Cf. also What
Plato Said, p. 616 on Laws 950 b.
* A recurrence to etymological meaning, C/. ddvfiov
66
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

does not think so," said I. " That may be," he said.
" My dear fellow," said I, " do not thus absolutely
condemn the multitude." They will surelv be of
another mind if in no spirit of contention but sooth-
ingly and endeavouring to do away with the dispraise
of learning you point out to them whom you mean
by philosophers, and define as we recently did their
nature and their pursuits so that the people may not
suppose you to mean those of whom they are thinking.
Or even if they do look at them in that way, are you
still going to deny that they will change their opinion
and answer differently ? Or do you think that anyone
is ungentle to the gentle or grudging to the ungrudging
if he himself is ungrudging ^ and mild ? I will antici-
pate you and reply that I think that only in some
few and not in the mass of mankind is so ungentle or
harsh a temper to be found." " And I, you may be
assured," he said, " concur." " And do vou not also
concur in this very point that the blame for this harsh
<=

attitude of the many towards philosophy falls on that

riotous crew who have burst in where they do not<*

belong, wrangling with one another,* filled with spite ^

411 B, Laws 888 a, ei'^i-xi'as Laves 791 c, Thompson on Meno
78 E, [Link] 1 12 a 32-38, Eurip. Heracleidaf 730
auKftaXCK,Shakes. Rich. III. v. v. 37 " Reduce these bloody
days again."
' For a similar teasing or playful repetition of
a word </.
517 c, 394 B, 449 c, 470 b-c.
* For the figure of the /ci-Mos or revel rout cf. Theaet. 1 84 a,
Aesch. Ap. 1 ] 89, Eurip. Ion 1 197, and, with a' variation of the
image, Virgil, Aen. i. 148 and Tennyson, "Lucretius":
As crowds that in an hour
Of civic tumult jam the doors.
C/. Adam ad loc. and "Wilamowitz, Platon, ii. 121.
' Isoc. Ant id. 260 seems to take this term to himself; c/.
Panath. 249, Peacf 65, Ly^ias xxiv. 24 roKvrpa'yiJuuv eifd xal
Opaais (fat tpikarexOrj/xwy, Demosth. xxiv. 6.
67
 PLATO
dvdp(x)7TU)v Tovs Xoyovs TToiovfievovg, 'qKiara <j>i\o-

ao(f)La rrpenov TTOiovvras; IToAu y', ecfyrj.

XIII. OuSe yap ttov, c5 'ASeifiavre, axoXrj tco

y d)S aX-qdajs Trpos tols ovai Trjv Sidvoi-av exovTi
C KOLTOJ ^XeTTCLV cls dvOpcjTTOJV TTpayjxaTeLas, Kal
fiaxofjuevov avrols (f)96vov re Kal Sucr/xei'etaj ip,-

TTLTrXaadai, dXX els rerayfieva drra Kal Kara

ravrd del e^ovra opwvrag /cat dea>[Link] ovt
dSiKOVvra ovt' dSLKOvp,eva vtt' dXX'qXojv, Koap-o) Se
Trdvra /cat Kara Xoyov exovra, ravra p-Lp^eladaL
re Kal 6 n pudXiara d(f)[Link]. ^ otei rivd
p,rixavr]v elvai, orw rig opuXeX dyapievos, p-y]

piipLeladai eKeivo; 'ASwarov, e^^j. Qeico Srj Kal

D Koafuo) 6 ye (f)LX6aocf>os opaXcov Koapnos re /cat

deZo'S els to hvvarov dvdpcoTTcp ytyverai' Sta^oXrj 8

ev TraCTi ttoXXt]. YlavrdTraai p,ev ovv. *Av ovv ris,

" i.e. gossip. Cf. Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1125 a .5 odd' dvdpuiro-
\6yos, Epictetus ili. 16. 4. Cf. also Phileb. 59 b, Theaet.
173 D, 174 c.
*
Cf. supra on 486 a, also Phileb. 58 d, 59 a, Tim. 90 d,
and perhaps Tim. 47 a and Phaedo 79.
This passage is often supposed to refer to the ideas, and
eVei in 500 d shows that Plato is in fact there thinking of
them, though in Rep. 529 a-b ff. he protests against this
[Link] strictly speaking Kara ravra. aei ^xo^'^^
in cwould on Platonic principles be true only of the ideas.
Nevertheless poets and imitators have rightly felt that the
dominating thought of the passage is the effect on the philo-
sopher's mind of the contemplation of the heavens. This
confusion or assimilation is, of course, still more natural
to Aristotle, who thought the stars unchanging. Cf. Met.
1063 a 16 ravra 5' aiel Kal fxera^oXris ovdefxids KOtvuivovvra. Cf.
also Sophocles, Ajax 669 ff., and Shorey in Sneath, Evolution
of Ethics, pp. 261-263, Dio Chrys. xl. (Teubner ii. p. 199),
68
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

and always talking about persons," a thing least be-

fitting philosophy ?
" " Least of all, indeed," he
said.
XIII. " For surely, Adeimantus, the man whose
mind is truly fixed on eternal realities * has no leisure
to turn his eyes downward upon the petty affairs of
men, and so engaging in strife \\ith them to be filled
with envy and hate, but he fixes his gaze upon the
things of the eternal and unchanging order, and
seeing that they neither wrong nor are \\Tonged bv
one another, but all abide in harmony as reason bids,
he \v'ill endeavour to imitate them and, as far as may
be, to fashion himself in their likeness and assimilate"
himself to them. Or do you think it possible not to
imitate the things to which anyone attaches himself
with admiration r " " Impossible," he said. " Then
the lover of wisdom associating with the divine order
will himself become orderly and divine in the measure
permitted to man.** But calumny ^ is plentiful every-
where." " Yes, truly." " If, then," I said, " some
Boethius, Cans. iii. 8 " respicite caeli spatium . . . et
aliquando desinite vilia mirari," Dante, Purg. 14:
The heavens call you and o'er your heads revolving
Reveal the lamps of beauty ever burning
Your eyes are fixed on earth and goods dissolving,
Wherefore He smites you. He, the all-discerning.
Cf. Arnold, "A Summer Night," infijie:
you remain
. . .

A world above man's head to let him see

How boundless might his soul's horizons be, etc.

suggests the 6fwioj<ns detfi Theaet. 176 b.

AipouoiovcTdai
Cf.
What Plato Said, p. 578.
" Cf. on 493 D, and for the idea 383 c.
Cf. Hamlet in. i. 141 "thou shalt not escape calumny,"

Bacchylides 12 (13). 202-203 ^pordv 8i fjLWfjios wavTeaai /jl^p

iarip itr' ipyon.
69
 PLATO
elnov, avTO) avdyKt] yevrjTai a Kl opa fieXerrjaai
els avOpwTTCov tJOt] Kal tSta Kal drjixoata riddvai, Kat,
yLTj iavTOV TrXdrretv, dpa KaKOV S-qfiLOvpyov
jjLovov
avTov yev^aeadai aco<f)poavvr]s re Kal StKrato-
oiei
avvrjs Kal ^vfMTrdcrrjs rrjs S-qjjLOTiKrjs aperrjs;
"HKLorrd ye, rj 8' o?. 'AAA' idv Sr] atadcovTai ol
E TToAAot, oTi dXrjdrj vepl avrov Xeyo^ev, ;)(;aAe-
TTOvovai Sr) rots <piXo(j6(f)Oi.s Kal aTncTT'^aovcnv rjfuv
Xeyovaiv, cos ovk dv rrore dXXcos euSat/xovT^o-ete
TToXiSy el fXT] avTTjv Siaypdi/jeiav ol ro) deuv rrapa-
Selyixari ^P'-'V^'^^'' C^ypd(f>OL; Ov ;(;aAe7rav'ouatP',

501 17 S' OS, edvnep a'iaOiovrai. dXXd S-q riva Xeyeis

rpoTTOV rrjs Siaypa(f)r]s ; Aa^ovres, rjv 8' eyco,
coairep TTivaKa ttoXlv re Kal tjOt] dvdpojTTOjv, rtpd)-
rov fiev KaOapdv TTOirjaeiav dv o ov Trdvv pd8iov'
dXX* ovv olad' ort rovrio dv evdvs rwv dXXojv

" The philosopher unwillingly holds office. Cf. on 345 e.

* frequently used in Plato of the world of ideas. Cf.
iKel is
Phaedrus 250 a, Phoedo 109 e.
" For the word TrXdrretv used of the lawgiver cf. 377 c,

Laws 671 c, 712 b, 746 a, 800 b, R^p. 374 a, 377 c, 420 c,

466 A, 588 c, etc.
For the idea that the ruler shapes the state according to
the pattern cf. infra 540 a-b.
Plato applies the language of the theory of ideas to the
"social tissue" here exactly as he applies it to the making
of a tool in the Cratylus 389 c. In both cases there is a
workman, the ideal pattern and the material in which it is
more or less perfectly embodied. Such passages are the
source of Aristotle's doctrine of matter and form. Cf. Met.
1044 a 25, De part. an. 639 b 25-27, 640 b 24 f., 642 a 10 ff.,
De an. 403 b 3, Zeller, Aristot. (Eng.) i. p. 357. Cf, also ^org.
503 D-E, Polit. 306 c, 309 d and Unity of Plato's Thought,
pp. 31-32. Cf. Alcinous, Wiaayt^yy) ii. (Teubner vi. p. 153)
d Karb. rbv OewfrrjTiKOv ^iov opdrai, ^af Xerijcai et's avOpuiiricv i)0-q.
^
Cf. Aristot. Pol. 1329 a 21 dpfr^s 8vfiiovpy6v. Cf. also
70
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

compulsion * is laid upon him to practise stamping on

the plastic matter of human nature in public and
private the patterns that he visions there,^ and not
merely to mould and fashion himself, do you think
"^

he will prove a poor craftsman of sobriety and justice

**

and all forms of ordinary civic virtue*? " "By no

means," he said. " But if the multitude become
aware that what we are saying of the philosopher is
true, will they still be harsh with philosophers, and will
they distrust our statement that no city could ever be
blessed unless its hneaments were traced ^ by artists
who used the heavenly model ? " " They will not be
harsh," he said, " if they perceive that. But tell
me, what is the manner of that sketch you have in
mind ? " " They will take the city and the characters
of men, as they might a tablet, and first wipe it clean
no easy task. But at any rate you know that this
would be their first point of difference from ordinary

1275 b 29 with Newman, Introd. Aristot. Fol. p. 229. Cf.

395 c drjfiiovpyovs iXevdepias, Theages 125 a 5r]niovpy6v . . . t/js

ffo<piai,
*
Cf. Laws 968 a xpis rors Sni/Moalan dpfrais, Phaedo
82 A and supra. Vol. I. on 430 c. Brochard, " La Morale
de Platen," UAnnee Philosophique, xvi. (1905) p. 12 "La
justice est appel^e une vertu populaire." This is a little
misleading if he means that justice itself is " une vertu
populaire."
^ For diaypd'[Link] cf. 387 b and Laws 778 a. See also
Stallbaum ad loc.
' Cf. Vol. L on 426 d. This is one of the passages that
may be used or misused to class Plato with the radicals.
Cf. 541 a, Latcs 736 a-b, Polit. 293 d, Euthyphro 2 d-3 a.
H. W. Schneider, The Puritan Mind, p. 36, says, " Plato
claimed that before his Republic could be established the
adult population must be killed off."
Cf. however Vol. L Introd. p. xxxix. What Plato Said,
p. 83, and infra, p. 76, note a on 502 a.
71
 PLATO
BieveyKOiev, rw [XTJre IBlcotov fi-qre TrdAeco? e^e-
Ai^crai dv dt/jaadaL fxrjhe ypdcjiitv vofxovs, Ttpiv r]

napaXa^eXv Kadapdv rj avrol TToirjaai. Kai 6p6a)s

y* , (f)r). OvKovv fxerd ravra otei VTToypdif/aadai,
dv TO ax^jp-o. rrjs TToAiretas'; Tt p^ijv; "ETretra,
B olfxat, aTTepyat^opLevoi TTVKvd dv e/carepcacr' (XTro-

pXeTTocev, irpos re to (f)vat, StVatov /cat KaXov /cat

a(jL)(f>pov Kal TTavra rd roiavra Kal Trpog eKetvo av

TO V TOLs dvdpojTTOis p.7roLolv, ^vp.p,tyvvvrs Te
/cai Kepawvvres K tojv 7nTr][Link] to av-
hpeiKeXoVy diT* CKeivov TKp,aip6fXvot, o Srj /cai

Opurjpos eKaXeaev ev tols dvdpd)7TOis eyyt,yvop,vov

deoeiSes re Kal deoetKcXov. 'Opdcos, ^4^'^- Kai to
p,v dv, pijuai, e^aXL(f)OLGv , to he ndXiv eyypa-
C (f>oiv, ews o Ti jLtaAtCTTa dvOpcoTreia rjOr] els oaov
evhex^TUL d0(f>LXrj TTonjaeiav. KaAAto-TTy yovv dv,
ecf)!], 7] ypa(f)rj yevono. '
A.p' ovv, rjv 8 iyco,
[Link] ttt} eKelvovs, ovs SiaTeTUfievovs e^' "qfJ-ds

e(f)r]ada levai, cos tolovtos eaTi TToXtTeicbv t,a>ypd-

<l>os, ov tot' eTrrjvovp^ev Trpds avTovs, 8i' ov eKelvot

ixaXeTTacvov , otl Tag TToXets avTot Trdpehibopiev , Kai

Tt pidXXov avTO vvv aKovovTes npavvovTai; Kai
" The theory of ideas frequently employs this image of
the artist looking off to his model and back again to his
work. Cf. on 484 c, and What Plato Said, p. 458, Unity of
Plato's Thought, p. 37.
* [Link]. the idea of justice. For (pvcris and the theory of ideas
cf. infra 597 c, Phaedo 103 b, Parmen. 132 d, Cratijl. 389 c-d,
390 E.
For dvopeiKeXov [Link]. 424 e.
" II. i. 131, Od. iii.416. Cf. 589 d, 500 c-n. Laws 818
B-c, and What Plato Said, p. 578 on Theaet. 176 b, Cic. Tusc.
72
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

reformers, that they would refuse to take in hand

either indixidual or state or to legislate before they
either received a clean slate or themselves made it
clean." " And they would be right," he said.
" And thereafter, do you not think that they would
sketch the figure of the constitution?" " Surely."
" And then, I take it, in the course of the work
they would glance " frequently in either direction, at
justice, beauty, sobriety and the like as they are in
the nature of things,* and alternately at that which
they were trying to reproduce in mankind, mingling
and blending from various pursuits that hue of
the flesh, so to speak, deriving their judgement from
that likeness of humanity " which Homer too called
when it appeared in men the image and likeness of
God.** " " Right," he said. " And they would erase
one touch or stroke and paint in another until
in the measure of the possible * they had made
the characters of men pleasing and dear to God
as may be." "That at any rate ^ would be the
fairest painting." " Are we then making any im-
pression on those who you said^ were advancing to
attack us ^^ith might and main ? Can we con\ince
them that such a political artist of character and such
a painter exists as the one we then were praising when
our proposal to entrust the state to him angered them,
and are they now in a gentler mood when they hear
what we are now saying?" " Much gentler," he said,
i.26, 65 "divina mallem ad nos." Cf. also Tim. 90 a,
Phaedr. 249 c.
The modern reader may think of Tennyson, In Mem.
cviii." \\ hat find I in the highest place But mine own
irfiantom chantiner hvmns? " Cf. also Adam ad loc.
'
Cf. 500 u and on 493 d.
' For fovv cf. supra. Vol. I. on 334 a. * Cf. 474 a.
73
 PLATO l|

D TToXv ye, Tj 8' 6'?, et aa}(f>povovaiv Ufj yap Srf .

e^ovaiv dfi(f)i(T^7]Trj(7aL ; TTorepov pbrj rod ovro'S re

Kal aXrjdeias ipaaras elvai, tovs (f)iXocr6(f)OVs
"AroTTOv fievT dv, c^f], etrj. AAAa [xtj rrjv ^vaiv
avTa)v oiKeiav etvai tov dpiarov, rjv rjixeis Sit^A-
dofiev; OvSe tovto. Ti Se; ttjv TOiavTrjv tvxov'
aav Tcov TrpoarrjKOVTCov e7Tirr]8evfidTCDV ovk dyadrjv
TeAe'co? eaeadai Kal <f>iX6(JO(jiOV etirep rivd dXXrjv;
r) e/ceiVous' ^i^areiv^ fxaXXov, ovg rjfiets d(f>a>piaajxev

E Ov hriTTOV. "Eti ovv dypiavovcn XeyovTCOV rjixcov,

OTi, TTplv dv TToXccos TO ^lX6uo<J)ov ydvos iyKpares
yivTjTaL, ovT TToXei ovre TToXirais KaKcov TrayAa
earai, ovhk "q TToXneia, rjv fivdoXoyov/Jiev Xoyco,
cpycp Te'Ao? X-qi/jerai,; "Icrcos, (f>r], -^jTrov. BouAei
ovv, 'qv 8' iycx), fir) fiTTov (f>d)fiev avTovs dAAa
iravraTTaaL Trpdovg ycyovevai Kal TreTreladai, tva,
502 t i^T] Ti, dAAa alaxvvdivres ofioXoyrjacomv ; Hdvv
ixev ovv, ecjuTj.

XIV. OvTOL fiev Toivvv, r^v 8' ey(x), tovto

[Link] TOvSc 8e TTCpi TLS dfM<f)l,a-
^qr-qaei, <hs ovk dv Tvxoiev yevojJLevoi ^acriXeajv
eKyovot Tf hvvaarchv rds (f>vaeL? (f)LX6ao(f)OL ; OuS av
els, ^4^- ToLOVTOvs 8e yevofxevovs (hs ttoXXtj dvdyKrj
hiat^daprivai, ex^t- tls Xeyeiv; d)s fiev yap X'^^Xe'ndv
aojdrjvai, Kal ^vyxoipovfxev d)s 8e ev ttovti
rjfjiels

B TO) xpovip TU)v TTavTCOV ovSeTTOT^ ou8 av eis aoi-

deirj, ead^ oans dix(f)ia^r]T'qae(,; Kat ttcos ; AAAa
fXTQV, TjV 8' eyoi, els iKavos yevofxevos , ttoXlv e;^ci>v

1 tpTiaeiv ADM : Adam reads (py^aei ; see his note ad loc.

Cf. 591 A, This affirmation of the impossibility of denial

or controversy is a motif frequent in the Attic orators. Cf.
Lj'^sias XXX. 26, xxxi. 21, xiii. 49, vi. 46, etc.

74
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI
" if they are reasonable." " How can they controvert
it '
? Will they deny that the lovers of wisdom are
lovers of reality and truth ? " " That would be
monstrous," he said. " Or that their nature as we
"
have portrayed it is akin to the highest and best ?
" Not that either." " Well, then, can they deny that
such a nature bred in the pursuits that befit it will
be perfectly good and philosophic so far as that can
be said of anyone ? Or ^^^ll they rather say it of
those whom we have excluded ? " " Surely not."
" Will they, then, any longer be fierce \vith us when
we declare that, until the philosophic class wins
control, there will be no surcease of trouble for city
or citizens nor will the polity which we fable ^ in
words be brought to pass in deed ? " " They will
perhaps be less so," he said. " Instead of less so,
may we not say that they have been altogether
tamed and convinced, so that for very shame, if
for no other reason, they may assent ? " " Certainly,"
said he.
XIV. " Let us assume, then," said I, " that they
are won over to this view. Will anyone contend that
there is no chance that the offspring of kings and
"
rulers should be born with the philosophic nature ?
" Not one," he said. " And can anyone prove that if
so bom they must necessarily be corrupted ? The
difficulty of their salvation we too concede
"^
but that
;

in all the course of time not one of all could be saved,''

will anyone maintain that ? " " How could he ? "
" But surely," said I, " the occurrence of one such is
Cf. 376 D, Laws 632 e, 841 c, Phaedr. 276 e.
Frutiger, Les Mythes de Plalon, p. 13, says Plato uses the
word fivdos only once of his own mvths, Polit. 268 e.
* C/. Laics 711 D TO xaXexo;', an^ 495 a-b.
' Cf. 494 A.
75
 PLATO
TreiOofievrjv, navr' eTrtTfAecrat ra vvv [Link].
'\Kav6s yap, (/)rj. "Apxovrog yap ttov, rjv 8 eyco,
ridevros rovs vofxovs Kal to. eTnrrjhevpLara, a
hLeX-q\vda}xev , ov hrjrrov ahvvaTOV eQiXetv TTOLeXv
TOVS TToAlVa?. OuS' OTTCOCTTIOVV. AAAtt St], aiTCp
ripZi' So/cet, So^at kol oSXols davjxaarov ti /cat
C dSvvaTOv; Ovk oifxaL eycoye, '^ S' os. Kat [xiqv

OTL ye ^eXriara, etTrep hward, LKavcos iv toIs

epuTrpoadev, wg iyipfxai, hiiqXdopLev. 'iKavib'S yap.
Nur St^, (Ls OiK, ^Vfx^alvec rjjxiv irepl rrjs vo/xo-
deaiag dptara fxev elvat d Xeyojxev, ei yevoLTO,
XaXeTrd Se yeviadai, ov jxevTOi dSwara ye. Zv/x-
jSaiVet ydp, e(j>rj.
XV. OvKovv eTreiSrj rovro pboyis reXog ax^, "ra
D i-JTiXoLTra St) fxerd tovto XeKreov, rtva rpoirov rjfXLV
Kal e/c rivojv pLadrjixaTCOV re /cat eTnrr^SevjJidTOJV ol
acoTTJpes eveaovrai ttjs TroAtreta?, /cat Kara Trota?
rjXiKLas e/cuCTTOt ii<d(TTCov aTTTo/Lterot; Ae/creov
yievroi, e(f>r].i OvSev, -^v 8' eyd), to aocf)ov [xoi
iyevero rrjv re rdJv yvvaLKciJv rrjs Krijaecos Svaxe-
peiav iv ro) irpoodev TrapaXnTovri /cat TratSoyoi'tat'
/cat rr^v rCbv dpxdvrojv KardaTacriv, etSort cos
eTTLcfjOovos re /cat x^^^'^V yt-yveadai -q TravreXcos
E dXiqdnjs' vvv ydp ovhev tjttov rjXde ro Betv avra

' (Jf. Epist. vii. 338 c and Novotny, Plato's Epistles, p. 170.

Plato's apparent radicalism again. Cf. on 501 a. Cf. also

Laws 709 e, but note the qualification in 875 c, 713 e-714i a,
691 c-D. Wilamowitz, Platon, ii. pp. 381-383 seems to say
that the eh Uavds is the philosopher Plato.
' Note the different tone of 565 e \a^<^v cKptiSpa Tretdd/[Link]'

6x^01'. Cf. Phaedr. 260 c Xajiihv irdXiv wcraiTws t'xovcj'a*'

ireiOT].
'
Cf. on 499 D, and Frutiger, Mythes de Platon, p. 43.

76
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

enough," if he has a state which obeys him,*' to realize"

" " Yes , one is enough
. , '
all that now seems so incredible
he said. " For if such a ruler," I said, " ordains the
laws and institutions that we have described it is surely
not impossible that the citizens should be content to
carry them out." "By no means." " Would it, then,
be at all strange or impossible for others to come to the
opinion to which we have come <* ? " "I think not,"
said he. " And further that these things are best, if
possible, has already, I take it, been sufficiently
shown." "Yes, sufficiently." " Our present opinion,
then, about this legislation is that our plan would be
best if it could be realized and that this reaUzation
is difficult* yet not impossible." " That is the con-
clusion," he said.
XV. " This difficulty disposed of, we have next to
speak of what remains, in what way, namely, and as a
result of what studies and pursuits, these preservers ^
of the constitution will form a part of our state, and
at what ages they will severally take up each study."
" Yes, we have to speak of that," he said. " I gained
nothing," I said, " by my cunning ''in omitting hereto-
fore ^ the distasteful topic of the possession of women
and procreation of children and the appointment of
rulers, because I knew that the absolutelv true and
right way would provoke censure and is difficult of
realization for now I am none the less compelled
;

" Cf. vii. 327 b-c, viii. 357 b ff.

Epist.
Cf. 502 A, Campbell's note on Theaet. 144 a, and Wila-
mowitz, Platon, ii. p. 208.
f
Cf. on 412 A-B and 497 c-d. Laws 960 b. 463 b is not
quite relevant.
For TO (To<p6v cf. Eutkyd^m. 293 d, 297 d, Garg. 483 a,
Herod, v. 18 rovro ovdiv elvai (T0(p6v, Synip. 214 a t6 ffd^ua/ia,
Laches 183 d,
Cf 423 E.
77
 PLATO
OLeAdeLv. Kat to. fiev St] tcov yvvaiKaJv re /cat
TTaiScov 7T7Tpavrai, ro 8e t(x)v dp)(6vrcov (ZcrTrep i^
OipXV^ P'^TeXdelv Set. iXeyofxev 8', el pLvrfp^oveveis
503 Seiv avTovs t^tAoTToAtSas" re (ftaiveaOat, ^acravt-
t,ofievovs ev ri^ovaig re /cat AuTrat?, /cat ro Soy/xa
rovro /xt^t' ev ^o^ocs p-^r* ev dXXr}
Trov'ots' jLtT^r' ei'

fi-qSepLLa p,era^o\fj eK^dXXovras, iq rov

<f)aiveadai
dSvvarovvra diroKpLreov, rov Se Travraxov a/c7^-
parov cK^aivovra, oiairep xpvcrov ev TTvpl ^aaavLt,6-
fxevov, arareov dp^ovra /cat yepa Soreov /cat t,covrL
Kat reXevrrjcavn /cat ddXa. roiavr drra rjv rd
[Link], Trape^iovros /cat TTapaKaXv-nrop-evov rov
B XoyoVy 7Tecl)o^rjp,evov Kivelv ro vvv Trapov. ^AXrjde-
,
arara, e(f)iq, Aeyei?' pep,v7jp,ai ydp. "Okvos ydp,
n e(f)r]v, o) (f>LXe, eyco, elrrelv rd vvv d7ToreroXp,r]peva'
vvv rovro fiev reroXfxrjadco elTrelv, on rovs
Se
aKpL^eardrovs ^uAa/ca? (f)i.Xoa6(f)ovs Set Kadiardvai,
Yilp-qcrdo} ydp, (f)r]. Notjctov St], d)s et/corco? oAt'yoi
eaovrai aoi. r^v ydp 8L'qXdop,ev (f)vatv SeXv vtt-

dpxeiv avrols, els ravro ^vp,(f)vea6at avrrjs rd p-epy)

" In Bk. V.
Cf. 412 D-E, 413 c-414 a, 430 a-b, 537, 540 a, Laws 751 c.
*

C/. on 412 E, 413 c, Soph. 230 b.

"

TO 56yfj.a tovto is an illogical idiom.

''
The antecedent is
only implied. Cf. 373 c, 598 c. See my article in Trans-
actions of the American Phil. Assoc, xlvii. (1916) pp. 205-236.
*
Cf. Theognis 417-418 Traparpi^ofiai (bare /xoXifidijj xpi'cis,
ibid. 447-452, 1105-1106, Herod, vii. 10, Eurip. fr. 955 (N.).
" I will try them as gold is
Cf. Zechariah xiii. 9 . . .

tried," Job xxiii. 10 " When he hath tried me I shall come

forth as gold." Cf also 1 Peter i. 7, Psalm xii. 6, Ixvi. 10,
Isaiah xlviii. 10.
^ The translation preserves the intentional order of the
Greek. For the idea c/. 414 a and 465 d-e and for &9\a cf
460 b. Cobet rejects /cat S,d\a, but emendations are needless.
78

I
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

to discuss them. The matter of the women and

children has been disposed of," but the education of
the rulers has to be examined again, I may say, from
the starting-point. We
were saying, if you recollect,
that they must approve themselves lovers of the state
when tested * in pleasures and pains, and make it
apparent that they do not abandon this fixed faith ^
'^

under stress of labours or fears or any other vicissi-

tude, and that anyone who could not keep that faith
must be rejected, while he who always issued from
the test pure and intact, like gold tried in the fire,* is
to be established as ruler and to receive honours in
life and after death and prizes as well.^ Something
of this sort we said while the argument shpped by
with veiled face " in fear * of starting * our present de-
bate." "Most true," he said; "I remember." "We
shrank, my friend," I said, " from uttering the
audacities which have now been hazarded. But now
let us find com-age for the definitive pronouncement
that as the most perfect ^ guardians we must establish
philosophers." " Yes, assume it to have been said,"
said he. " Note, then, that they ^\ill naturally be few,*
for the different components of the nature which we
said their education presupposed rarely consent to

Cf. Phaedr. 237 a, Epist. vii. 340 a. For the per-

sonification of the X670S cf. What Plato Said, p. 500 on
Protag. 361 a-b. So too Cic. Tusc. i. 45. 108 " sed ita tetra
sunt quaedam, ut ea fugiat et reformidet oratio."
* Cf. 387 B.
* Cf. the proverbial /htj Kiveiv to. aKivrfra, do not move the

immovable, " let sleeping dogs lie," in Laws 664 d-e,

913 B. Cf. also Phileb. 16 c, and the American idiom " start
something."
' Cf. 503 D. 341 B, 340 e, 342 d.
Cf. on 494 A

79
 PLATO
oXiyaKis ideXei, ra ttoAAci Se SieaTTacrfjuevrj <f)vTai.
C Hcvs, ^4'1> Aeyet?; Ew/xa^ei? koL yLvrjjxove^ Kal
ayxi-voL /cat o^els /cat oaa aAAa tovtois eVerat
olad^ on OVK idiXovaiv a/xa (f)veadai /cat veavcKoi} re
/cat ixeyaXoTTpeneis rag Stai'oias', oiot Koafilcos
fiera rjavxiOLS Kal ^e^aLorrjTos iOeXeiv ^rjv, dAA'
OL TOIOVTOI VTTO O^VrT}TOS (f>ipOVraL OTTTj dv TV)(0)aL,
Kal TO ^e^aiov drrav avTcov i^oix^rat. *AXr)6rj,
e(f>r], Xeyeis. Ovkovv tol jSe)8ata av ravra TjOrj Kal
I
OVK evfierd^oXa, ots dv rts fxaXXov cos TnaroZs
T) ^pi^cratTO, /cat ev rip TToXijxco Trpos tovs (f>6^ovs
SvGKLVTjTa ovra, irpos rds p^aOrjaeis av iroiel rav-
rov SvaKivrjTOJS ex^L Kal Svo-fxaOdjs axmep dno-
vevapKCOjxeva, Kal vttvov re Kal xdcrpL-qs epLTTiTrXavrai,
' orav Ti Ser) roiovrov SiaTTOveLV. "Eo-rt ravra, e(f)rj.
*\{peZs he y' (/>ap,ev dp,(f)orpa}v Selv ev re Kal
i

KaXcjg p,eTxetv, iq fi-qre TzatSei'as" rijs aKpi^eardrr]?

Selv avrcp jjceraSiSovai. jxi^re rt-fxrjs p-i^re dpx'rj?.
^OpOdJs, rj 8' OS. OvKovv OTrdviov avro o'lei
E eaeaOai; Y[a)s S' ov; Baaavtareov 8rj ev re ots
rore eXeyo\iev ttovols re Kal (f)6^ots Kal '^Sovats,
Kal erL Brj o rore Trapeifiev vvv Xeyofxev, on Kal ev
^ On the text see end of note a below.

The translation is correct. In the Greek the anacoluthon

"
isfor right emphasis, and the separation of veauiKol re Kal
neyaXoirpeireh from the other members of the list is also an
intentional feature of Plato's style to avoid the monotony of
too long an enumeration. The two things that rarely com-
bine are Plato's two temperaments. The description of the
orderly temperament begins with oloi and oi toloOtoi refers to
the preceding description of the active temperament. The
Mss. have kui before ptaviKoi Heindorf, followed by Wilamo-
;

witz, and Adam's minor edition, put it before oXol. Burnet

follows the MSS. Adam's larger edition puts Kal veaviKoi re
80
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

grow in one but for the most part these qualities

;

are found apart." " What do you mean ? " he said.

" Facihty in learning, memory, sagacity, quickness of
apprehension and their accompaniments, and youth-
ful spirit and magnificence in soul are qualities, you
know, that are rarely combined in human nature with
a disposition to live orderly, quiet, and stable lives ;
"

but such men, by reason of their quickness,^ are driven

about just as chance directs, and all steadfastness is
gone out of them." " You speak truly," he said.
" And on the other hand, the steadfast and stable
temperaments, whom one could rather trust in use,
and who in war are not easily moved and aroused to
fear, are apt to act in the same way " when confronted
with studies. They are not easily aroused, learn with
difficulty, as if benumbed,'* and are filled vriih sleep
and yawning when an intellectual task is set them."
" It is so," he said. " But we affirmed that a man
must partake of both temperaments in due and fair
combination or else participate in neither the highest*
education nor in honours nor in rule. " " And rightly,"
he said. " Do you not think, then, that such a blend ^^^ll
be a rare thing ? " "Of course." "They must, then,
be tested in the toils and fears and pleasures of which
we then spoke,^ and we have also now to speak of a
after fxerai. The right meaning can be got from any of the
texts in a good viva voce reading.
Plato's contrast of the two temperaments disregards the
possible objection of a psychologist that the adventurous
temperament is not necessarily intellectual. Cf. supra on
375 c, and What Plato Said, p. 573 on Theaet. 14.4 a-b, Cic.
Tusc. V. 24. * C/. Theaet. 144 a flF.

* A touch of humour in a teacher.

* For the figure cf. Meno 80 a, 84 b and c.
* Lit. " most precise." Cf. Laws 965 b aKpi^fffripav iraidflav.
' In 412 c ff.
VOL. II O 81
 PLATO
jxad-qixaoLTroXXolg yvfivd^cLv Set, aKOTTOViras el
Kal fieyiara fiad-q/xara Svvarr) carat iveyKelv,
TO.
504 etre /cat dTToSeiXidaei, wairep ol iv rols ddXois^
aTToSeiXicovTes. YlpeTrei ye roi hrj, (f)r], ovro)
OKOTTeZv dXkd TTOia S17 Aeyei? fxaOi^fxara iieyiara;
XVI. Mi/T^jLtofeuet? /xeV ttov, rjv 8' iyco, otl
rpLTTo. ethrj fpvx'^S hiaarrjodixevoi ^vve^i^dt^oiiev
hiKaiocTVvris re irepi, /cat au}(f>poavvrig Kal dvBpelas
Kal ao(f>iag o eKaarov etrj. Mrj yap p,v'rjfj,ovvcov,

e(f)r},rd AotTra dv etrjv St/catoj fir] dKovetv. ^H Kal

B TO TTpopprjdkv avrcbv; To ttolov S-q; ^KXeyofidv
TTOV, OTt, d)s /xev Svvarov '^v KdXXiarra avrd Kar-
ihelv, dXXr) fxaKporepa eiiq Trepiohos, rjv Trept-
eXdovTL KaTa(f>av7J yiyvoiro, tcHv fievroi efXTrpoadev
TTpoeLprjjjLevcov eTzo/xera? (XTroSet^ei? olov t' etrj

TTpoadifjai. Kal vpcets i^apKelv e^are, Kal ovTOi

hrj ipprjOr] rd Tore rrjg fxev dKpi^elag, d>s efiol

(f)aii>ro, cAAtTTT], el Se vpZv dpeaKovrcog, Vfielg dv

rovro etrroire. AAA [Link], (f>r], pierpiajs' e(f>aL-
C vero [XTju Kal rois dXXoLs. 'AAA', c5 ^t'Ae, -qv
8'

^ d^Xois Orelli : dXXots mss.

infra 535 b, Protag. 326 c.

Cf.
For the tripartite soul cf. Vol. I. on 435 a and 436 b,
*
i

Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 42, What Plato Said, p. 526 on

Phaedo 68 c, p. 552 on Phaedr. 246 b, and p. 563 on Rep.
4,35 B-c.
Cf. Vol. I. on 435 d,
" Phaedr. 274 a, Friedlander, PZatow,
[Link]. 376-377, Jowett and Campbell, p. 300, Frutiger,
Mythes de Platon, pp. 81 ff., and my Idea of Good in
Plato's Republic {Univ. of Chicago Studies in Class. Phil.
vol. i. p. 190). There is no mysticism and no obscurity. The
longer way is the higher education, which will enable the
philosopher not only like ordinary citizens to do the right
from habit and training, but to understand the reasons for it.
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

point we then passed by, that we must exercise them

in many studies, watching them to see whether their
nature is capable of enduring the greatest and most
difficult studies orwhether it will faint and flinch as
men flinch in trials and contests of the body."
the
" That is certainly the right way of looking at it," he
said. " But what do you understand by the greatest
"
studies ?

XVI. " You remember, I presume," said I, " that

after distinguishing three kinds * in the soul, we estab-
Ushed definitions of justice, sobriety, bravery and
\tisdom severally." " If I did not remember," he
said, " I should not deserve to hear the rest." " Do
"
you also remember what was said before this ?
" What ? " " We
were saying, I beheve, that for
the most perfect discernment of these things another
longer way " was requisite which would make them
plain to one who took it, but that it was possible
to add proofs on a par ^Wth the preceding discussion.
And you said that that was sufficient, and it was on
this understanding that what we then said was said,
falling short of ultimate precision as it appeared to
me, but if it contented you it is for you to say."
" Well," he said, " it was measurably satisfactory to
me, and apparently to the rest of the company."
The outcome of such an education is described as the vision
of the idea of good, which for ethics and politics means a
restatement of the provisional psychological definition of the
cardinal virtues in terms of the ultimate elements of human
welfare. For metaphysics and cosmogony the vision of the
idea of good may mean a teleological interpretation of the
universe and the interpretation of all things in terms of
benevolent design. That is reserved for poetical and mythical
treatment in the Timaeus. The Republic merely glances at
the thought from time to time and returns to its own theme.
Cf. also Introd.; p. xxxv.
83
 PLATO
eyoj, fierpov tcov toiovtcov aTToXeLTTOV Kal oTiovv
Tov ovTos ov Trdvv /jLerpLcos ylyveraf dreXcs yap
ovSep ovSevos fxerpov So/cet 8' ivtore riaiv cKavcos

V^V ;(eiv Kal ovhev Belv Trepairepo) J^rjrelv. Kal

^oA', ^r), avxvol Trdaxovaiv avro 8ta padvpuiav.
TouTou Se ye, ^v 8' eyco, tov iradrjpiaTos TJKLcrra
irpoahel <f>vXaKL rroXecos re Kal vofxojv. EtVds", 17

8' OS. Trjv pLaKpoTcpav Toivvv, cS eraZpe, <f)7jv,

D nepureov tu> tolovtw, Kal ovx ^ttov fiavddvovTi

TTOvqreov t] yvfivat^ofievip- t], o vvv St) iXeyofiev,
TOV fieyiOTOV re Kal fidXiara Trpoar^KOVTOs piaO-q-

pbaros 6771 reXos ovTTore rj^ei. Ov yap ravra, (f)r],

pLyiara, dXX tl tl piei^ov dLKaioavvqs t Kal <Lv

hiijXdopiev ; Kat pielt^ov, fjv 8' y(x), Kal avrwv
TovTCov ovx V7Toypa(f)rjv Set coa-nep vvv dedaaaOai,
dXXd TTjv reXecordr-qv aTrepyaaiav pLrj Trapiivai'

ri ov yeXolov, cttI pikv dXXoLS apuKpov d^lots Trdv

E TTOLeXv avvTivopivovs oTTOig 6 Tl aKpi^earaTa Kat
Kadapa)Tara e^ei, tcov 8e [Link](x)v p.r] pieylaTas

" Cf. Cic. De

fin. i. 1 "nee modus est uUus investigandi
veri nisi inveneris."
Note not only the edifying tone and the unction of the
style but the definite suggestion of Plato's distaste for
relativity and imperfection which finds expression in the
criticism of the homo mensura in the Theaetetus, in the state-
ment of the Laws 716 c, that God is the measure of all things
{What Plato Said, p. 631), and in the contrast in the Politicus
283-284 between measuring things against one another and
measuring them by an idea. Cf. infra 531 a.
84
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI
" Nay, my friend," said I, " a measure of such things
that in the least degree falls short of reality proves
no measure at all. For nothing that is imperfect is
the measure of anything," though some people some-
times think that they have already done enough ^ and
that there is no need of further inquiry." " Yes,
indeed," he said, " many experience this because of
their sloth." " An experience," said I, " that least
of all befits the guardians of a state and of its laws."
" That seems likely," he said. " Then," said I,
" such a one must go around'' the longer way and must
labour no less in studies than in the exercises of the
body ; or else, as we were just sapng, he A^ill never
come to the end of the greatest study and that which
most properly belongs to him." " Why, are not
these things the greatest ? " said he " but is there ;

still something greater than justice and the other

virtues we described ? " " There is not only some-
thing greater," I said, " but of these very things we
need not merely to contemplate an outline ^ as now,
but we must omit nothing of their most exact
elaboration. Or would it not be absurd to strain every
nerve * to attain to the utmost precision and clarity
of knowledge about other things of trifling moment
and not to demand the greatest precision for the

* Cf. Menex. 234 a. Charm. 158 c, 8ymp. 204 a, EpUt.

vii. 341 A.
From here to the end of this Book the notes are to be used
in connexion with the Introduction, pp. xxiii-xxxvi, where the
idea of good and the divided line are discussed.
'
Cf. Phaedr. 274 a.
* i.e. sketch, adumbration. The viroypa<f>-^ is the account
of the cardinal virtues in Bk. iv. 428-433.
* For -KcLv Totetv on 4b8 c, for awTeivoftivovs Euthydem.
cf,
88 D.

85
 PLATO
d^Lovv elvai /cat raj oLKpi^eLas; Kat fidXa, (f)r],

[d^cov TO hiavorjixaf' o fievroi fieyccrrov fxadrj/jLa koI

TTepl 6 Ti avTo Xeyeis, dv ae, <f)7], d<j)eivai
oiei riv*
jjiTj ipcoT'qaavTa tl Iotlv; Oj) Trdw, rjv 8' eyoj,
aXXd KOL au ipcora. iravrcos avro ovk oAtya/ctf
aKTJKoas' vvv Se t] ovk ivvoels rj av Biavoel [Link]
505 TTpdypiaTa Trapex^i-v avTiXafi^avofievos otfiai 8e .

Tovro ^LtaAAot'" eTrei on ye rj tov dyaOov iSea

fieyiarov /xad-qpLa, TroAAa/cis' a/ci^/coa?, -fj
Sr] BiKaca
/cat TttAAa TTpoa)(pTqadiieva p^pT^ot/Lia /cat ci^e'Ai/xa
yiyverai. /cat ruv op^eSov ota^' ort /xeAAa> touto
Aeyetr, /cat Trpo? rovrio on avr^v ov)( cKavajs
tap,V' el Se firj [Link], dvev Se ravrrjs, el o ti
IxdXiaTa rdXXa eTnaraifxeda, olad^ ort ouSej' 'qpxv
B 6(f)eXog, woTTep ovS el KeKT'qfieOd rt dvev tov
dyadov. ^ otet rt ttXcov elvai irdoav Krqaiv kt7J-
aOai, fXTj jxevToi dyaBijv; iq TrdvTa rdAAa ^povelv
^ Bracketed by Scheiermacher, whom the Oxford text
follows. Cf. also Adam ad loc. Stallbaum ad loc, defends.

" Such juxtaposition of different forms of the same word is

one of the most common features of Plato's style. Cf. 453 b
iva 'iv, 466 D navTa TrdfTTj, 467 D TroWd ttoWois, 496 c oi'Sfis
ovoev. Laws 835 c fxjvcf} fiovo^, 958 B eKdvra e/cwj'. Cf. also
Protag. 327 b, Gorg. 523 b, Symp. 217 b, Tim. 92 b, Phaedo
109 B, Apol. 32 c, and Laws passim.
^ The answer is to the sense.
Cf. 346 e, Crito 47 c, and d.
Laches 195 d, Gorg. 467 e. See critical note.
' Plato assumed that the reader will understand that the

unavailing quest for " the good " in the earlier dialogues is
an anticipation of the idea of good. Cf. supra Vol. I. on
476 A and What Plato Said, p. 71. Wilamowitz, Platan, i.
p. 567, does not understand.
"
Cf. 508 E, 517 c, Cratgl. 418 e. Cf. Phileb. 64 e and
What Plato Said, p. 534, on Phaedo 99 a.
86
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

greatest " matters ? " "It would indeed,* " he said

" but do you suppose that anyone will let you go
without asking what is the greatest study and with
what you think it is concerned ? " " By no means,"
said I ;
" but do you ask the question. You cer-
tainly have heard it often, but now you either do not
apprehend or again you are minded to make trouble
for me by attacking the argument. I suspect it is
rather the latter. For you have often heard" that the
greatest thing to learn is the idea of good** byreference
to which ' j ust things f and all the rest become useful and
beneficial. And now I am almost sure you know that
this is what I am going to speak of and to say further
that we have no adequate knowledge of it. And if we
do not know it, then, even if without the knowledge of
this we should know all other things never so well,
you are aware that it would avail us nothing, just as
no possession either is of any avails \Wthout the posses-
sion of the good. Or do you think there is any profit ''

in possessing everything except that which is good,

or in understanding all things else apart from the

Plato isunwilling to confine his idea of good to a formula

and so seems to speak of it as a mystery. It was so regarded
throughout antiquity (r/. Diog. Laert. iii. 27), and by a
majority of modern scholars. Cf. mv Idea of Good in Plato's
Republic, pp. 188-189, What Plato Said, pp. 72, 230-231,
Introd. Vol. I. pp. xl-xli, and Vol. II. pp. xxvii, xxxiv.
' Lit. "the use of which," i.e. a theory of the cardinal

virtues is scientific only if deduced from an ultimate sanction

or ideal.
' The omission of the article merely gives a vaguely
generalizing colour. It makes no difference.
For the idiom oiiSiv 6<pe\os cf. Euthyph. 4 e. Lysis 208 e,

supra 36.5 b. Charm. 155 e, etc

* Cf. 427 A, Phaedr. 215 c, Cratyl. 387 a, Euthyd. 288 e.
Laws 751 B, 944 d, etc.
87
 PLATO
dvV dyadov, KaXov Se /cat dyadov firjSev
Tov
(fipoveZv ; Md
At" ovk eycoy , ^(f)r).
XVII. 'AAAd fxrjv /cat rdSe ye olada, on rots
fiev TToAAot? rjSovT] So/cet etvai to dyadov, tols Se
KO/jufjOTepoLS (f)p6vr]ais. Ilajs" S' ou; Kat ort ye,
c5 ^t'Ae, ot rovTO rjyov/jievot ovk )(ovai Set^at rjTLs
(f>p6inf]aLS, dXX dvayKdl,ovTaL reXevTOJvres ttjv tov
ayadov (f>dvat,. Kat fidXa, ^^f], yeAoicus'. YVcjs
yap ovxi-3 ^iv o eyo), ei oveiOLL,ovTs ye otl ovk
tafiev TO dyadov, Xeyovai TrdXiv ws etSocrt; <f)p6-
VTjaiv yap avTO
cfyaatv elvai dyadov, d)s av $vv-
teWcoi' rjjjLcvv 6 tl Xeyovaw, eTretSdi^ to tov dyadov
^dey^oiVTaL 6vop,a. ^AXrjdeaTaTa, e07^. Tt Sat;
ot TTjv TjSovTjv dyadov opit^oixevoi fxcbv ixrj tl eAar-
Tovos" TrXavr^g efiTrXecp tojv eTepcxiv; rj ov Kai ovtol

dvayKdt,ovTaL ofxoXoyelv rjSovds etvat, /ca/cas';

" KoXbv S^ Kal dya66v suggests but does not mean Kd\oKayad6v
in its half-technical sense. The two words fill out the rhythm
with Platonic fulness and are virtual synonyms. Cf. Fhileb.
65 A and Symp. 210-211 where because of the subject the
KaXov is substituted for the dyaOou.
* So Polus and Callicles in the Oorgias and later the
Epicureans and Cyrenaics. Cf. also What Plato Said, p. 131
Eurip. IJippol. 383 ol S' ijdovriv irpodivTei avrl rod KaXov, and
supra on 329 a-b.
There is no contradiction here with the Philebus. Plato
does not himself say that either pleasure or knowledge is the
good.
" KOfi^j/oripoii is very slightly if at all ironical here. Cf.
the American " sophisticated " in recent use. See too Theaet.
156 A, Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1905 a 18 oi x"/'''''fs-
''
Plato does not distingufsh synonyms in the style of
Prodicus {cf. Protag. 337 a ff.) and Aristotle {cf Eth. Nic.
1140-1141) when the distinction is irrelevant to his purpose.
Cf. Euthyd. 281 d, Theaet. 176 b with 176 c.

Cf. 428 B-c, Euthydem. 288 d f., Laws 961 e 6 irepl tI
88
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

good while understanding and knowing nothing that is

fair and good " ? " " No, by Zeus, I do not," he said.
XVII. " But, furthermore, you know this too, that
the multitude believe pleasure* to be the good, and
the finer spirits intelligence or knowledge.'' " " Cer-
<^

tainly." " And you are also aware, my friend, that

those who hold this latter \-iew are not able to point
out what knowledge * it is but are finally compelled
to say that it is the knowledge of the good." " Most
absurdly," he said. " Is it not absurd," said I, " if
while taunting us with our ignorance of the good they
turn about and talk to us as if we knew it ? For they
say it is the knowledge of the good/ as if we under-
stood their meaning when they utter ^ the word
'
good.' " " Most true," he said. " Well, are those
who define the good as pleasure infected with any less
confusion ^ of thought than the others ? Or are not
they in like manner compelled to admit that there

row. See Unity of Plato^a Thought, n. 650. The demand

for specification Is frequent in the dialogues. Cf. Euthyph.
13 D, Laches \9i e, G(yrg. 451 a. Charm. 165 c-e. Ale. I.
124 E ff.
^ There is no "the" in the Greek. Emendations are idle.
Plato is supremely indifferent to logical precision when it
makes no difference for a reasonably intelligent reader. Cf.
mv note on Phileb. 11 b-c in Class. Phil. vol. iii. (1908)
pp. 343-.345.
' <;>de'i^wvTai logically of mere physical utterance {cf. Theaet.

157 b), not, I think, as Adam says, of high-sounding oracular

utterance.
* Lit. " wandering," the mark of error. Cf. 484 b. Lysis
213 E, Phatdo 79 c. Soph. 230 b, Phaedr. 263 b, Parmen. 135 e.
Laws 962 d.
* Kal ofToi is an idiom of over-particularization.
illogical
The sentence begins generally and ends specifically. Plato
does not care, since the meaning is clear, Cf. Protag. 336 c,
Gorg. 456 c-d, Phaedo 62 a.
89
 PLATO
S^oSpa ye. Su/i^aiVei 8r) avrols, otfiat, ofjLO-
D Aoyetv dyada Kal KaKo. Tavrd. 17 ydp; Ti
eluai,
/u.T^i'; OuKTOw on fxev fieydXai /cat TroAAat d}x<f>ia-
PrjT-qcreis Trepl avTOV, ^avepov; Ilaj? ydp ov;
Ti Se; rdSe oy (f>avep6v, cu? SiVaia /xev /cat /caAa
TToAAot ai' eXoiVTO rd SoKovvra, Kav p,^
fj, ofxcvs
ravra TTpdrretv Kal KeKTrjaOai /cat Sokclv, dyaOd
Se ovSevl en dpKeZ rd SoKovvra KraaOai, dXXd rd
ovra t^rjTOvai, ttjv 8e 86^av ivravOa rjS-q Trds
E ari/za^et; Kat pdXa, (f)rj.
"0 8rj StojKet p,ev
diraaa i/'ux^ '*^^^ royroy eve/ca Trat'Ta Trpdrrei,
aTTop^avrevopevrj n
aTTopovaa 8e /cat oy/c
etvat,
exovaa Xa^elv iKavcbg ri iarlv oySe TricTTeittot'
Xprjoaadai povip,a) oia /cat Trept raAAa, Sto, rovro
be d7TOTuy)(dvi /cat tcDp' d'AAajv et rt o^eAo? t^i',
506 Trept Sr/ to rotoyrop' /cat roaovrov ovtco (/xxipev Setv
iaKOTOJadai /cat CKelvovs rovs ^eXrloTovs iv rfj

" A distinct reference to Callicles' admission in Gorgias

499 B Tas fi^v ^eXrlovs riSofdi, rds 5^ x^^P^vi, cf. 499 C,
Rep. 561 c, and Phileb. 13 c Trdtras ofiolai ehai, Stenzel's
notion (Studien zur Entw. d. Plat. Dialektik, p. 98) that in
the Philebus Plato " ist von dem Standpunkt des Staates
S03c weit entfernt" is uncritical. The Republic merely
refers to the Gorgias to show that the question is disputed
and the disputants contradict themselves.
*"
d/ji.(f>iai3T]Tr](ris is slightly disparaging, c/. Theaet. 163 c,
158 c, 198 c, Sophist 233 b, 225 b, but less so than ipi!:etv
in Protag. 337 a.
" Men may deny the reality of the conventional virtues
but not of the ultimate sanction, whatever it is. Cf. Theaet,
167 c, 172 A-B, and Shorey in Class. Phil. xvi. (1921)
pp. 164-168.
**
Cf. Gorg. 468 b to dyadof dpa duvKovres, supra 505 a-b,
Phileb. 20 d, Symp. 206 a, Euthyd. 278 e, Aristot. Eth. JVic.

90
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

are bad pleasures"?" "Most assuredly." "The

outcome is, I take it, that they are admitting the same
"
things to be both good and bad, are they not ?
" Certainly." " Then is it not apparent that there
are many and violent disputes * about it ? " " Of
course." " And again, is it not apparent that while
in the case of the just and the honourable many would
prefer the semblance [Link] the reality in action,
"^

possession, and opinion, yet when it comes to the good

nobody is content -with the possession of the appear-
ance but all men
seek the reality, and the semblance
satisfies nobody here ? " " Quite so," he said.
" That, then, which every soul pursues and for its sake
**

does all that it does, with an intuition* of its reality,

but yet baffled ^ and unable to apprehend its nature
adequately, or to attain to any stable belief about it
as about other things,' and for that reason failing of
any possible benefit from other things, in a matter
of this quality and moment, can we, I ask you, allow
a hke blindness and obscurity in those best citizens *

1173 a, 1094 a oO -iravra <jiierai, Zeller, Aristot. i. pp. 344-345,

379, Boethius iii. 10, Dante, Purg. xvii. 127-129.
* Cf. Phileb. 64 A fiavrevrtov.
Cf. Arnold's phrase, God
and the Bible, chap. i. p. 23 "approximate language
thrown out as it were at certain great objects which the
human mind augurs and feels after."
' As throughout the minor dialogues. Cf. What Plato
Said, p. 71.
' Because, in the language of Platonic metaphysics, it is
the wapovaia roC dyadou that makes them good but for the ;

practical purpose of ethical theory, because they need the

sanction. Cf. Introd. p. xxvii, and Montaigne i. 24 "Toute
aultre science est dommageable a celuy qui n'a la science de
la bonte."
* As in the " longer way" Plato is careful not to commit
himself to a definition of the ideal or the sanction, but
postulates it for his guardians.

91
 PLATO
TToXei, OLS Trdvra iyx^tpioCfxev ; "H/ctCTxa y', e^i^.
Olfiai yovv, eliTOV, St/cata re /cat araAct dyvoov-
fxeva OTTT) TTOTe ayadd eanv, ov ttoXXov tivos d^iov
(pvXaKa KKTrja9aL av eavrojv top tovto dyvoovvra,
fjLavTevofiat 8e fxrjBeva avrd irporepov yvwcreadai
LKavcog. KaAtD? ydp, e(f)rj, fxavrevei. Ovkovv yjimv
B r) TToXiTeia reXeojs KeKoapufjaeTai , idv 6 toiovtos
avrrjv emaKOTrfj ^vXa^, 6 rovrcov eTriar'qixcov
XVIII. ^AvdyKT), (1)7). dXXd ai) 817, <L Sco-
Kpares, rrorepov evLCTT'qiJirjv to dyadov (f>fjs elvai tj

rjSovT^v; T] dXXo rt Tcapd ravra; Ovrog, ^v 8' iyco,

av7]p, KaXcos riaOa /cat TraAat KaTa(f)avr)s on aoi

ovK aTToxpi^crot to Tolg aAAots' Sokovv Trepl avTcov.
OvSe ydp SiKaiov [xoi, (f)r), u> Saj/cpares", ^atVerat
TCI Tcjjv dXXcov p,v ex^LV eLTTeZv SoyfMaTa, to 8'
avTov pLTj, ToaovTov xpovov Trepl TavTa rrpaypiaTevo-
C fievov. Tt 8at; ^v 8' iyco- So/cet aoL St/cator eii^ai
7Tpt a)V Tis fir] otSe Xeyeiv cos eiSora; OvSafioJS
y , ^77, to? etSora, co? \iivToi olofievov Tavd* a
oierat edeXetv Xeyetv. Tt Se; elTTOv ovk TJadr^crai
Tas dvev iTTiaT-qjjLrjs So^as, (vs Trdaai alaxpo.i;
(Lv at jSeArtcTTat ru^Aat* ^ SoKovai tL act TV(f)Xa>v

" The personal or ab urbe condita construction. Cf.

Thmet. 169 E.
* The guardians must be able to give a reason, which they

can do only by reference to the sanction. For the idea that

the statesman must know better than other men cf. Laws
968 A, 964 c, 8.58 d-e, 817 c, Xen. Me7n. iii. 6. 8.
" For the effect of the future perfect rf. 457 b XeX^ferai,

465 A irpo<TT(Td^Tai, Eurip. Heracleidae 980 TreTrpd^erat.

92
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI
"
to whose hands we are to entrust all things ?
" Least of all," he said. " 1 fancy, at any rate," said
I, " that the just and the honourable, if their relation
and reference to the good is not known," will not have
secured a guardian * of much worth in the man thus
ignorant, and my surmise is that no one Asill under-
stand them adequately before he knows this." " You
surmise well," he said. " Then our constitution will
have its perfect and definitive organization" only when
such a guardian, who knows these things, oversees it."
X\TII. " Necessarily," he said. " But you your-
self, Socrates, do you think that knowledge is the
"
good or pleasure or something else and different ?
" WTiat a man it is," said I ; " you made it very plain"*
long ago that you would not be satisfied with what
others think about it." " Why, it does not seem
right to me either, Socrates," he said, " to be ready to
state the opinions of others but not one's own when
"
one has occupied himself with the matter so long.*
" But then," said I, " do you think it right to speak
as having knowledge about things one does not
know ? " " By no means," he said, " as having
knowledge, but one ought to be willing to tell as his
opinion what he opines." " Nay," said I, " have
you not observed that opinions divorced from know-
ledge f are ugly things ? The best of them are
blind.' Or do you think that those who hold some
"*
For the personal construction c/. 349 e, Isoc. To Nic. 1.
KaTa<pavi)sis a variation in this idiom for SijXos. Cf. also
Theaet. 189 c, Syynp. 221 b, Charm. 162 c, etc.
Cf. 36T D-E.
' This is not a contradiction of Meno 97 b, Theaet. 201 b-c,
and Phileb. 63 a-b, but simply a different context and
emphasis. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 47, nn. 338
and 339.
Cf. on 484 c, Phaedr. 270 e.
93
 PLATO
Sia(f)piv 686v opdcbs ol avev vov
TTopevoficvcov
dXrjdes TL OvSev, etpr]-
8o^dl,ovTs ; BoyAei ovv
D aLa)(pd dedaaadai TV(j)Xd re Kal cr/cdAia, e^ov Trap
dXXcov aKoveiv <f)avd re Kal KoXd; M17 Trpos Aio?,
^ 8' OS, cS Suj/cpares, o TXavKCov, coairep cttI reXei

a)V aTTOcrrfjs. dp/ce'aei yap rj/JUV, kov coaTrep

StKaioavvr^S Trepi Kal aaxjipoavvrjs Kal tcov aXXojv
8ii]X6s, ovTOi Kal 7Tpl Tov dyadov SUXdrj^. Kat
yap ifjLOL, rjv S' iyu), w eratpe, Kal pudXa apKeacL'
dAA' OTTWS fMrj ovx ofds" t' eaofxai, iTpodvp,ovpLvos
8e yeXojra o^Xiquco. dAA , co fxaKapiot,
d(y)(rjiiov(i)v

E avTo jxev ri ttot* earl rdyadov, edacofiev ro vvv

elvai- ttXgov ydp p,oi <f>aiverai n] Kara rr]v rrap-

ovaav rod ye Sokovvtos efiot ra

oppLTjv i<f)iKadai
vvv OS Se Kyov6s re rev dyadov ^aiverat Kat
opLOioraros eKeivco, Xeyeiv eOeXo), el Kat vpuv
(f)LXov, el Se jLtT^, edv. 'AAA', ecf>r], Xeye- elaavdis
ydp rov irarpos dnorlcreLS tt]v hiriyqaiv. Bou-
507 Xoijxrjv dv, etnov, e'/xe re Svvaadat avrrjv dTToSovvat

" Probably an allusion to the revelation of the mysteries.

Cf. Phaedr. 250 c, Phileb. 16 c, Rep. 518 c, 478 c, 479 d,

518 a. It is fantastic to see in it a reference to what Cicero
calls the lumina orationis of Isocratean style. The rhetoric
and synonyms of this passage are not to be pressed.
*
Cf. Phileb. 64 c ^rri /xev rois rod dyadov i^dr] Trpodvpois,
" we are now in the vestibule of the good."
* Kal /xaXa, "jolly well," humorous emphasis on the point

that it is much easier to " define " the conventional virtues

than to explain the " sanction." Cf. Symp. 189 a, Euthydem.
298 D-E, Herod, viii. 6Q. It is frequent in the Republic.
Ritter gives forty-seven cases. I have fifty-four! But the
point that matters is the humorous tone. Cf. e.g. 610 e.
*
Excess of zeal, irpodvfila, seemed laughable to the Greeks.
94>
 THE REPUBLIC, BOOK VI

true opinion without intelligence differ appreciably

from blind men who go the right way ? " " They
do not differ at all," he said. " Is it, then, ugly things
that you prefer to contemplate, things bhnd and
crooked, when you might hear from others what is
luminous " and fair ? " " Nay, in heaven's name,
Socrates," said Glaucon, " do not draw back, as it
were, at the very goal.* For it will content us if
you explain the good even as you set forth the
nature of justice, sobriety, and the other virtues."
" It will right well<^ content me, my dear fellow," I
said, " but I fear that my powers may fail and that
in my eagerness I may cut a sorry figure and become
a laughing-stock.** Nay, my beloved, let us dismiss
for the time being the nature of the good in itself * for;

to attain to my present surmise of that seems a pitch

above the impulse that wings my flight to-day.^ But
of what seems to be the offspring of the good and
most nearly made in its Ukeness' I am willing to
speak if you too wish it, and otherwise to let the
matter drop." " Well, speak on," he said, " for you
will duly pay me the tale of the parent another time."
" I could wish," I said, " that I were able to make
Cf. mv interpretation of Iliad i. in fine. Class. Phil. xxil.
(i927)"pp. ii22-223.
*
Cf. More, Principia Ethica, p. 17 "Good, then, is
indefinable ; and yet, so far as I know, there is only one
ethical writer. Professor Henry Sidgwick, who has clearly
recognized and stated this fact."
' This is not superstitious mysticism but a deliberate
refusal to confine in a formula what requires either a volume
or a symbol. See Introd. p. xxvii, and my Idea of Good in
Plato's Republic, p. 219. to. vvv repeats to vvv tlvai {cf. Tim.
48 c), as the evasive phrase flffaCdi^ below sometimes lays the
topic on the table, never to be taken up again. Cf. 347 e
and 430 c.
Cf. Laics 897 d-e, Phaedr. 246 a.
95
 PLATO
KaL vjxds Koiiiaaadai, aAAa ^j] oiarrep vvv rovs
roKOVs fiovov. rovTov Se Sr] ovv tov tokov re Kat
CKyovov avTOV rod dyadov KOfjiLcraaOe. evXa^elade
(livroL fxri tttj i^aTrar'qaa) Vfxds aKcov, KL^SrjXov
OLTToSiSovs rov Xoyov rod roKov. EuAajSTjcro/xe^a,
e^ry, Kara Svvafxiv dAAa fiovov Xeye. Ato/jtoAo-
yr^adfjievos y', (f>T]v iyco, Kal dvajxviqaa'S vjjidg ra
r' iv rols eixTrpoadev prjOevra Kal dXXore -^'817
B TToAAaKts" elp-qjxeva. Tct TTola; rj 8' 6s. IIoAAd
KoXdy r^v 8' eyctj, /cat T