inquiry. Or a man may be lame in another way, and the love
of labor may take an opposite form.
That is quite true, he said.
And as to truth, I said, is not a soul to be deemed halt and
lame who hates voluntary falsehood and is extremely indig-
THE REPUBLIC 335
nant at himself and others when they tell lies, and yet receives
involuntary falsehood, and does not mind wallowing like a
swinish beast in the mire of ignorance, and has no shame at
being detected ?
Most certainly, he said.
And, again, as to temperance and courage and magnanimity,
and every other virtue, should they not observe the ways of
the true son and of the bastard ? for wherever States and ,
individuals have no eye for this sort of qualities, they
unconsciously make a friend or perhaps a ruler of one who is
in a figure a lame man or a bastard, from a defect in some one
of these qualities.
That is very true, he said.
All these things, then, will have to be carefully considered,
and those whom we introduce to this vast system of education
and training must be sound in limb and mind, and then jus-
tice herself will have nothing to say against us, and we shall
be the saviours of the State ; but, if our pupils are men of an-
other stamp, the reverse will happen, and we shall pour a still
greater flood of ridicule on philosophy.
That would be discreditable.
Yes, I said, that is quite true; and yet, perhaps, in thus
turning jest into earnest I am equally ridiculous.
In what respect ?
I had forgotten, I said, that we were not in earnest, and
spoke with too much excitement. For when I saw philosophy
trampled under foot of men I could not help feeling a sort of
indignation at the authors of her disgrace : and my anger
made me vehement.
Indeed ; I did not observe that you were more vehement
than was right.
But I felt that I was. And now let me remind you that,
although in our former selection we chose old men, that will
not do in this. Solon was under a delusion when he said that
a man as he is growing older may learn many things, — for he
can no more learn than he can run ; youth is the time of toil.
That is certainly true.
And, therefore, calculation and geometry, and all the other
elements of instruction, which are a preparation for dialectic,
should be presented to the mind in childhood ; not, however,
under any notion of forcing them.
336 PLATO THE TEACHER
Why not ?
Because a freeman ought to be a freeman in the acquisition
of knowledge. Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no
harm j but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has
no hold on the mind.
Very true, he said.
Then, my good friend, I said, do not use compulsion, but
let early education be a sort of amusement ; that will
5 better enable you to find out the natural bent.
There is reason in that, he said.
Do you remember our saying that the children, too, must
be taken to see the battle on horseback ; and if there were no
danger they might be led close up, and, like young hounds,
have a taste of blood given them ?
Yes, I remember.
Now that may be practiced, I said, in other things — labors,
lessons, dangers — and he who appears to be most ready ought
to be enrolled in a select number.
At what age ?
At the age when the necessary gymnastics are over : the pe-
riod whether of two or three years which passes in this sort of
training is useless for any other purpose ; for sleep and exer-
cise are unpropitious to learning : and the trial of who is first
in gymnastic exercises is one of the most important tests to
which they are subjected.
Certainly, he repljed.
After that time those who are selected from the class of
twenty years old will be promoted to higher honor, and the
sciences which they learned without any order in their early
education will now be brought together, and they will be able
to see the correlation of them to one another and to true be-
ing.
Yes, he said, that is the only kind of knowledge which is
everlasting.
Yes, I said ; and the capacity for such knowledge is the
great criterion of dialectical talent : the speculative or com-
prehensive mind is always the dialectical.
I agree in that, he said.
These, I said, are the points which you must consider ; and
those who have most of this comprehension, and who are most
steadfast in their learning, and in their military, and generally
THE REPUBLIC 337
in their public duties, when they arrive at the age of thirty
will have to be chosen by you out of the select class, and ele-
vated to higher honor ; and you will have to prove them by
the help of dialectic, in order to learn which of them is able
to give up the use of sight and other senses, and in company
with truth to attain absolute being. And here, my friend,
great caution is required.
Why great caution ?
Do you not remark, I said, how great the evil is which dia-
lectic has introduced ?
What is that ? he said.
The lawlessness of which the professors of the art 5 are full.
That is true, he said.
Do you think that there is anything unnatural in their case ?
or shall I ask you to make allowance for them ?
What sort of allowance ?
I want you, I said, by way of parallel, to imagine a sup-
posititious son who is brought up in great wealth ; he is one of
a large and numerous family, and has many flatterers. When
grown up he learns that his alleged are not his real par-
ents ; but who the real ones are he is unable to discover. 5
Can you tell me how he will be likely to behave towards his
flatterers and his supposed parents, first of all during the period
when he was ignorant of the false relation, and then again
when he knew ? Or would you like to hear my suspicion ?
Very much.
I suspect, then, that while he was ignorant of the truth he
would be likely to honor his father and his mother and his
supposed relations more than the flatterers ; he would be less
willing to see them in want, or to do any violence to them, or
say anything evil of them, and in important matters less will-
ing to disobey them.
That might be expected.
But when he has made the discovery, I should imagine that
he would diminish his honor and regard for them, and would
become more devoted to the flatterers ; their influence over
him would greatly increase; he would now live after their
ways, and openly associate with them, and unless he were of
an unusually good disposition, he would think no more of his
parents or other supposed friends.
6 In reference to the Sophists, see General Introduction, p. xxvii.
22
338 PLATO THE TEACHER
Well, that is extremely probable. But how is the image
applicable to the disciples of philosophy ?
In this way: you know that there are certain principles
about justice and good, which were taught us in childhood,
and under their parental authority we have been brought up,
obeying and honoring them.
That is true.
And there are also opposite maxims and habits of pleasure
which flatter and attract our soul, but they do not influence
those who have any sense of right, and who continue to honor
the maxims of their fathers and obey them.
True.
Now, when a, man is in this state, and the questioning spirit
asks what is fair or honorable, and he answers as the law di-
rects, and then arguments come and refute the word of the
legislator, and he is driven into believing that nothing is fair
any more than foul, or just and good any more than the op-
posite, and the same of all his time-honored notions, do you
think that he will still honor and obey them ?
That is impossible.
And when he ceases to think them honorable and natural as
heretofore, and he fails to discover the true, can he be
539 expected to pursue any life other than that which flatters
his desires ?
He cannot.
And from being an observer of the law he is converted into
a lawless person ?
Unquestionably.
Now all this is very natural in those who study philosophy
in this manner, and also, as I was just now saying, most ex-
cusable.
Yes, he said, and, as I may add, pitiable.
Therefore, that your feelings may not be moved to pity
about our thirty-years-old citizens, every care must be taken
in introducing them to dialectic.
Certainly.
They must not be allowed to taste the dear delight too
early ; that is one thing specially to be avoided ; for young
men, as you may have observed, when they first get the taste in
their mouths, argue for amusement, and are always contradict-
ing and refuting others in imitation of those who refute them ;
THE REPUBLIC 339
they are like puppy-dogs, who delight to tear and pull at all
who come near them.
Yes, he said, that is their great delight.
And when they have made many conquests and received
defeats at the hands of many, they violently and speedily get
into a way of not believing anything that they believed before,
and hence, not only they, but philosophy generally, has a bad
name with the rest of the world.
That is very true, he said.
But when a man begins to get older, he will no longer be
guilty of that sort of insanity ; he will follow the example of
the dialectician who is seeking for truth, and not of the
eristic, 6 who is contradicting for the sake of amusement ; and
the greater moderation of his character will increase and not
diminish the honor of the pursuit.
Very true, he said.
And did we not make special provision for this, when we
said that the natures of those to whom philosophy was to be
imparted were to be orderly and steadfast, not, as now, any
chance aspirant or intruder?
Very true, he said.
Suppose, I said, that the study of philosophy be continued
diligently and earnestly and exclusively for twice the number
of years which were passed in bodily exercise — will that be
enough ?
Would you say six or four years ? he asked.
Suppose five years to be the time fixed, I replied ; after
that they must be sent down into the den and compelled to
hold any military or other office which young men are quali-
fied to hold : in this way they will get their experience of
life, and there will be an opportunity of trying whether, when
they are drawn all manner of ways by temptation, they will
stand firm or stir at all.
And how long is this stage of their lives to last?
Fifteen years, I answered ; and when they have
reached fifty years of age, then let those who still survive and
have distinguished themselves in every deed and in all knowl-
edge come at last to their consummation : the time has now
arrived at which they must raise the eye of the soul to the
universal light which lightens all things, and behold the ab-
• Eristic : one who is fond of dispute.
340 PLATO THE TEACHER
solute good ; for that is the pattern according to which they
are to order the State and the lives of individuals, and the re-
mainder of their own lives also, making philosophy their
chief pursuit j but, when their turn comes, also toiling at
politics and ruling for the public good, not as if they were
doing some great thing, but of necessity ; and when they
have brought up others like them and left them in their place
to be governors of the State, then they will depart to the
Islands of the Blest 7 and dwell there ; and the city will give
them public memorials and sacrifices and honor them, if the
Pythian oracle consent, 8 as demigods, and at any rate as
blessed and divine.
You are a statuary, Socrates, and have made our governors
perfect in beauty.
Yes, I said, Glaucon, and our governesses too ; for you must
not suppose that what I have been saying applies to men only
and not to women as far* as their natures can go.
There you are right, he said, if, as we described, they are
to have all things in common with the men.
Well, I said, and you would agree (would you not ?) that
what has been said about the State and the government is not
a mere dream, and although difficult not impossible, but only
possible in the way that has been supposed ; that is to say
when the true philosopher kings, one or more of them, are
born in a State, despising the honors of this present world
which they deem mean and worthless, above all esteeming
right and the honor that springs from right, and regarding
justice as the greatest and most necessary of all things, whose
ministers they are, and whose principles will be extended by
them when they set in order their own city ?
How will they do that ? he said.
They will begin by sending out into the country all the
inhabitants of the city who are more than ten years old, and
will take possession of their children, who will be unaffected
by the habits of their parents ; they will then train them in
their own habits and laws, that is to say, in those which we
have given them : and in this way the State and constitution
of which we were speaking will soonest and most easily suc-
ceed, and the nation which has such a constitution will be
most benefited.
7 See Apology, note 23. e See Rep. ,1V., 427 aud note 9.
THE REPUBLIC 34 1
Yes, that will be the best way. And I think, Socrates,
that you have very well described the way in which such a
constitution might come into being.
And have we not said enough of the State, and of the man
who corresponds to the State, for there is no difficulty in
seeing how we shall describe him ?
There is no difficulty, he replied, and I say with you,
enough.
342 PLATO THE TEACHER
BOOK VIII
And so, Glaucon, we have arrived at the conclusion that
in the perfect State wives and children are to be in common ;
and education and the arts of war and peace are also to
4 be common, and the best philosophers and the bravest
warriors are to be their kings ? 1
That, replied Glaucon, is acknowledged.
Yes, I said ; and we have further acknowledged that the
governors, when appointed themselves, would take their sol-
diers and place them in houses such as we were describing ;
nor would any one say that anything which he had was his
own — their houses were to be common; and as for their
property, you remember about that ?
Yes, I remember that no one was to have any of the ordi-
nary possessions of mankind ; they were to be a sort of war-
rior athletes and guardians, receiving from the other citizens,
in lieu of annual payment, only their maintenance, and they
were to take care of themselves and of the whole State.
True, I said ; and now that this division of our work is
concluded, let us find the point at which we digressed, that
we may return into the old path.
There is no difficulty in doing that, he replied ; you ap-
peared then, as now, to have finished the description of the
State ; and you said that such a State was good, and the man
was good who answered to the State, although you had more
excellent things to relate both of State and man. And
you said further, that if this was the true form, then the
others were false ; and of the false forms, you said, as I re-
member, that there were four principal ones, 2 and that the
defects of them, and of the individuals corresponding to them,
were worth examining : when we had seen them all, and
finally agreed as to who was the best and who was the worst
of them, we might consider, as you said, whether the best
was not also the happiest, and the worst the most miserable.
And when I asked you what the four forms of government
1 The proof of these three propositions occupies Books V., VI., and VII.
2 For definition of the five forms of government see Introduction to Re-
public, p. 184.
THE REPUBLIC 343
were of which you spoke, then Polemarchus and Adeimantus
put in their word ; and you began again, and have found
your way to the point at which we have now arrived.
Your recollection, I said, is most exact.
Then, like a wrestler, he replied, you must put yourself
again in the same position ; and let me ask the same ques-
tions, and do give me the same answer which you were about
to give me then.
Yes, if I can, I will, I said.
I shall particularly wish to hear what were the four constitu-
tions of which you were speaking.
That, I said, is easily answered : the four governments of
which I spoke, so far as they have distinct names, are, first,
the Cretan and Spartan, 3 which are generally applauded :
next, there is oligarchy ; this is not equally approved, and is
a form of government which has many evils : thirdly, de-
mocracy, which naturally follows oligarchy, although differ-
ent : and lastly comes tyranny, great and famous, which is
different from them all, and is the fourth and worst disorder
of a State. I do not know of any other constitution which
can be said to have a distinct form, but there are lordships
and principalities which are bought and sold, and some
other intermediate forms of government ; and these non-
descripts are found among barbarians oftener than among
Hellenes.
Yes, he replied, there are said to be many curious forms of
government among them.
Do you know, I said, that governments vary as the charac-
ters of men vary, and that there must be as many of the one
as there are of the other ? Or perhaps you suppose that States
are made of " oak and rock," 4 and not out of the human
natures which are in them, and which turn the scale and draw
other things after them ?
Nay, he said, the States are as the men are; they do but
grow out of human characters.
Then if the constitutions of States are five, the disposition
of individual minds will also be five ?
* Crete : a large island in the ^Egean, southeast of Greece. Sparta : one
of the most powerful states of Greece, situated at the southern extremity.
The governments of these states Plato regards as the timocratic form..
* See Apology, note 38.
344 PLATO THE TEACHER
Certainly.
Him who answers to aristocracy and whom we rightly call
just and good, we have already described 5 ; and now we have
to describe the inferior sort of natures, being the con-
tentious and ambitious, who answer to the Spartan
polity ; also the oligarchical, democratical, and tyrannical
man. Let us place the most just by the side of the most un-
just, and then we shall be able to compare the relative happi-
ness or unhappiness of pure justice and pure injustice : this
will complete the inquiry. And then we shall know whether
we are to pursue injustice, as Thrasymachus advises, or justice,
as the present argument counsels.
Certainly, he replied, that will be the way.
Suppose, then, following our old plan, which we adopted
as being clearer, of taking the State first and then proceed-
ing to the individual, we begin with the government of
honor (for I know of no name for such a government other
than timocracy, or perhaps timarchy) ; and then we will view
the like character in the individual ; and, after that, consider
oligarchy and the oligarchical man ; and then again we will
turn our attention to democracy and the democratical man ;
and lastly, we will go and view the city of tyranny, and there
take a look into the tyrant's soul, and try to arrive at the final
decision.
That way of viewing and judging of the matter will be very
rational.
First, then, I said, let us inquire how timocracy (or the
government of honor) arises out of aristocracy (or the gov-
ernment of the best). Cleany, all political changes originate
in divisions of the actual governing power ; for a government
which is united, however small, cannot be moved.
That is true, he said.
In what way, then, will our city be moved, and in what man-
ner will the two classes of auxiliaries and rulers disagree among
themselves or with one another ? Shall we, after the manner
of Homer, pray the Muses to tell us "how strife was first
kindled ? " Shall we imagine them, in tragic style, pretend-
ing to be in earnest, playing with us as with children in solemn
words ?
How would they address us ?
6 The philosopher.
THE REPUBLIC 345
After this manner: A city which is thus constituted can
hardly be shaken ; but, seeing that everything which has a be-
ginning has also an end, even this constitution will in .
time perish and come to dissolution.
[It is explained how guardians who are good and wise may
have children who possess none of the qualities which a
guardian should have. So, though the guardians appoint the
best of the youth to be their successors,]
still they will be unworthy to hold their father's places, and
when they come into power as guardians, they will soon be
found to fail in taking care of us, the Muses, first by undervalu-
ing music, and secondly gymnastic ; and hence our young men
will be less cultivated. In the succeeding generation rulers
will be appointed who have none of the qualities of guardians.
In order to put to the test the metal of your different races,
which, like Hesiod's, are of gold, and silver, and brass,
and iron, 6 iron will be mingled with silver, and brass
with gold, and hence there will arise inequality and irregular-
ity, which always and in all places are causes of enmity and
war. Such is the origin of strife, wherever arising ; and this
is the answer of the Muses to us.
Yes, he said, and we may assume that they answer truly.
Why, yes, I said, of course they answer truly : the Muses
cannot do otherwise.
And what do the Muses say next ?
When strife arose, then the two races were drawn different
ways : the iron and brass fell to acquiring money and land and
houses and gold and silver ; but the gold and silver races, hav-
ing the true riches in their own nature, inclined towards virtue
and the ancient order of things. There was a battle between
them, and at last they agreed to assign their land and houses
to the possession of individuals ; and they enslaved their friends
and maintainers, whom they had formerly protected in the con-
dition of freemen, and made of them subjects and servants ;
while they themselves were occupied with war and the watch-
ing of them.
That, he replied, will probably be the origin of the change.
• Compare myth, close of Book III.
346 PLATO THE TEACHER
And the new government which thus arises will be of a form
intermediate between oligarchy and aristocracy.
Very true.
And now, after the change has been made, what will be their
way of life ? Clearly, the new State, being in a mean between
oligarchy and the perfect State, will partly follow one and
partly the other, and will also have some peculiarities.
That is true, he said.
In the honor given to rulers, in the abstinence of the war-
rior class from agriculture, handicrafts, and other trades, in
the institution of common meals, attention to gymnastics and
military training — in all these the citizen will resemble the
perfect State.
True.
But in the fear of admitting philosophers to power, because
their philosophy is no longer simple and earnest, but made up
of mixed elements ; and in turning from them to passionate
£ and simpler characters, who are by nature fitted for war
rather than peace ; and in the value which they set upon
military stratagems and contrivances, and in their everlasting
wars — this State will be for the most part peculiar.
Yes.
Yes, I said ; and men of this stamp will be covetous of
money, like those who live in oligarchies ; they will have a
fierce secret longing after gold and silver, which they will
hoard in dark places, having magazines and treasures of their
own for the deposit and concealment of them ; also castles
which are just nests for their eggs, and in which they will spend
large sums on their wives, or on any others whom they please.
That is most true, he said.
And they are miserly because they have no means of openly
acquiring the money which they prize ; they will spend that
which is another man's in their lust ; stealing their pleasures
and running away like children from the law, their father :
they have been schooled not by gentle influences but by force ;
for they have no thought of the true muse of reason and phi-
losophy, and gymnastic is preferred by them to music.
Undoubtedly, he said, the form of government which you
describe is a mixture of good and evil.
Why, there is a mixture, I said ; but one thing, and one
thing only, is predominantly seen, — the spirit of contention and
THE REPUBLIC 347
ambition; and these are due to the prevalence of the passion-
ate or spirited element. 7
Assuredly, he said.
Such is the origin and such the character of this State, of
which the outline only has been given ; the more perfect exe*
cution of the sketch was not required, because the outline is
enough to show the type of the most perfectly just and unjust;
and to go through all the States and all the characters of men,
leaving none of them out, would be an interminable labor.