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11 - The Republic - Plato · The Philosophy Insights Collection

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Book three, Part three. And also that good and bad rhythm naturally assimilate
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to a good and bad style, and that harmony and discord in like manner
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follows style. For our principle is that rhythm and harmony are regulated by the
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words, and not the words by them. Just so, he said,
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they should follow the words, and will not the words. In the character
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of the style depend on the temper of the soul, Yes, and everything
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else on the style. Yes, the beauty of style, and harmony and
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grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity, I mean the true simplicity of a
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rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity, which is
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only a euphemism for folly. Very true, he replied, And if our
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youth are to do their work in life, must they not make these graces
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and harmonies their perpetual aim. They must, And surely the art of the
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painter, and every other creative and constructive art are full of them, weaving,
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embroidery, architecture, and every kind of manufacture. Also nature and animal
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and vegetable. In all of them there is grace or the absence of grace,
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and ugliness and discord and inharmonious motion, are nearly allied to ill words
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and ill nature, as grace and harmony are the twin sisters of goodness and
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virtue, and bear their likeness. That is quite true, he said,
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But shall our superintendents go no further? And are the poets only to be
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required by us to express the image of the good in their works on pain?
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If they do anything else, of expulsion from our state? Or is
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the same control to be extended to other artists? And are they also to
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be prohibited from exhibiting the opposite forms of vice and intemperance, and meanness and
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indecency in sculpture and building and the other creative arts. And is he who
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cannot conform to this rule of ours to be prevented from practicing his art in
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our state? Lest the taste of our citizens be corrupted by him? We
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would not have our guardians grow up amid images of moral deformity, as in
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some noxious pasture, and their brows and feed upon many a baneful herb and
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flowers, day by day, little by little, until they silently gather a
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festering mass of corruption in their own soul. Let our artists rather be those
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who are gifted to discern the true nature of the beautiful and graceful. Then
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will our youth dwell in a land of health amid fair sights and sounds,
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and receive the good in everything and beauty. The effluence of fair works shall
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flow into the eye and ear, like a health giving breeze from a purer
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region, and insensibly draw the soul from earliest years into likeness and sympathy with
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the beauty of reason. There can be no nobler training than that, he
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replied, And therefore I said Glaucon. Musical training is a more potent instrument
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than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places
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of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace and making the
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soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill
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educated ungraceful. And also because he who has received this true education of the
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inner being will most shrewdly pursued eve omissions or faults in art and nature,
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and with a true taste. While he praises and rejoices over and receives into
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his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will justly blame
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and hate the bad now in the days of his youth, even before he
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is able to know the reason why. And when reason comes, he will
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recognize and salute the friend with whom his education has made him long familiar.
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Yes, he said, I quite agree with you in thinking that our youth
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should be trained in music, and on the grounds which you mention, just
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as in learning to read, I said, we were satisfied when we knew
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the letters of the alphabet, which are very few in all their recurring sizes
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and combinations. Not slighting them is unimportant whether they occupy a space large or
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small, but everywhere, either to make them out, and not thinking ourselves
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perfect in the art of reading until he recognize them wherever they are found,
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true, or as we recognize the reflection of letters in the water or in
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a mirror, only when we know the letters themselves, the same art and
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study, giving us the knowledge of both exactly. Even so as I maintain,
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neither we nor our guardians whom we have to educate, can ever become
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musical until we and they know the essential forms of temperance, courage, liberality,
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magnificence, and their kindred, as well as the contrary forms in all
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their combinations, and can recognize them in their images whenever they are found,
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not slighting them either in small things or great but believing them all to be
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within the sphere of one art, and study most assuredly. And when a
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beautiful soul harmonizes with a beautiful form, and the two are cast in one
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mold, that will be the fairest of sights to him who has an eye
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to see it, the fairest, indeed, And the fairest is also the
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loveliest, that may be assumed. And the man who has the spirit of
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harmony will be most in love with the loveliest. But he will not love
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him who is of an inharmonious soul. That is true, true, he
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replied, if the deficiency be in his soul. But if there be any
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merely bodily defect in another, he will be patient of it and will love
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all the same. I perceive I said that you have or have had experiences
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of this sort, and I agree. But let me ask you another question.
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Has excess a pleasure any affinity to temperance? How can that be?
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He replied? Pleasure deprives a man of the use of his faculties, quite
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as much as pain, or any affinity to virtue in general, none whatever
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any affinity to wantonness and intemperance, Yes, the greatest. And is there
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any greater or keener pleasure than that of sensual love? No, nor a
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matter, whereas true love is a love of beauty and order, temperate and
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harmonious. Quite true, he said. Then no intemperance or manners should be
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allowed to approach true love, certainly not. Then mad or in temperate pleasure
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must never be allowed to come near the lover and his beloved. Neither of
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them can have any part in it, if their love is of the right
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sort. No, indeed, Socrates, it must never come near them.
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Then I suppose that in the city which we are founding, you would make
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a law to the effect that a friend should use no other familiarity to his
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love than a father would use to his son, and then only for a
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noble purpose. And he must first have the others consent. And this rule
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is to limit him in all his intercourse, and he is never to be
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seen going further, or if he exceedes, he is to be deemed guilty
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of coarseness and bad taste. I quite agree, he said this much of
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music, which makes a fair ending for what should be the end of music,
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if not the love of beauty. I agree, he said, after
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music comes gymnastic, in which our youth are next to be trained. Certainly,
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gymnastic as well as music, should begin in early years. The training
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in it should be careful and should continue throughout life. Now, my belief
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is, and this is a matter of upon which I should like to have
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your opinion in confirmation of my own. But my belief is not that the
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good body by any bodily excellence, improves the soul, but on the contrary,
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that the good soul, by her own excellence, improves the body,
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as far as this may be possible, what do you say? Yes?
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I agree. Then, to the mind, when adequately trained, we should
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be right in handing over the more particular care of the body. And in
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order to avoid perlexity, we may now only give the general outlines of the
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subject. Very good. That they must abstain from intoxication has been already remarked
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by us, for of all persons, a guardian should be the last to
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get drunk and not know where in the world he is. Yes, he
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said that a guardian should require another guardian to take care of him as ridiculous
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indeed, But next, what shall we say of their food? For the
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men are in training for the greatest contest of all, are they not?
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Yes? He said? And will the habit of body of our ordinary athletes
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be suited to them? Why not? I am afraid? I said that
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the habit of body such as they have, is but a sleepy sort of
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thing, and rather perilous to health. Do you not observe that these athletes
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sleep away their lives and are liable to most dangerous illnesses if they depart in
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ever so slight a degree from their customary regimen? Yes? I do.
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Then, I said, a finer sort of training will be required for our
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warrior athletes, who are to be like wakeful dogs, and to see and
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hear with the utmost keenness amid the many changes of water, and also a
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food of summer heat and winter cold, which they will have to endure when
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on a campaign. They must not be liable to break down in health.
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That is my view. The really excellent gymnastic is twin sister of that simple
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music which we were just now describing. How So, why I conceive that
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there is a gymnastic, which, like our music, is simple and good,
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and especially the military gymnastic. What do you mean my meaning by bey
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learned from Homer? He, you know, feeds his heroes at their feasts
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when they are campaigning on soldiers fare. They have no fish, although they
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are on the shores of the Hellespont, and they are not allowed boiled meats,
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but only roast, which is the food most convenient for soldiers, requiring
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only that they should light a fire, and not involving the trouble of caring
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about pots and pants. True, and I can hardly be mistaken in saying
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that sweet sauces are nowhere mentioned in Homer in proscribing them. However, he
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is not singular. All professional athletes are well aware that a man who is
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to be in good condition should take nothing of the kind, yes, he
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said, and knowing this, they are quite right in not taking them.
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Then would you not approve of Syracusan dinners and the refinement of Sicilian cookery?
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I think not. Nor if a man is to be in condition, would
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you allow him to have a Corinthian girl as his fair friend? Certainly not.
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Neither would you approve of the delicacies as they are thought of Athenian confectionery.
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Certainly, not all such feeding and living may be rightly compared by estimate
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melody and song composed in the panharmonic style, and in all the rhythms exactly
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their complex the engendered license, and here disease. Whereas simplicity in music was
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the parent of temperance in the soul, and simplicity and gymnastic of health in
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the body, most true, he said, But when intemperance and diseases multiply
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an estate, halls of justice and medicine are always being opened, and the
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arts of the doctor and the lawyer give themselves airs finding. How keen is
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the interest which not only the slaves but the freemen of the city take about
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them, of course, and yet what greater proof can there be of a
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bad and disgraceful state of education than this, that not only artisans in the
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meaner sort of people need the skill of first rate physicians and judges, but
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also those who would profess to have had a liberal education. Is it not
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disgraceful and a great sign of want of good breeding that a man should have
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to go abroad for his law and physic because he has none of his own
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at home, and must therefore surrender himself into the hands of other men,
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whom he makes LOFs and judges over him. Of all things, he said,
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the most disgraceful, would you say, most? I replied, when
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you consider that there is a further stage of evil in which a man is
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not only a life long litigant, passing all his days in the courts,
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either as plaintive or defendant, but is actually led by his bad taste to
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pride himself on his litigiousness. He imagines that he is a master in dishonesty,
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able to take every crooked turn, and wriggle into and out of every
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whole bedding like a withy, and getting out of the way of justice,
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and all for what, in order to gain small points not worth mentioning,
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He not knowing that so to order his life, as to be able to
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do without a napping judge is a far higher and noblish sort of thing.
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Is that not still more disgraceful? Yes, he said, that is still
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more disgraceful, well, I said, And to require the help of medicine,
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not what a wound has to be cured, or on occasion of an
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epidemic but just because by indolence and a habit of life such as we have
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been describing, men fill themselves with waters and winds as if their bodies were
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of marsh, compelling the ingenious sons of Asclepias to find more names for diseases
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such as flatulence and catar Is this not to a disgrace, yes, he
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said. They do certainly give very strange and new fangled names to diseases,
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yes, I said, and I do not believe that there were any such
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diseases in the days of Asclepius. And this I infer from the circumstance that
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the hero Eurypulus, after he had been wounded in Homer, drinks a positive
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premium wine well besprinkled with parleymeal and grated cheese, which are certainly inflammatory.
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And yet the sons of Asclepius, who are at the Trojan war do not
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blame the damsel who gives him the drink, or rebuke Patroclus, who is
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treating his case well. He said, that was surely an extraordinary drink to
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be given to a person in his condition. Not so extraordinary, I replied,
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if you bear in mind that in former days as is commonly said,
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before the time of Hereticus, the guild of Asclepias did not practice our present
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system of medicine, which may be said to educate diseases. But Hereticus,
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being a trainer and himself of a sickly constitution, by a combination of training
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and doctrine, found out a way of torturing, first and chiefly himself,
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and secondly the rest of the world. How was that, he said,
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by the invention of lingering death. For he had a mortal disease which he
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perpetually tended, and as recovery was out of the question, he passed his
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entire life as a valetudinarian. He could do nothing but attend upon himself,
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and he was in constant torment whenever he departed in anything from his usual regimen,
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and so dying hard by the help of science, he struggled on to
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old age. A rare reward of his skill, yes, I said,
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a reward which a man might fairly expect, who never understood that if Asclepias
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did not instruct his descendants in valetudinarian arts, the omission arose not from ignorance
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or inexperience of such a branch of medicine. But because he knew that in
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all well ordered states, every individual has an occupation to which he must attend,
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and has therefore no leisure to spend in continually being ill. This we
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remark in the case of the artisan, But ludicrously enough, do not apply
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the same rule to people of the richer sort. How do you mean,
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he said, I mean this. When a carpenter is ill, he asks
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the physician for a rough and ready cure, an emetic, or a purge,
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or cautery, or the knife. These are his remedies. And if
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some one prescribes for him a course of dietetics and tells him that he must
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swath and swaddle his head, and all that sort of thing, he replies
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at once that he has no time to be ill, and that he sees
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no good in a life which is spent in nursing his disease, to the
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neglect of his customary employment, And therefore bidding goodbye to this sort of physician,
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he resumes his ordinary habits, and either gets well and lives and does
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his business, or if his constitution fails, he dies and has no more
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trouble. Yes, he said, a man in his condition of life ought
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to use the art of medicine. Thus far only has he not, I
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said, an occupation, And what profit would be there in his life if
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he were deprived of this occupation? Quite true, he said. But with
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the rich man this is otherwise of him. We do not say that he
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has any specially appointed work which he must perform if he would live. He
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is generally supposed to have nothing to do. Then you never heard of the
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saying of facilities that as soon as a man has a livelihood, he should
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practice virtue. Nay, he said, I think that he had better begin
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somewhat sooner. Let us not have a dispute about this, I said,
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but rather ask ourselves, is the practice of virtue obligatory on a rich man?
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Or can he live without it? And if obligatory on him, then
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let us raise a further question whether this dieting of disorders, which is an
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impediment to the application of the mind in carpentering and the mechanical arcs, does
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not equally stand in the way of the sentiment of focilities. Of that,
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he replied, there can be no doubt such excessive care of the body,
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when carried beyond the rules of gymnastic is most inimical to the practice of virtue.
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Yes, indeed, I replied, and equally incompatible with the management of
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a house, an army, or an office of state. And what is
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most important of all, irreconcilable with any kind of study or thought or self
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reflection. There is a constant suspicion that headache and giddiness are to be ascribed
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to philosophy, and hence all practicing or making trial of virtue in the higher
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sense is absolutely stopped. For a man is always fancying that he is being
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made ill, and is in constant anxiety about the state of his body.
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Yes, likely enough, and therefore our politic Asclepias, may be supposed to
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have exhibited the power of his art only to persons who, being generally of
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healthy constitution and habits of life, had a definite ailment. Such as these
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he cured by pursues and operations, and bade them live as usual here in
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consulting the interest of the state. But bodies which diseases had penetrated through and
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through he would not have attempted to cure by gradual process of evacuation and infusion.
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He did not want to lengthen out good for nothing lives, or have
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weak fathers, beginning weaker sons. If a man was not able to live
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in the ordinary way, he had no business to cure him, for such
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a cure would have been of no use either to himself or to the state.
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Then he said, you regard Asclepius as a statesman clearly, and his
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character is further illustrated by his sons. Note that they were heroes in the
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days of old, and practiced the medicines of which I am speaking at the
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siege of Troy. You will remember how when Pandarus wounded Menilaus, they sucked
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the blood out of the wound and sprinkled soothing remedies. But they never prescribed
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what the patient was afterwards to eat or drink. In the case of Menelaus,
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any more than in the case of Euryplus, the remedies, as they
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conceived, were enough to heal any man who, before he was wounded was
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healthy and regular in his habits, And even though he did happen to drink
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a positive premium wine, he might get well all the same. But they
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would have nothing to do with unhealthy and intemperate subjects, whose lives were of
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no use, either to themselves or others. The art of medicine was not
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designed for their good. And though they were as rich as Midas, the
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sons of Asclepius would have declined to attend them. They were very acute persons,
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these sons of Asclepius. Naturally, so I replied nevertheless. The Tragedians
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and pendar, disobeying our behests, although they acknowledged that Asclepius was the son
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of Apollo, say also that he was bribed into healing a rich man who
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was at the point of death, and for this reason he was struck by
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lightning. But we, in accordance with the principle already affirmed by us,
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will not believe them when they tell us both if he was the son of
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a god, we maintain that he was not avaricious, or if he was
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savaricious, he was not the son of a god. And of Book three,
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Part three,