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12 - The Republic - Plato · Logic Library

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Book three, Part four. All that Socrates is excellent, But I should
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like to put a question to you. Ought there not to be good physicians
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in a state, and are not the best those who have treated the greatest
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number of constitutions good and bad, and are not the best judges in like
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manner, those who are acquainted with all sorts of moral natures. Yes,
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I said, I too would have good judges and good physicians. But you
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know whom I think good? Will you tell me? I will if I
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can let me. However, note that in the same question you join two
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things which are not the same. How So he asked why I said,
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you join physicians and judges. Now, the most skillful physicians are those who,
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from their youth upwards have combined with the knowledge of their art, the
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greatest experience of disease. They had better not be robust in health, and
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should have had all manner of diseases in their own persons. For the body,
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as I conceive, is not the instrument with which they cure the body.
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In that case we could not allow them ever to be or to have
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been sickly. But they cure the body with the mind, and the mind
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which has become and is sick, can cure nothing. That is very true,
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he said. But with the judge it is otherwise, since he governs
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mind by mind. He ought not, therefore, to have been trained among
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vicious minds, and to have associated with them from youth upwards, and to
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have gone through the whole calendar of crime only in order that he may quickly
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infer the crimes of others, as he might their bodily diseases, from his
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own self consciousness. The honorable mind, which is to form a healthy judgment,
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should have had no experience or contamination of evil habits while young. And
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this is the reason why in youth, good men often appear to be simple
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and are easily practiced upon by the dishonest, because they have no examples of
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what evil is in their own souls. Yes, he said, they are
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far too apt to be deceived. Therefore, I said, the judge should
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not be young. He should have learned to know evil, not from his
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his own soul, but from late and long observation of the nature of evil
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in others. Knowledge should be his guide, not personal experience. Yes,
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he said, that is the ideal of a judge. Yes, I replied,
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and he will be a good man, which is my answer to your
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question. For he is good, who has a good soul. But the
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cunning and suspicious nature of which we spoke, he who has committed many crimes
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and fancies himself to be a master in wickedness. When he is amongst his
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fellows, is wonderful in the precautions which he takes, because he judges of
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them by himself. But when he gets into the company of men of virtue
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who have the experience of age, he appears to be a fool again,
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owing to his unseasonable suspicions. He cannot recognize an honest man, because he
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has no pattern of honesty in himself. At the same time as the bad
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or more numerous than the good, and he meets with them oftener he thinks
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himself and is by others thought to be rather wise than foolish. Most true,
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he said, then, the good and wise judge whom we are seeking
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is not this man, but the other. For vice cannot know virtue too,
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but of virtuous nature, educated by time, will acquire a knowledge both
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of virtue and vice. The virtuous and not the vicious man has wisdom.
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In my opinion, and in mine also. This is the sort of medicine,
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and this is the sort of law which you will sanction in your state.
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They will minister to better natures, giving health of both soul and of
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body. But those who are diseased in their bodies they will leave to die,
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and the corrupt and incurable souls they will put an end to themselves.
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This is clearly the best thing, both for the patients and for the state.
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And thus our youth, having been educated only in that simple music,
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which, as we said, inspires temperance, will be reluctant to go to
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law, clearly, and the musician, who, keeping to the same track,
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is content to practice the simple gymnastic, will have nothing to do with
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medicine, unless in some extreme case that I quite believe the very exercises and
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tolls which he undergoes are intended to stimulate the spirited element of his nature,
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and not to increase his strength. He will not, like common athletes,
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use exercise in regimen to develop his muscles. Very right, he said,
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neither are the two arts of music and gymnastic really designed as is often supposed,
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the one for the training of the soul, the other for the training
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of the body. What then, is the real object of them, I
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believe, I said that the teachers of both have in viewed chiefly the improvement
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of the soul. How can that be, he asked, Did you never
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observe, I said, the effect on the mind itself of exclusive devotion to
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gymnastic or the opposite effect of an exclusive devotion to music, in what way
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shown? He said, the one producing a temper of hardness and ferocity,
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the other of softness and effeminacy. I replied, yes, He said,
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I am quite aware that the mere athlete becomes too much of a savage,
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and that the mere musician is melted and softened beyond what is good for him.
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Yet, surely, I said, this ferocity only comes from spirit,
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which, if rightly educated, would give courage. But if too much intensified,
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is liable to become hard and brutal. That I quite think. On
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the other hand, the philosopher will have the quality of gentleness, and this
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also, when too much indulged, will turn to softness, but if educated
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rightly, will be gentle and moderate. True, and in our opinion,
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the guardians ought to have both these qualities assuredly, and both should be in
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harmony beyond question, and the harmonious soul is both temperate and courageous, Yes,
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and the inharmonious is cowardly and boorish. Very true. And when a
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man allows music to play upon him and to pour into his soul through the
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funnel of his ears, those sweet and soft and melancholy airs of which we
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were just now speaking, and his whole life is passed and warbling, and
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the delights of song. In the first stage of the process, the passion
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or spirit which is in him is tempered like iron and made useful instead of
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brittle and useless. But if he carries on the softening and soothing process in
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the next stage, he begins to melt and waste, until he has wasted
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away his spirit and cut out the sinews of his soul, and he becomes
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a feeble warrior. Very true. If the element of spirit is naturally weaken
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him, the change is speedily accomplished. But if he have a good deal,
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then the power of music weakening the spirit renders him excitable. On the
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least provocation, he flames up at once and is speedily extinguished. Instead of
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having spirit, he grows irritable and passionate, and is quite impractical. Exactly
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and so in gymnastics. If a man takes violent exercise in his a great
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feeder and the reverse of a great student of music and philosophy. At first
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the high condition of his body fills him with pride and spirit, and he
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becomes twice the man that he was. Certainly, And what happens if he
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do nothing else and holds no converse with the muses, does not even that
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intelligence which there may be in him, having no taste of any sort of
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learning or inquiry of thought or culture, grow feeble and dull and blind,
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his mind never waking up or receiving nourishment, and his senses not being purged
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of their mists. True, he said, And he ends by being a
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hater of philosophy, uncivilized, never using the weapon of persuasion. He is
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like a wild beast, all violence and fierceness, and knows no other way
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of dealing. And he lives in all ignorance and evil conditions, and has
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no sense of propriety and grace. That is quite true, he said.
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And as there are two principles of human nature, one the spirited and the
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other the philosophical, some God, as I should say, has given mankind
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to arts, answering to them, and only indirectly to the soul and body,
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in order that these two principles, like the strings of an instrument,
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may be relaxed or drawn tighter until they are duly harmonized. That appears to
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be the intention. And he who mingles music with gymnastic in the fairest proportion
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and best attempers them to the soul may be rightly called the true musician and
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harmonist, in a far higher sense than the tuner of strings. You are
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quite right, Socrates, and such a presiding genius will always be required in
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our state if the government is to last. Yes, he will be absolutely
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necessary. Such then are our principles of nurture and education? Where would be
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the use of going into further details about the dances of our citizens, or
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about their hunting and coursing their gymnastic and equestrian contests, For these all follow
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the general principle. And having found that we shall have no difficulty in discovering
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them, I dare say that there will be no difficulty. Very good,
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I said, then, what is the next question? Must we not ask?
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Who are to be rulers and whose subjects? Certainly there can be no
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doubt that the elder must rule the younger clearly, and that the best of
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these must rule. That is also clear. Now, are not the best
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husbandmen those who are most devoted to husbandry? Yes, And as we are
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to have the best guardians for our city, must they not be those who
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have most the character of guardians? Yes? And to this end they ought
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to be wise and efficient, and to have a special care of the state.
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True. And a man will be most likely to care about that which
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he loves, to be sure, and he will be most likely to love
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that which he regards as having the same interest with himself, and that of
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which the good or evil fortune is supposed by him at any time most to
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affect his own Very true, he replied. Then there must be a selection.
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Let us note among the guardians those who, in their whole life show
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the greatest eagerness to do what is for the good of their country, and
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the greatest repugnance to do what is against her interests. These are the right
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men, and they will have to be watched at every age in order that
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we may see whether they preserve their resolution, and never under the influence either
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of force or enchantment, forget or cast off their sense of duty to the
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state. How cast off, he said, I will explain to you,
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I replied, or resolution may go out of a man's mind, either with
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his will or against his will. With his will when he gets rid of
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falsehood and learns better against his will, whenever he is deprived of a truth.
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I understand, he said, the willing loss of a resolution the meaning
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of the unwilling. I have yet to learn, why, I said.
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Do you not see that men are unwillingly deprived of good and willingly of evil?
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Is not to have lost the truth and evil, And to possess the
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truth a good? And you would agree that to conceive things as they are
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is to possess the truth. Yes, he replied, I agree with you
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in thinking that mankind are deprived of truth against their will. And is not
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this involuntary deprivation caused either by theft or force or enchantment. Still, he
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replied, I do not understand you. I fear that I must have been
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talking darkly like the tragedians. I only mean that some men are changed by
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persuasion, and that others forget. Argument steals the way the hearts of one
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class and time of the other. And this I call theft. Now you
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understand me. Yes, Those again, who are forced are those whom the
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violence of some pain or grief compels to change their opinion. I understand,
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he said, And you are quite right. And you would also acknowledge that
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the enchanted are those who change their minds, either under the softer influence of
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pleasure or the sterner influence of fear. Yes, he said, everything that
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deceives may be said to enchant. Therefore, as I was just now saying,
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we must inquire who are the best guardians of their own conviction that what
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they think the interest of the state is to be the rule of their lives.
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We must watch them from their youth upwards and make them perform actions in
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which they are most likely to forget or to be deceived. That he who
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remembers and is not deceived is to be selected. He who fails in the
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trial is to be rejected. That will be the way. Yes, And
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there should also be toils and pains and conflicts prescribed for them in which they
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will be made to give further proof of the same qualities. Very right,
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he replied, And then I said, we must try them with enchantments.
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That is the third sort of test, and see what will be their behavior.
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Like those who take colts amid noise and tumult to sy if they are
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of a timid nature, so must we take our youth amid terrors of some
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kind, and again pass them into pleasures, and prove them more thoroughly than
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gold is proved in the furnace. We may discover whether they are armed against
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all enchantments, and of a noble bearing always good guardians of themselves and of
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the music which they have learned and retaining under all circumstances, are rhythmical and
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harmonious nature, such as will be most serviceable to the individual and to the
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state. And he who, at every age, as boy and youth and
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immature life, has come out of the trial victorious and pure, shall be
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appointed a ruler and guardian of the state. He shall be honored in life
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and death, and shall receive sepulcher and other memorials of honor the greatest that
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we have to give. But him who fails we must reject. I am
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inclined to think that this is the sort of way in which our rulers and
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guardians should be chosen and appointed. I speak generally, and not with any
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pretension to exactness, and speaking generally. I agree with you, he said,
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And perhaps the word guardian in its fullest sense ought to be applied to
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this higher class only who preserve us against foreign enemies and maintain peace among our
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citizens. Int henme that the one may not have the will or the others
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the power to harm us. The young men whom we before called guardians may
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be more properly designated auxiliaries and supporters of the principles of the rulers. I
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agree with you, he said, How then, may we devise one of
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those needful falsehoods of which we lately spoke, just one royal lie which may
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deceive the rulers, if that be possible, and at any rate, the
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rest of the city. What sort of lie? He said, Nothing new,
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I replied, Only an old Phoenician tale of what has often occurred before
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now in other places, as the poets say, and have made the world
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believe, though not in our time. And I do not know whether such
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an event could ever happen again, or could now even be made probable if
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it did. How your words seem to hesitate on your lips. You will
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not wonder, I replied, at my hesitation. When you have heard speak,
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he said, and fear not, well, then I will speak,
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although I really know not how to look you in the face, on what
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words to utter. The audacious fiction which I p posed to communicate gradually,
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first to the rulers, then to the soldiers, and lastly to the people.
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They are to be told that their youth was a dream, and the
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education and training which they received from us and appearance only in reality. During
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all that time they were being formed and fed in the womb of the earth,
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where they themselves and their arms and appurtenances were manufactured. When they were
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completed the earth, their mother sent them up, and so their country,
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being their mother and also their nurse, they are bound to advise for her
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good and to defend her against attacks, and her citizens there to regard as
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children of the earth and their own brothers. You had good reason, he
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said, to be ashamed of the lie which you were going to tell.
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True, I replied, but there is more coming. I have only told
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you half citizens. We shall say to them in our tale you are brothers.
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Yet God has framed you differently. Some of you have the power of
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command, and in the composition of these he has mingled gold. Wherefore also
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they have the greatest honor. Others he has made of silver to be auxiliaries.
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Others again, who are to be husbandmen and craftsmen. He is composed
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of brass and iron, and the species will generally be preserved in the children.
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But as all are of the same original stock, a golden parent will
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sometimes have a silver son or a silver parent a golden son. And God
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proclaims as a first principle to the rulers, and above all else, that
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there is nothing which they should so anxiously guard, or of which they are
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to be such good guardians as the purity of the race. They should observe
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what elements mingle in their offspring. For if the son of a golden or
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silver parent has an a mixture of brass and iron, then nature orders a
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transposition of ranks, and the eye of the ruler must not be pitiful toward
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the child, because he has to descend in the scale and become a husbandman
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or artisan. Just as there may be sons of artisans who have it in
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mixture of gold or silver in them, are raised to honor and become guardians
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or auxiliaries. For an oracle says that when a man of brass or iron
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guards the state, it will be destroyed. Such is the tale. Is
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there any possibility of making our cities dis believe in it? Not in this
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present generation, he replied. There is no way of accomplishing this. But
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their sons may be made to believe the tale, and their sons, sons
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and posterity after them. I see the difficulty, I replied, Yet the
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fostering of such a belief will make them care more for the city and for
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one another. Enough, however, of the fiction which may now fly abroad
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upon the wings of rumor. While we arm our earth born heroes and lead
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them forth under the command of their rulers, let them look round and select
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a spot whence they can best suppress insurrection, if any, prove refractory within,
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and also defend themselves against enemies, who, like wolves, may come
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down on the fold from without. There let them encamp, And when they
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have encamped, let them sacrifice to the proper gods and prepare their dwellings.
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Just so he said. And their dwellings must be such as will shield them
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against the cold of winter and the heat of summer. I suppose you mean
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houses, he replied, Yes, I said, but they must be the
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houses of soldiers and not of shopkeepers. What is the difference, he said,
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that I will endeavor to explain, I replied, to keep watch dogs
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who, from want of discipline, or hunger, or some evil habit or
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other, would turn upon the sheep and worry them and behave not like dogs.
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But wolves would be a foul and monstrous thing, and a shepherd truly
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monstrous, he said. And therefore every care must be taken that our auxiliaries,
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being stronger than our citizens, may not grow to be too much for
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them and become savage tyrants instead of friends and allies. Yes, great care
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should be taken, and when not, a really good education furnish the best
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safeguard. But they are well educated already, he replied. I cannot be
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so confident, my dear Glaucon, I said, I am much more certain
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that they ought to be, and that true education, whatever that may be,
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will have the greatest tendency to civilize and humanize them and their relations to
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one another and to those who are under their protection. Very true, he
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replied, And not only their education, but their habitations and all that belongs
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to them should be such as will neither impair their virtuous guardians, nor tempt
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them to prey upon the other citizens. Any man of sense must acknowledge that
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he must then now let us consider what will be their way of life,
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if they are to realize our idea of them. In the first place,
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none of them should have any property of his own beyond what is absolutely necessary.
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Neither should they have a private house or store closed against any one who
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has a mind to enter. Their provisions should be only such as are required
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by trained warriors, who are men of temperance and courage. They should agree
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to receive from the citizens a fixed rate of pay, enough to meet the
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expenses of the year, and no more, and they will go to mess
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and live together like soldiers in a camp. Gold and silver. We will
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tell them that they have from God. The diviner metal is within them,
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and they have therefore no need of the draws which is current among men,
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and ought not to pollute the divine by any such earthly admit for that commoner
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metal has been the source of many unholy deeds. But their own is undefiled.
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And they alone of the citizens, may not touch or handle silver or
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gold, or be under the same roof with them, or wear them,
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or drink from them, and this will be their salvation, and they will
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be the saviors of the state. But should they ever acquire homes, or
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lands or moneys of their own, they will become housekeepers and husbandmen instead of
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guardians, enemies and tyrants, instead of allies of the other citizens, hating
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and being hated, plotting and being plotted against. They will pass their whole
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life in much greater terror of internal than of external enemies. And the hour
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of ruin, both to themselves and to the rest of the state, will
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be at hand. For all which reasons, may we not say that thus
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shall our state be ordered, and that these shall be the regulations appointed by
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us for guardians, concerning their houses and all other matters. Yes, said
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Glaucon into Book three.