Phaedrus — Plato
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p. 324those of eating and drinking, and drag them down and turn the vision of their souls about the things that are below, — ^if,I say, they had been released from them and turned round to the truth, the very same faculty in these very same persons would have seen the other as keenly as they now see that on which their eye is fixed. That is very likely.
Yes, I said ; and there is another thing which is likely, or rather a necessary inference from what has preceded, that neither the uneducated and uninformed of the truth, nor yet those who never make an end of their education, will be able ministers of State : not the former, because they have no single aim of duty which is the rule of their actions, private as well as public ; nor the latter, because they will not act at all except upon compulsion, fancying that they are already in the islands of the blest.
Very true, he replied. Then, I said, the business of us who are the founders of the State will be to compel the best minds to attain that knowledge which has been already declared by us to be the greatest of all, — to that eminence thev must ascend and arrive at the good, and when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they do now. What do you mean ?
I mean that they remain in the upper world : but this must not be allowed ; they must be made to descend again among the prisoners in the den, and partake of their labors and honors, whether they are worth having or not.* But is not this unjust ? he said ; ought we to give them an inferior life, when they might have a superior one ?
You have again forgotten, my friend, I said, the intention of the legislator \ he did not aim at making any one class in the State happy above the rest ; the happiness was to be in the whole State, and he held the citizens together ^^ by persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State, and therefore benefactors of one another ; to this end he created them, not that they should please them- 1 On the Mount of Ttansfiraration (Luke ix. <») Peter said. ** Master, it is good for us to be here : and let us make three tiUHrnacles.
" Luke addis the phrase — " not knowing what he said. Christ made no reply in words, but presenUy led them back to work and to die for the saving of the world.
p. 325selves, but they were to be his instruments in binding up the State. True, he said, I had forgotten that.
Observe then, I said, Glaucon, that there will be no injustice in compelling our philosophers to have a care and providence of others ; we shall explain to them that in other States, men of their class are not obliged to share in the toils of politics : and this is reasonable, for they grow up at their own sweet will, and the government would rather not have them.
Now the wild plant which owes culture to nobody, has nothing to pay for culture ; but we have brought you into the world expressly for this end, that you may be rulers of the hive, kings of yourselves and of the other citizens. And you have been educated far better and more perfectly than they have, and are better able to share in the double duty.
And therefore each of you, when his turn comes, must go down to the general underground abode, and get the habit of seeing in the dark ; for all is habit ; and when you are accustomed you will see ten thousand times better than those in the den, and you will know what the images are, and of what they are images, because you have seen the beautiful and just and good in their truth.
And thus the order of our State will be a waking reality, and not a dream, as is commonly the manner of States ; in most of them men are fighting with one another about shadows and are distracted in the struggle for power, which in their eyes is a great good. But the truth is, that the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is best and most quietly governed, and that in which they are most willing, the worst.
Quite true, he replied. And will our pupils, when they hear this, refuse to share in turn the toils of State, when they are allowed to spend the greater part of their time with one another in the heaven of ideas? Impossible, he answered ; for they are just men, and the commands which we impose upon them are just ; there can be no doubt that every one of them will take office as a stern necessity and not like our present ministers of State.
Yes, my friend, I said ; and that is just the truth of the case. If you contrive for your future rulers another and a better life than that of a ruler, then you may have p. 326a well-ordered State; for only in the State which offers this will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life.
Whereas if they go to the administration of public affairs, poor and hungering after their own private advantage, thinking that hence they are to snatch the good of life, order there can never be ; for they will be fighting about office, and the civil and domestic broils which thus arise will be the ruin of the rulers themselves and of the whole State. Most true, he replied.
And the only hfe which looks down upon the life of political ambition is that of true philosophy ? Do you know of any other ? No, indeed, he said. And those who govern ought not to be lovers of the task ? If they are there will be rival lovers, and they will fight. No question. Whom then would you choose rather than those who are wisest about affairs of State, and who at the same time have other honors and another and a better life ?
They are the men, and I will choose them, he replied. Would you like us then to consider in what way such guardians may be called into existence, and how they are to be brought from darkness to light, — as some are said to have ascended from the world below to the gods ? Certainly I should, he replied.
The process, I said, is not the spinning round of an oystershell,*-^ but the conversion of a soul out of night-like day to the real ascent of true being, which is true philosophy. Now what sort of knowledge has the power of effecting this ? that is a question which has to be considered. Certainly. Then what sort of knowledge is there which would draw the soul from becoming to being ? At the same time there is another thing which occurs to me.
You will remember that our young men are to be warrior athletes ? Yes, that was said. Then this new kind of knowledge must have another quality ? ' In allusion to " a game in which a shell black on one side and white on the other was thrown on a line and according as the black or white turned up one party was obliged to fly and the other pursued." (L. and S.)
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