Phaedrus — Plato

p. 362mysteries,^' the next thing is to bring back to their house in* solence and anarchy and waste and impudence in bright artay, having garlands on their heads, with a great company, while they hymn their praises and call them by sweet names ; inso- ^ lence they term breeding, and anarchy liberty, and ^ waste magnificence, and impudence courage.

In this way the young man passes out of his original nature, which was trained in the school of necessity, into the freedom and libertinism of useless and unnecessary pleasures. Yes, he said, that is obviously the way.

When the change has been made he lives on, spending his money and labor and time on unnecessary pleasures quite as much as on necessary ones ; but if he be fortunate, and is not too much intoxicated with passion, when he gets older, after the tumult of freedom has mostly passed away — supposing that he then re-admits into the city some part of the exiled virtues, and does not wholly give himself up to their successors — in that case he balances his pleasures and lives in a sort of equilibrium, putting the government of himself into the hands of the one that offers and wins the turn ; and when he has had enough of that, then into the hands of another, and is very impartial in his encouragement of them all.

Very true, he said. Neither does he receive or admit into the fortress any true word of advice ; if any one says to him that some pleasures are the satisfactions of good and noble desires, and others of evil desires, and that he ought to use and honor some and curtail and reduce others — whenever this is repeated to him he shakes his head and says that they are all alike, and that one is as honorable as another.

Why, yes, he said ; that is the sort of man, and that is his way of behaving.

Yes, I said, he lives through the day indulging the appetite of the hour ; and sometimes he is lapped in drink and strains of the flute ; then he is for total abstinence, and tries to get thin ; then, again, he is at gymnastics ; sometimes idling and neglecting everything, then once more living the life of a philosopher ; often he is at politics, and starts to his feet and says and does anything that may turn up ; and, if he is emulous of any one who is a warrior, off he is in that direction, or " In allusion to the religioug mysteries. See Symposium, note 3a, 2p. 363of men of business, once more in that. His life has neither order nor law ; and this is the way of him — ^this he terms joy and freedom and happiness. Yes, he said, there is liberty, equality, and fraternity enough in him. Yes, I said ; he may be described as — ''A man so various that he seems to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome. He is, like the State, a rare being, and has many forms.

And many a man and many a woman will emulate him, and many a constitution and many an example of life is contained in him. That is true. Let him then be set over against democracy; he may ^ truly be called the democratic man. j,^ ^ ^ Let that be his place, he said. ^^.^ — And now comes the most beautiful of all, man ariJ State alike, tyranny and the tyrant ; these we have to consider. Quite true, he said.

Say then, my friend, how does tyranny arise— out of democracy of course ? Clearly. And does not tyranny spring from democracy in the same way as democracy from oligarchy — I mean, after a sort ? How is that ? The good which oligarchy proposed was excess of wealth ; in this oligarchy originated. Am I not right ? Yes.

And the insatiable desire of wealth, and the neglect of all other things for the sake of money-getting, was also the ruin of oligarchy? True. And democracy has a notion of good, the insatiable desire of which also brought her to an end ? What notion of good ? Freedom, I replied j that, as people often say, is best in a democracy — and, therefore, in a democracy only will the freedom of nature deign to dwell. Why, said he, that is very often said. And, I was going to observe, that the insatiable desire of 3p. 364this and the neglect of other things, introduces the change in democracy, which occasions a demand for tyranny. How is that ?

When a denwcracy which is thirsting for freedom has evil cup-bearers presiding over the feast, and has drunk too deeply of the strong wine of freedom, then, unless her rulers are very amenable and give a plentiful draught, she calls them to account and punishes them, and says that they are cursed oligarchs. Yes, he replied, that is a very common thing.

Yes, I said ; and loyal citizens are insulted by her as lovers of slavery and men of naught ; she would have subjects who are like rulers, and rulers who are like subjects : these are men after her own heart, whom she praises and honors both in private and public. Now, in such a State, can liberty have any limit? Certainly not.

Nay, I said, the anarchy grows and finds a way into private houses, and ends by getting among the animals and infecting them. How do you mean ?

I mean that the father gets accustomed to descend to the level of his sons and to fear them, and the son to be on a level with his father, he having no shame or fear of either of his parents ; and this is his freedom, and the metic ^® is equal b6« with the citizen and the citizen with the metic^ and the stranger on a level with either. Yes, he said, that is true.

That is true, I said ; and, moreover, little things of this sort happen : the master fears and flatters his scholars, and the scholars despise their masters and tutors ; and, in general, young and old are alike, and the young man is on a level with the old, and is ready to compete with him in word or deed j and old men condescend to the young, and are full of pleasantry and gayety ; they do not like to be thought morose and authoritative, and therefore they imitate the young.

Quite true, he said. The last extreme of popular liberty is when the slave bought with money, whether male or female, is just as free as his or IB Metic (me'tfc) : In Athens, a resident alien who paid a certain tax but had no civic rights. (L. and S.)