Phaedrus — Plato

38o t>LATO THE TEACHEk Nothing, he said, can be more completely enslaved. And yet, as you see, there are masters and there are freemen in such a State ? Yes, he said, I see that there are, — a, few ; but the people as a whole (speaking generally) and the best of them are disgracefully and miserably enslaved.

Then if the man is like the State, I said, must not the same hold of the man ? his soul is full of meanness and serfdom, — the best elements in him are enslaved ; and there is a small ruling part which is also the worst and maddest. That is inevitable. And would you say that the soul of such an one is the soul of a freeman or of a slave ? He has the soul of a slave, in my judgment.

And the State which is enslaved under a tyrant is very far from acting voluntarily ? Very far, indeed. And also the soul which is under a tyrant (I am speaking of the soul taken as a whole) is very far from doing as she desires ; there is a gadfly which goads her, and she is full of trouble and remorse? Certainly. And is the city which is under a tyrant rich or poor ? Poor. And the tyrannical soul must be always poor and insatiable ?

And must not such a State and such a man be always full of fear? Yes, indeed. Is there any State in which you will find more of lame;ntation and sorrow and groaning and pain ? Certainly not. And is there any man in whom you will find more misery of the same kind than in the tyrannical man, who is in a fury of passions and desires ? Impossible.

Reflecting then upon these and similar evils, you held the tyrannical State to be the most miserable of States ? And I was right, he said. Certainly, I said. And when you see the same evils in the tyrannical man, what do you say of him?

p. 381 I say that he is by far the most miserable of all men. There, I said, I think that you are wrong. How is that ? he said. I do not think that he has as yet reached the utmost extreme of misery. Then who is more miserable? One of whom I am about to speak. Who is that ? He who is of a tyrannical nature, and instead of leading a private life is cursed with the further misfortune of being a public tyrant.

I should conjecture from the previous remarks that you are right. Yes, I said ; but in this high argument of good and evil you should not conjecture only — you should have a certainty. That is very true, he said. Let me then offer you an illustration, which may, I think, have an application to this subject. What is your illustration ?

The case of rich individuals in cities who possess many slaves : from them you may form an idea of the tyrant's State, for they both have slaves ; the only difference is that he has more slaves. Yes, that is the difference. You know that they live securely and have no fear of their servants ? What should they fear ? Nothing. But do you observe the reason of this ?

Yes; the reason is, that the whole city is leagued together for the protection of each individual. That is quite true, I said. But imagine that one of these owners is carried off by a god into the wilderness, where there are no freemen to help him — he and his household, and he is the master say of about fifty slaves — will he not be in an agony of apprehension lest he and his wife and children should be put to death by his slaves ?

Yes, he said, he will be in the utmost alarm. Will he not be compelled to flatter divers of his slaves, ' and make many promises to them of freedom and other things much against his will ? — ^he will become the servant of his servants.

p. 382Yes, he said, that will be the only way of saving his life. And suppose that the same god who carries him off puts him down among neighbors who will not allow a man to be the master of another, and, if they catch him, are ready to inflict capital punishment upon him ? Then his case will be even worse, he said, when he is surrounded and watched by enemies.

And is not this the sort of prison in which the tyrant will be bound ? — he being by nature such as we have described, is full of all sorts of fears and lusts.

His soul is dainty and greedy, and yet he only, of all men, is never allowed to go on a journey, or to see the things which other freemen desire to see, but he lives in his hole like a woman hidden in the house, and is jealous of any other citizen who goes into foreign parts and sees anything of interest. Very true, he said.

Such being his evil condition, am I not right in saying that the tyrannical man, ill-governed in his own person, whom you just now described as the most miserable of all, will be yet more miserable in a public station, when, instead of leading a private life, he is constrained by fortune to be a tyrant ?

He has to be master of others when he is not master of himself: he is like a diseased or paralytic man who is compelled to pass his life, not in retirement, but fighting and combating with other men. Yes, he said, that is very true, and the similitude is most exact. Is not his case utterly miserable ? and does not the actual t}Tant lead a worse life than him whom you determined to be worst? Certainly.

He who is the real tyrant, whatever men may think, is the real slave, and is obliged to practice the greatest adulation and servility, and to be the flatterer of the vilest of mankind.

He has desires which he is utterly unable to, satisfy, and has more wants than any one, and is truly poor, if you know how to inspect the whole soul of him : all his life long he is beset with « fear and is full of convulsions and distractions, even as the State which he resembles; and surely the resemblance holds ? True, he said.