Phaedrus — Plato

p. 184mainder of his life, with occasional re-entrance into active life as emergencies may require.

A State governed by such men in accordance with absolute truth is, according to Plato, ideally good, and every citizen therein will be better and happier than under any other conditions ; for every citizen will be doing, in obedience to the wise rulers, what he is best fitted to do for himself and for others, and will be receiving from all others that which is his due. See II., 374 to end of III., VI., VII., and X., 595 to 608. VI.

The decline of the State : The State will be preserved ^'as it should be only as long as it is wholly guided by the absolute truth, through the philosophers.

If men whose highest principle is love of honor, succeed those whose highest principle is obedience to the truth, the next generation will likely put love of money in place of love of honor, the next will put love of pleasure in place of money, and presently all virtue and health will give place to. the wildest license, and so ; at last, to general ruin of State and of the people.

The several forms of government (to each of which there corresponds a certain kind of man) are named and described as follows: (1.) Aristocracy: Literally, government by the best. With Plato, this meant government by the philosophers. (2.) Timocracy: Literally, government by honor.

With Plato, this meant government by those whose highest principle is soldierly ambition, and who are ignorant of and indifferent to true wisdom. (3.) Oligarchy : Literally, government by the few. With Plato, this meant government by those whose highest virtues are those involved in the acquisition of wealth, and who are indifferent to true wisdom and to soldierly honor. (4.) Democracy : Literally, government by the common people.

With Plato, this meant government by the mob whose highest desire is license regardless of true wisdom, honor, or the virtues that lead to wealth. (5.) Tyranny : Literally, government by one absolute ruler. With

INTRODUCTION 1 85 Plato, this meant government by one man who has absolute power over his subjects, and who uses this power solely for his own lowest self-interest, without regard to wisdom or honor, and without regard to the material prosperity or the desires of his people. See VIII. and IX. VII.

Virtue and happiness: As already stated, virtue is health, the harmonious organic unity of all the elements of man's life in accordance with absolute truth. Every breach of virtue is a breach of health. Vice is disease. Vice can appear to be more pleasurable than virtue only for a little time. The wages of sin are always quickly misery and ruin. The virtuous soul, on the contrary, is completely fortified against real harm or unhappiness.

It is at one with itself and at one with God. It has the joy which springs from perfect health, and it has that joy not only in this life but in that which is to come. See IV., 445, IX., 576 to 581 and X.,608 to close. Note. — Most of the first book of the Republic is given up to an argument between Socrates, Thrasymachus, and others, in which no conclusions satisfactory to any one are reached.

Here, as in other dialogues, Socrates sometimes appears to be as sophistical as his opponents. This part of the Republic is probably to be regarded as a dramatic portrayal of the way in which the Sophists dealt with questions. The serious consideration of justice in the individual and State begins with the second book.

THE REPUBLIC BOOK I PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE.* Socrates, who is the narrator. Cephalus. Glaucon. Thrasymachus. ApEIMANTUS. CLEITOPHON. Polemarchus. And others who are mute auditors. The scene Is laid in the house of Cephalus at the Piraeus ; and the whole discourse is narrated the day after it actually took place to Timaeus, HermocrateSi Critias,' and a nameless person, who iHX reappear in the Timaeus. ^.

I WENT down to the Piraeus ^ yesterday with Glaucon the son of Ariston, that I might offer up a prayer to the goddess ; and also because I wanted to see in what manner they would 1 Glaucon (gl^ulcon) : brother of Plato. He is said to have written a num« b^r of dialogues, but none are extant. Adcimantus (ad'i-m3n'tus) : brother of Plato ; mentioned in Apology, 34 ; little is known of him beyond the representation in this dialogue.

Polemarchus (pdl'e-mar'kus) : son of Cephalus, and brother of Lysias, the orator. The brothers owned a shield factory and amassed great wealth, on account of which they were seized by the Thirty Tyratits. Lysias escaped, but Polemarchus was forced, without trial, to drmk the hemlock.

Cephalus (sgfa-lus) : a resident alien from Syracuse. *• We are to think of Cephalus, not as the Athenian aristocrat, but, rather as the cultivated manufacturer or merchant prince, residing^ no doubt, in a good house, but in a commercial or industrial quarter. He accepted, we are told, the burdens of an Athenian citizen, and lived for thirty years, unharming and unharmed, under the popular government" — Bosanauet.

Thrasymachus (thra-sym'a-kus) : a native of Chalcedon (Idll-se'don), a Greek city on the Bosphorus. He was a Sophist, and a famous teacher of rhetoric. He is mentioned in the Phaedrus. Cleitophon (kli'to-fon) : son of Aristonymus (SrTs-tdn'y-mus) ; not mentioned elsewhere by Plato. * Timaeus (ti-me'us). Hermocrates (her-m6k'ra-t€z).

Critias (krlt'i-as). > Piraeus (pl-re'us) : the most important of the harbors of Athens, situateid about five miles southwest of Athens, and connected with that city by the Long Walls. Many foreigners resided there. 187