Phaedrus — Plato

p. 242cunning and suspicious character, who has committed many crimes, when he is among men who are like himself, is wonderful in his precautions against others, because he judges of them by himself: but when he gets into the company of men of virtue, who have the experience of age, he appears to be a fool again, owing to his unseasonable suspicion : he cannot recognize an honest man, because he has nothing in himself at all parallel to judge from ; at the same time, as the bad are more numerous than the good, and he meets with them oftener, he thinks himself, and others think him, rather wise than foolish.

Most true, he said. Then the good and wise judge whom we are seeking is not this man ; the other is better suited to us ; for vice cannot know virtue, but a virtuous nature, educated by time, will acquire a knowledge both of virtue and vice : the virtuous, and not the vicious man has wisdom ; that is my view. And mine also. This is the sort of medicine, and this is the sort of law, which you will sanction.

They will be healing arts to better natures in their souls and in their bodies ; but the worse ^ nature or constitution they will in the case of the body leave to die, and the diseased and incurable soul they will put to death themselves. That is clearly best for them and for the State. And thus our youth, having been educated only in that simple music which infuses temperance, will be reluctant to go to law. That is evident.

And in the same way simple gymnastic will incline him to have as little as possible to do with medicine. That I quite believe. The very exercises and toils he will undertake in order to stimulate the spirited element of his nature, rather than with a view of increasing his strength ; he will not, like common athletes, use exercise and regimen to develop his muscles. Very right, he said.

Neither are the two arts of music and gymnastic really designed, the one for the training of the soul, the other for the training of the body. But what is the real object ?

p. 243I believe, I said, that the teachers of both have in view chiefly the improvement of the soul. How is that ? he asked. Did you never observe, I said, the effect on the mind of exclusive devotion to gymnastic, or the opposite effect of an exclusive devotion to music ? In what is that shown ? he said. / In producing a temper of hardness and ferocity, or again of Cseftness and effeminacy, I replied.

Yes, he said, I am quite aware that your mere athlete becomes too much of a savage, and that the musician is melted and softened beyond what is good for him. Moreover, I said, that fierce quality gives spirit, and, if educated rightly, will be valiant, but, if overstrained, is likely to become hard and brutal. That I quite think. The philosopher is the type of the gentler character.

This, if too much relaxed, will turn to softness, but, if educated, will be gentle and modest. True. "-^ And our view is that the guardians ought to have both these qualities ? They ought. They should be harmonized ? Beyond question. And the harmonious soul is both temperate and val- And the inharmonious is cowardly and boorish ? Very true.

And, when a man allows music to play and pour over his soul through his ears, which are the funnel, those sweet and soft and melancholy airs of which we were just now speaking, and his whole life is passed in warbling and the delights of song ; in the first stage of the process the passion or spirit which is in him is tempered like iron, and made useful, instead of brittle and useless.

But, if he carries on the softening process, in the next stage he begins to melt and consume, until the passion of his soul is melted out of him, and what may be called the nerves of his soul are cut away, and he makes but a feeble warrior.

p. 244Very true. If the element of spirit is naturally weak in him this is soon accomplished, but if he have a good deal, then the power of music weakening the spirit renders him excitable ; he soon flames up, and is speedily extinguished ; instead of having spirit he becomes irritable and violent and very discontented. Exactly.

Thus in gymnastics also, if a man works hard and is a great feeder, and the reverse of a great student of music and philosophy, at first the high condition of his body fills him with pride arid spirit, until he is twice the man that he was. Certainly.

But if he do nothing else, and never cultivates the Muses, even that intelligence which there may be in him, having no taste of any sort of learning or inquiry or thought or music, becomes feeble and dull and blind, because never roused or sustained, and because the senses are not purged of their mists. True, he said.

And he ends by becoming a hater of philosophy, uncultivated, never using the weapon of persuasion, — he is like a wild beast, all violence and fierceness, and knows no other way of dealing ; and he lives in all ignorance and evil conditions, and has no sense of propriety and grace. That is quite true, he said.

And as there are two principles of human nature, one the spirited and the other the philosophical, my belief is that God has given mankind two arts answering to them (and only ^ indirectly to the soul and body), in order that these two principles may be duly attuned and harmonized with one another. That I am disposed to believe.

J ^'i • And he who mingles music with gymnastic in the fairest proportions, and best attempers them to the soul, may be called the true musician and harmonist in a far higher sense than the tuner of the strings. I dare say, Socrates. And such a presiding genius will be always required in our State if the government is to last. Yes, he will be absolutely necessary. Such, then, are our principles of nurture and education. There would be no use in going into further details about their