Phaedrus — Plato

p. 248the earth, where they themselves and their arms and appurtenances were manufactured ; and when they were completed, the earth, their mother, sent them up; and, their country being their mother and also their nurse, they are therefore bound to advise for her good, and to defend her against attacks, and her citizens they are to regard as children of the earth and their own brothers. . . .

Citizens, we shall say ^ ^ to them in our tale, you are brothers, yet God has framed you differently. Some of you have the power of command, and these he has composed of gfilji, wherefore also they have the greatest honor ; others of sijver, to be auxUi^ies ; others again who are to be husbandmen and craftsmen he has made of brass and iron ; and the species will gener/^ly be preserved in the children.

But as you are of the same priginal family, a golden parent will sometimes have a silver son, or a silver parent a golden son.

And God proclaims to the rulers, as a first principle, that before all they should watch over their offspring, and see what elements mingle in their nature ; for if the son of a golden or silver parent has an admixture of brass and iron, then nature orders a transposition of ranks, and the eye of the ruler must not be pitiful towards his child because he has to descend in the scale and become a husbandman or artisan, just as there may be others sprung from the artisan class who are raised to honor, and become guardians and auxiliaries.

For an oracle says that when a man of brass or iron guards the State, it will then be destroyed. Such is the 1 tale; is there any possibility of making our citizens believe in it? ^ Not in the present generation, he replied ; I do not see any way of accomplishing this ; but their sons may be made to believe, and their sons' sons, and posterity after them.

I see the difficulty, 1 replied; yet even this amount of belief may make them care more for the city and for one another. Enough, however, of the fiction, which may now be borne on the wings of rumor, while we arm our earth-born heroes, and lead them forth under the command of their rulers.

Let them look around and select a spot whence they can best prevent insurrection, if any prove refractory within, and also defend themselves against enemies, who like wolves may come down on the fold from without ; there let them encamp, and when they have encamped, let them sacrifice and prepare their dwellings.

p. 249And what sort of dwellings are they to have ? Dwellings that will shield them against the cold of winter and the heat of summer. I suppose that you mean houses, he replied. Yes, I said ; but they must be the houses of soldiers, and not of shop-keepers. What is the difference? he said. That I will endeavor to explain, I replied.

To keep ^ watch-dogs, who, from want of discipline or hunger, or ^ some evil habit or other, would turn upon the sheep and worry them, and behave not like dogs but wolves, would be a foul and monstrous thing ? Truly monstrous, he said. And, therefore, every care must be taken lest our auxiliaries, as they are stronger than our citizens, should prevail over them, and become savage tyrants instead of gentle allies to them?

Yes, care should be taken. And would not education be the best preparation and safeguard of them ? But they are well-educated, he replied ; that is a safeguard which they already have.

I cannot be so confident of that, my dear Glaucon, I said ; I am much more certain that they ought to be, and that true education, whatever that may be, will greatly tend to civilize and humanize them in their relations to one another, and to those who are under their protection. True, he replied.

And not only their education, but their habitations, and also their means of subsistence, should be such as will neither impair their virtue as guardians, nor tempt them to prey upon the other citizens. Any man of sense will say that. He will. Such is our conception of them ; and now let us consider what way of life will correspond with this conception.

In the first place, none of them should have any property beyond what is absolutely necessary ; neither should they have a private house, with bars and bolts, closed against any one who has a mind to enter ; their provisions should be only such as are required by trained warriors, who are men of temperance and courage; their agreement is to receive from the citizens a

2 so PLATO THE TEACHER fixed rate of pay, enough to meet the expenses of the year and no more, and they will have common meals and live together, like soldiers in a camp. Gold and silver we will tell them that they have from God ; the diviner metal is within them, and they have therefore no need of that earthly dross which passes under the name of gold, and ought not to pollute the divine by earthly admixture, for that commoner metal ^ ' has been the source of many unholy deeds ; but their own is undefiled. And they alone of all the citizens may not touch or handle silver or gold, or be under the same roof with them, or wear them, or drink from them. And this will be their salvation, and the salvation of the State. But should they ever acquire homes or lands or moneys of their own, they will become housekeepers and husbandmen instead of guardians, enemies and tyrants instead of allies of the other citizens ; hating and being hated, plotting and being plotted against, they will pass through life in much greater terror of internal than of external enemies, and the hour of ruiri, both to themselves and to the rest of the State, will be at hand. For all which reasons may we not say that these are to be the regulations of our guardians respecting houses and all other things, and that such shall be our laws ? Yes, said Glaucon.

THE REPUBLIC 2^1

BOOK IV