Phaedrus — Plato
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p. 254How is that ? he asked. In the first place, I said, our side will be trained warriors fighting against a number of wealthy individuals. That is true, he said. And do you not suppose, Adeimantus, that a single boxer who was perfect in his art would easily be a match for two stout and well-to-do gentlemen who were not boxers ? ** Hardly, if they came upon him at once.
What, not, I said, if he were able to run away and then turn and strike at the one who first came up ? And supposing he were to do this several times under the heat of a scorching sun, do not you think that he might overturn more than one stout personage ? Certainly, he said, there would be nothing wonderful in that. And yet rich men are probably not so inferior to others in boxing as they are in military qualities. That is very likely.
Then probably our athletes will be able to fight with three or four times their own number ? I believe that you are right, he said. And suppose that, before engaging, our citizens send an embassy to one of the two cities, telling them the truth : Silver and gold we neither have nor are permitted to have ; in that we are not like you ; do you therefore come and help us in war, and take the spoils of the other city.
Who, on hearing these words, would choose to fight the lean wiry dogs, rather than, with the dogs on their side, to fight fat and tender sheep? Very true ; but still there might be a danger to the poor State if the wealth of many States were to coalesce in one. States ! I said ; why, what simplicity is this, that you should use the term ** State*' of any but our own State!
Other States may indeed be spoken of more grandiloquently in the plural number, for they are many in one — a game of cities at which men play.
Any ordinary city, however small, ' is in fact two cities, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich, at war with one another :rand in either divis- ^ ion there are many smaller ones, and you would make a great mistake if you treated them as single States ; but if you deal with them as many, and give the money or means or p. 255persons of the one to the others, you will always have a great many friends, and not many enemies. And your State, while the wise order which has now been prescribed continues to prevail in her, will be the greatest of States, not in reputation or appearance only, but in deed and truth, though she number not more than a thousand defenders.
A State which is her equal you will hardly find, either among Hellenes or barbarians,^ though many that appear to be as great and many times greater. That is most true, he said. And this, I said, will be the best limit for our rulers to fix when they are considering the size of the State and the amount of territory which they are to include, and beyond which they will not go. What limit ?
I think, I said, that the State may increase to any size^ which is consistent with unity ; that is the limit. ^ Yes, he said ; that is excellent. Here then, I said, is another order which will have to be conveyed to our guardians, — that our city is to be neither large nor small, but of such a size as is consistent with unity. And surely, said he, this is not a very severe order which we impose upon them.
And this, said I, is lighter still of which we were speaking before, — I mean the duty of degrading the offspring of the guardians when inferior, and of elevating the offspring of the lower classes, when naturally superior, into the rank of guardians.
The intention was, that, in the case of the citizens i^ generally, we should put each individual man to that use for which nature designecTTiim, and then every man would do his own business, and be one and not many, and the whole city would be one and not many. Yes, he said ; there will be even less difficulty in that.
These things, my good Adeimantus, are not, as might be supposed, a number of great principles, but trifling all of them, if care be taken, as the saying is, of the one great thing, — a thing, however, which I would rather call not great, but enough for our purpose. What may that be ? he asked. Education, I said, and nurture. For if they are well edu- * A term applied by the Greeks to all who were not Greeks.
p. 256cated, and grow into sensible men, they will easily see their way through all this as well as other matters which I do not mention ; such, for example, as the possession of women and marriage and the procreation of children, which will all ^ ^ follow the general principle that friends have all things in common/ as the proverb says. That will be excellent, he replied. r Also, I said, the State, if once started well, goes on with accumulating force like a wheel. For good nurture and education implant good constitutions, and these good constitutions having their roots in a good education improve more and more, and this improvement affects the breed in man as L in other animals. True, he said. Then to sum up. This is the point to which, above all, the attention of our rulers should be directed, — t^^t mnsir. .^d gymnastics be preserved in thei^; orip[inal form, and no innpvation made. They must do all they can to maintain this. And when any one says that mankind most regardtt
The song which is the newest that the singers have,"
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