Timaeus — Plato

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The two correspondmg elements in human nature.

Republic III. Socrates, Glaucon. degenerates into a wild beast.

Music to be mingled with gymnastic, and both attempered to the individual soul.

Enough of principles of education : who are to be our rulers?

Certainly. And what happens? if he do nothing else, and holds no converse with the Muses, does not even that intelhgence which there may be in him, having no taste of any sort of learning or enquiry or thought or culture, grow feeble and dull and blind, his mind never waking up or receiving nourishment, and his senses not being purged of their mists? True, he said.

And he ends by becoming a hater of philosophy, uncivihzed, 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, some God, as I should say, has given mankind two arts answering to them (and only indirectly to the soul and body), in order that these two principles (like the strings of an instrument) may be 412 relaxed or drawn tighter until they are duly harmonized. That appears to be the intention.

And he who mingles music with gymnastic in the fairest proportions, and best attempers them to the soul, may be rightly called the true musician and harmonist in a far higher sense than the tuner of the strings. You are quite right, 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 : Where would be the use of going into further details about the dances of our citizens, or about their hunting and coursing, their gymnastic and equestrian contests? For these all follow the general principle, and having found that, we shall have no difficulty in discovering them. I dare say that there will be no difficulty. Very good, I said; then what is the next question?

Must we not ask who are to be rulers and who subjects? Certainly. There can be no doubt that the elder must rule the younger.

Selection and probatio7i of the guardians. I o i Clearly. Republic in. And that the best of these must rule. Socrates, That is also clear. Glaucon. Now, are not the best husbandmen those who are most ^^e elder must rule and devoted to husbandry? the younger Yes. ^^"^^ And as we are to have the best of guardians for our city, must they not be those who have most the character of guardians ? Yes.

And to this end they ought to be jvise and efficient, and to have a special care of the State? True.

And a man will be most likely to care about that which he Those are to loves? be appointed rulers who To be sure. have been And he will be most likely to love that which he reerards as ^^^^^^ '" ^", ; ^ " _ the stages of having the same interests with himself, and that of which the their life; good or evil fortune is supposed by him at any time most to affect his own? Very true, he replied. Then there must be a selection.

Let us note among the guardians those who in their whole life show the greatest eagerness to do what is for the good of their country, and the greatest repugnance to do what is against her interests. Those are the right men.

And they will have to be watched at every age, in order that we may see whether they preserve their resolution, and never, under the influence either of force or enchantment, forget or cast off their sen^e of duty to the State. How cast off? he said. I will explain to you, I replied.

A resolution may go out of a man's mind either with his will or against his will ; with 413 his will when he gets rid of a falsehood and learns better, against his will whenever he is deprived of a truth. I understand, he said, the willing loss of a resolution ; the , meaning of the unwilling I have yet to learn. Why, I said, do you not see that men are unwillingly deprived of good, and willingly of evil? Is not to have lost the truth an evil, and to possess the truth a good? and you • -'4 • ' '