Timaeus — Plato

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Here Adeimantus interposed a question: How would you Republic i v. ^ ' 9 answer, Socrates, said he, if a person were to say that you adeimantus, are making^ these people miserable, and that they are the ^o^'^^'^^s. cause of their own unhappiness ; the city in fact belongs to ^J^ objection them, but they are none the better for it ; whereas other men has made his acquire lands, and build large and handsome houses, and "tizenspoor ^ *-* and miserable : have everything handsome about them, offering sacrifices to the gods on their own account, and practising hospitality ; moreover, as you were saying just now, they have gold and silver, and all that is usual among the favourites of fortune ; but our poor citizens are no better than mercenaries who are quartered in the city and are always mounting guard ?

420 Yes, I said; and you may add that they are only fed, and worst of and not paid in addition to their food, Hke other men ; and gocr^ates the therefore they cannot, if they would, take a journey of have no pleasure ; they have no money to spend on a mistress or any "^°"^yother luxurious fancy, which, as the world goes, is thought to be happiness ; and many other accusations of the same nature might be added.

But, said he, let us suppose all this to be included in the charge. You mean to ask, I said, what will be our answer? Yes. If we proceed along the old path, my belief, I said, is Yet very that we shall find the answer.

And our answer will be that, •'•'^'y '^^y ' may be the even as they are, our guardians may very likely be the happiest of happiest of men ; but that our aim in founding the State was ""^^ '" not the disproportionate happiness of any one class, but the greatest happiness of the whole ; we thought that in a State * Or, ' that for their own good you are making these people miserable.'

io8 The State must be regarded as a whole. Republic IV. which is ordered with a view to the good of the whole we Adeimantus, should be most likely to find justice, and in the ill-ordered Socrates. State injustice : and, having found them, we might then decide which of the two is the happier.

At present, I take it, we are fashioning the happy State, not piecemeal, or with a view of making a few happy citizens, but as a whole ; and by-and-by The state, Hke wc will procccd to view the opposite kind of State.

Suppose be^*ud"ed"or^ that we Were painting a statue, and some one came up to us as a whole. and Said, Why do you not put the most beautiful colours on the most beautiful parts of the body — the eyes ought to be purple, but you have made them black — to him we might fairly answer.

Sir, you would not surely have us beautify the eyes to such a degree that they are no longer eyes ; consider rather whether, by giving this and the other features their due proportion, we make the whole beautiful.

And so I say to you, do not compel us to assign to the guardians a sort of happiness which will make them anything but guardians ; for we too can clothe our husbandmen in royal apparel, and set crowns of gold on their heads, and bid them till the ground as much as they like, and no more.

Our potters also might be allowed to repose on couches, and feast by the fireside, passing round the winecup, while their wheel is conveniently at hand, and working at pottery only as much as they like ; in this way we might make every class happy — and then, as you imagine, the whole State would be happy.

But do not put this idea into our heads ; for, if we listen to you, the husbandman will be no longer a 421 husbandman, the potter will cease to be a potter, and no one will have the character of any distinct class in the State.

Now this is not of much consequence where the corruption of society, and pretension to be what you are not, is confined to cobblers ; but when the guardians of the laws and of the government are only seeming and not real guardians, then see how they turn the State upside down ; and on the other hand they alone have the power of giving order and happiness The guardians to the State.

We mean our guardians to be true saviours '""^\^^ and not the destroyers of the State, whereas our opponent is guardians, •' ' ^ ^ not boon thinking of peasants at a festival, who are enjoying a life companions. ^£ rcvelry, not of citizens who are doing their duty to the State. But, if so, we mean different things, and he is

Two sources of evil : Wealth a7id Poverty.

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p. 422

speaking of something which is not a State. And therefore we must consider whether in appointing our guardians we would look to their greatest happiness individually, or whether this principle of happiness does not rather reside in the State as a whole. But if the latter be the truth, then the guardians and auxiliaries, and all others equally with them, must be compelled or induced to do their own work in the best way. And thus the whole State will grow up in a noble order, and the several classes will receive the proportion of happiness which nature assigns to them. I think that you are quite right. I wonder whether you will agree with another remark which occurs to me. What may that be? There seem to be two causes of the deterioration of the arts. What are they? Wealth, I said, and poverty. How do they act? The process is as follows : When a potter becomes rich, will he, think you, any longer take the same pains with his art? Certainly not. He will grow more and more indolent and careless? Very true. And the result will be that he becomes a worse potter? Yes ; he greatly deteriorates. But, on the other hand,*if he has no money, and cannot provide himself with tools or instruments, he will not work equally well himself, nor will he teach his sons or apprentices to work equally well. Certainly not. Then, under the influence either of poverty or of wealth, workmen and their work are equally liable to degenerate? That is evident. Here, then, is a discovery of new evils, I said, against which the guardians will have to watch, or they will creep into the city unobserved. What evils? Wealth, I said, and poverty ; the one is the parent of

Republic IV. Adeimantus, Socrates.