Timaeus — Plato
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
States y like individuals , may be temperate. I2i Temperance, I replied, is the ordering or controlling of Republic i v. certain pleasures and desires ; this is curiously enough im- Socrates, plied in the saying of ' a man being his own master ; ' and ^'^^•^o^. other traces of the same notion may be found in language. No doubt, he said. There is something ridiculous in the expression 'master of The temperate 4 3 1 himself ; ' for the master is also the servant and the servant !,^. '"'''';'""'" ^'■' ' himself, but the master ; and in all these modes of speaking the same the same person is denoted. ?7°"' "^^'^ ^ intemperate,
Certainly. is also the slave of himself.
The meaning is, I believe, that in the human soul there is a better and also a worse principle ; and when the better has the worse under control, then a man is said to be master of himself ; and this is a term of praise : but when, owing to evil education or association, the better principle, which is also the smaller, is overwhelmed by the greater mass of the worse — in this case he is blamed and is called the slave of self and unprincipled. Yes, there is reason in that. And now, I said, look at our newly-created State, and there you will find one of these two conditions realized ; for the State, as you will acknowledge, may be justly called master of itself, if the words ' temperance ' and ' self-mastery ' truly express the rule of the better part over the worse. Yes, he said, I see that what you say is true. Let me further note that the manifold and complex pleasures and desires and pains are generally found in children and women and servants, and in the freemen so called who are of the lowest and more numerous class. Certainly, he said. Whereas the simple and moderate desires which follow reason, and are under the guidance of mind and true opinion, are to be found only in a few, and those the best bom and best educated. Very true. These two, as you may perceive, have a place in our State ; The State and the meaner desires of the many are held down by the pass^ions^Ld * virtuous desires and wisdom of the few. desires of That I perceive, he said. ^0^3 Then if there be any city which may be described as
p. 122
Temperance in States is the harmony of classes.
Republic IV. Socrates, Glaucon. by the few may be rightly called temperate.
Temperance resides in the whole State.
Justice is not far off.
master of its own pleasures and desires, and master of itself, ours may claim such a designation? Certainly, he replied. It may also be called temperate, and for the same reasons? Yes. And if there be any State in which rulers and subjects will be agreed as to the question who are to rule, that again will be our State? Undoubtedly.
And the citizens being thus agreed among themselves, in which class will temperance be found — in the rulers or in the subjects? In both, as I should imagine, he replied. Do you observe that we were not far wrong in our guess that temperance was a sort of harmony? Why so?
Why, because temperance is unlike courage and wisdom, each of which resides in a part only, the one making the State wise and the other valiant ; not so temperance, which 432 extends to the whole, and runs through all the notes of the scale, and produces a harmony of the weaker and the stronger and the middle class, whether you suppose them to be stronger or weaker in wisdom or power or numbers or wealth, or anything else.
Most truly then may we deem temperance to be the agreement of the naturally superior and inferior, as to the right to rule of either, both in states and individuals. I entirely agree with you. And so, I said, we may consider three out of the four virtues to have been discovered in our State. The last of those qualities which make a state virtuous must be justice, if we only knew what that was. The inference is obvious.
The time then has arrived, Glaucon, when, like huntsmen, we should surround the cover, and look sharp that justice does not steal away, and pass out of sight and escape us ; for beyond a doubt she is somewhere in this country : watch therefore and strive to catch a sight of her, and if you see her first, let me know. Would that I could! but you should regard me rather as
No commentary for this page under the selected tracks.
There is commentary on page 1.