Timaeus — Plato

idea of good, and unless he can run the gauntlet of all objections, and is ready to disprove them, not by appeals to opinion, but to absolute truth, never faltering at any step of the argument — unless he can do all this, you would say that he knows neither the idea of good nor any other good ; he apprehends only a shadow, if anything at all, which is given by opinion and not by science; — dreaming and slumbering in this life, before he is well awake here, he arrives at the world below, and has his final quietus.

In all that I should most certainly agree with you. And surely you would not have the children of your ideal State, whom you are nurturing and educating — if the ideal ever becomes a reahty — you would not allow the future rulers to be like posts ^, having no reason in them, and yet to be set in authority over the highest matters. Certainly not.

Then you will make a law that they shall have such an education as will enable them to attain the greatest skill in asking and answering questions? Yes, he said, you and I together will make it. Dialectic, then, as you will agree, is the coping-stone of the sciences, and is set over them ; no other science can be placed higher — the nature of knowledge can no further go? I agree, he said.

But to whom we are to assign these studies, and in what 535 way they are to be assigned, are questions which remain to be considered. Yes, clearly. You remember, I said, how the rulers were chosen before? Certainly, he said.

The same natures must still be chosen, and the preference again given to the surest and the bravest, and, if possible, to the fairest ; and, having noble and generous tempers, they should also have the natural gifts which will facilitate their education. And what are these? Such gifts as keenness and ready powers of acquisition ; for the mind more often faints from the severity of study

The natural and acquired qualities of the dialectician. 239 than from the severity of gymnastics : the toil is more en- Republic 1 11. tirely the mind's own, and is not shared with the body. Socrates, Very true, he replied. Glaucon.

Further, he of whom we are in search should have a good strength of character; memory, and be an unwearied solid man who is a lover of labour in any line ; or he will never be able to endure the great amount of bodily exercise and to go through all the intellectual discipline and study which we require of him. Certainly, he said ; he must have natural gifts.

The mistake at present is, that those who study philosophy have no vocation, and this, as I was before saying, is the reason why she has fallen into disrepute : her true sons should take her by the hand and not bastards. What do you mean?

In the first place, her votary should not have a lame or industry; halting industry — I mean, that he should not be half industrious and half idle : as, for example, when a man is a lover of gymnastic and hunting, and all other bodily exercises, but a hater rather than a lover of the labour of learning or hstening or enquiring. Or the occupation to which he devotes himself may be of an opposite kind, and he may have the other sort of lameness.

Certainly, he said. And as to truth, I said, is not a soul equally to be deemed love of truth; halt and lame which hates voluntary falsehood and is extremely indignant at herself and others when they tell lies, but is patient of involuntary falsehood, and does not mind wallowing like a swinish beast in the mire of ignorance, and has no shame at being detected? To be sure.

And, again, in respect of temperance, courage, magnifi- the moral cence, and every other virtue, should we not carefully ^"^^"^^• distinguish between the true son and the bastard? for where there is no discernment of such qualities states and individuals unconsciously err; and the state makes a ruler, and the individual a friend, of one who, being defective in some part of virtue, is in a figure lame or a bastard. That is very true, he said. All these things, then, will have to be carefully considered by us ; and if only those whom we introduce to this vast

240 The training of the dialectician. Republic VII. system of education and training are sound in body and mind, Socrates, justicc herself will have nothing to say against us, and we Glaucon. shall be the saviours of the constitution and of the State ; but, if our pupils are men of another stamp, the reverse will happen, and we shall pour a still greater flood of ridicule on philosophy than she has to endure at present.

That would not be creditable. Socrates plays Certainly not, I said ; and yet perhaps, in thus turning himseuTnd J^^^ ^^^^ eamest I am equally ridiculous. his subject. In what rcspect? I had forgotten, I said, that we were not serious, and spoke with too much excitement.

For when I saw philosophy so undeservedly trampled under foot of men I could not help feeling a sort of indignation at the authors of her disgrace : and my anger made me too vehement. For the study Indeed! I was listening, and did not think so. of dialectic the -g^^ j .^j^^ ^^ ^^ Speaker, felt that I was. And now let young must ' ^ _ be selected. me remind you that, although in our former selection we chose old men, we must not do so in this.

Solon was under a delusion when he said that a man when he grows old may learn many things — for he can no more learn much than he can run much ; youth is the time for any extraordinary toil. Of course.

The preiimi- And, therefore, calculation and geometry and all the other "h'^id b^'^^ elements of instruction, which are a preparation for dialectic, commenced in should be presented to the mind in childhood ; not, however, childhood, but yj^(^ej. jji^y notlou of forcing our system of education. never forced. ^ o j Why not? Because a freeman ought not to be a slave in the acquisition of knowledge of any kind.

Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body ; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. Very true. Then, my good friend, I said, do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be 537 better able to find out the natural bent. That is a very rational notion, he said. Do you remember that the children, too, were to be taken