Timaeus — Plato

to see the battle on horseback ; and that if there were no danger they were to be brought close up and, like young hounds, have a tasie of blood given them? Yes, I remember. The same practice may be followed, I said, in all these things — labours, lessons, dangers — and he who is most at home in all of them ought to be enrolled in a select number. At what age?

At the age when the necessary gymnastics are over : the period whether of two or three years which passes in this sort of training is useless for any other purpose ; for sleep and exercise are unpropitious to learning ; and the trial of who is first in gymnastic exercises is one of the most important tests to which our youth are subjected. Certainly, he replied.

After that time those who are selected from the class of twenty years old will be promoted to higher honour, and the sciences which they learned without any order in their early education will now be brought together, and they will be able to see the natural relationship of them to one another and to true being. Yes, he said, that is the only kind of knowledge which takes lasting root.

Yes, I said ; and the capacity for such knowledge is the great criterion of dialectical talent : the comprehensive mind is always the dialectical. I agree with you, he said.

These, I said, are the points which you must consider ; and those who have most of this comprehension, and who are most steadfast in their learning, and in their military and other appointed duties, when they have arrived at the age of thirty will have to be chosen by you out of the select class, and elevated to higher honour ; and you will have to prove them by the help of dialectic, in order to learn which of them is able to give up the use of sight and the other senses, and in company with truth to attain absolute being : And here, my friend, great caution is required. Why great caution? Do you not remark, I said, how great is the evil which dialectic has introduced? VOL. III. — 31

Republic VII. Socrates, Glaucon.

The necessary' gymnastics must be completed first.

At twenty years of age the disciples will begin to be taught the correlation of the sciences.

At thirty the most promising will be placed in a select class.

The growth of scepticism

p. 242

The danger of dialectical studies.

RepuhUc VII. Socrates, (Jlaucon.

in the minds of the young ilUistrated by the case of a supposititious son, who ceases to honour his father when he discovers that he is not his father.

What evil? he said. The students of the art are filled with lawlessness. Quite true, he said. Do you think that there is anything so very unnatural or inexcusable in their case? or will you make allowance for them? In what way make allowance? I want you, I said, by way of parallel, to imagine a supposititious son who is brought up in great wealth ; he is one of a great and numerous family, and has many flatterers.

When he grows up to manhood, he learns that his alleged are not his real parents ; but who the real are he is unable to discover. Can you guess how he will be likely to behave towards his flatterers and his supposed parents, first of all during the period when he is ignorant of the false relation, and then again when he knows? Or shall I guess for you? If you please.

Then I should say, that while he is ignorant of the truth he will be likely to honour his father and his mother and his supposed relations more than the flatterers ; he will be less inclined to neglect them when in need, or to do or say anything against them ; and he will be less wilhng to disobey them in any important matter.

He will. . , ' But when he has made the discovery, I should imagine that he would diminish his honour and regard for them, and would become more devoted to the flatterers ; their influence over him would greatly increase ; he would now Hve after their ways, and openly associate with them, and, unless he were of an unusually good disposition, he would trouble himself no more about his supposed parents or other relations.

Well, all that is very probable. But how is the image applicable to the disciples of philosophy? In this way : you know that there are certain principles about justice and honour, which were taught us in childhood, and under their parental authority we have been brought up, obeying and honouring them. That is true. There are also opposite maxims and habits of pleasure