Timaeus — Plato

Liberty passes into the worst form of slavery. 279

VIII. OCR AT Adeimantus.

grown-up son ought not to be supported by his father, but Repubii 569 that the father should be supported by the son? The father did not brine him into beincr, or settle him in life, in order ^"^'''^'^^^' that when his son became a man he should himself be the iney rebel, servant of his own servants and should support him and and then he his rabble of slaves and companions ; but that his son should ^^^^^ ^"^ '^ own parent, protect him, and that by his help he might be emancipated i. e. the from the government of the rich and aristocratic, as they i^^°p'^ are termed. And so he bids him and his companions depart, just as any other father might drive out of the house a riotous son and his undesirable associates. By heaven, he said, then the parent will discover what a monster he has been fostering in his bosom ; and, when he wants to drive him out, he will find that he is weak and his son strong. Why, you do not mean to say that the tyrant will use violence? What! beat his father if he opposes him? Yes, he will, having first disarmed him. Then he is a parricide, and a cruel guardian of an aged parent ; and this is real tyranny, about which there can be no longer a mistake : as the saying is, the people who would escape the smoke which is the slavery of freemen, has fallen into the fire which is the tyranny of slaves. Thus liberty, getting out of all order and reason, passes into the harshest and bitterest form of slavery. True, he said. Very well ; and may we not rightly say that we have suflftciently discussed the nature of tyranny, and the manner of the transition from democracy to tyranny? Yes, quite enough, he said.

BOOK IX.

Republic IX. Socrates, Adeimantus.

A digression having a purpose.

The wild beast latent in man peers forth in sleep.

The contrast of the temperate

Last of all comes the tyrannical man ; about whom we steph. have once more to ask, how is he formed out of the 57^ democratical? and how does he Hve, in happiness or in misery? Yes, he said, he is the only one remaining. There is, however, I said, a previous question which remains unanswered. What question? I do not think that we have adequately determined the nature and number of the appetites, and until this is accomplished the enquiry will always be confused. Well, he said, it is not too late to supply the omission. Very true, I said ; and observe the point which I want to understand : Certain of the unnecessary pleasures and appetites I conceive to be unlawful ; every one appears to have them, but in some persons they are controlled by the laws and by reason, and ^the better desires prevail over them — either they are wholly banished or they become few and weak ; while in the case of others they are stronger, and there are more of them. Which appetites do you mean? I mean those which are awake when the reasoning and human and ruling power is asleep ; then the wild beast within us, gorged with meat or drink, starts up and having shaken off sleep, goes forth to satisfy his desires ; and there is no conceivable folly or crime — not excepting incest or any other unnatural union, or parricide, or the eating of forbidden food — which at such a time, when he has parted company with all shame and sense, a man may not be ready to commit. Most true, he said. But when a man's i)ulse is healthy and temperate, and when before going to sleep he has awakened his rational

The picture of the democratical man.

281 powers, and fed them on noble tlioughts and enquiries, Republic ix. collecting himself in meditation ; after having first indulged Socrates, his appetites neither too much nor too little, but just enough ^deimantus. to lav them to sleep, and prevent them and their enjoyments '"•'»" "'hose ^ , * , * _ ... passions are and pains from interfering with the higher principle — which „nder the he leaves in the solitude of pure abstraction, free to contem- control of reason. plate and aspire to the knowledge of the unknown, whether in past, present, or future : when again he has allayed the passionate element, if he has a quarrel against any one — I say, when, after pacifying the two irrational principles, he rouses up the third, which is reason, before he takes his rest, then, as you know, he attains truth most nearly, and is least likely to be the sport of fantastic and lawless visions.

I quite agree. In saying this I have been running into a digression ; but the point which I desire to note is that in all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep. Pray, consider whether I am right, and you agree with me. Yes, I agree. And now remember the character which we attributed Recapituto the democratic man.

He was supposed from his youth upwards to have been trained under a miserly parent, who encouraged the saving appetites in him, but discountenanced the unnecessary, which aim only at amusement and ornament ? lYue. And then he got into the company of a more refined, licentious sort of people, and taking to all their wanton ways rushed into the opposite extreme from an abhorrence of his father's meanness.

At last, being a better man than his corruptors, he was drawn in both directions until he halted midway and led a life, not of vulgar and slavish passion, but of what he deemed moderate indulgence in various pleasures. After this manner the democrat was generated out of the oligarch? Yes, he said ; that was our view of him, and is so still.

And now, I said, years will have passed away, and you must conceive this man, such as he is, to have a son, who is brought up in his father's principles. I can imagine him.