Timaeus — Plato
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Republic IX. bcforc going to rest, and has satisfied his desires just enough to 572 Analysis. prevent their perturbing his reason, which remains clear and luminous, and when he is free from quarrel and heat, — the visions which he has on his bed are least irregular and abnormal. Even in good men there is such an irregular wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep.
To return: — You remember what was said of the democrat; that he was the son of a miserly father, who encouraged the saving desires and repressed the ornamental and expensive ones; presently the youth got into fine company, and began to entertain a dislike to his father's narrow ways ; and being a better man than the corrupters of his youth, he came to a mean, and led a life, not of lawless or slavish passion, but of regular and successive indulgence.
Now imagine that the youth has become a father, and has a son who is exposed to the same temptations, and has companions who lead him into every sort of iniquity, and parents and friends who try to keep him right.
The counsellors of evil find that their 57^ only chance of retaining him is to implant in his soul a monster drone, or love; while other desires buzz around him and mystify him with sweet sounds and scents, this monster love takes possession of him, and puts an end to every true or modest thought or wish.
Love, like drunkenness and madness, is a tyranny ; and the tyrannical man, whether made by nature or habit, is just a drinking, lusting, furious sort of animal. And how does such an one live? 'Nay, that you must tell me. Well then, I fancy that he will live amid revelries and harlotries, and love will be the lord and master of the house.
Many desires require much money, and so he spends all that he has and borrows more; and when he has nothing the young ravens are still in the nest in which they were hatched, crying for food.
Love ^7^ urges them on ; and they must be gratified by force or fraud, or if not, they become painful and troublesome; and as the new pleasures succeed the old ones, so will the son take possession of the goods of his parents ; if they show signs of refusing, he will defraud and deceive them ; and if they openly resist, what then ? ' I can only say, that I should not much like to be in their place.
'- But, O heavens, Adeimantus, to think that for some new-fangled and unnecessary love he will give up his old father and mother, best and dearest of friends, or enslave them to the fancies of the hour !
Truly a tyrannical son is a blessing to his father and mother ! Republic ix. When there is no more to be got out of them, he turns burglar or analysis. pickpocket, or robs a temple. Love overmasters the thoughts of his youth, and he becomes in sober reality the monster that he 75 was sometimes in sleep. He waxes strong in all violence and lawlessness; and is ready for any deed of daring that will supply the wants of his rabble-rout.
In a well-ordered State there are only a few such, and these in time of war go out and become the mercenaries of a tyrant. But in time of peace they stay at home and do mischief; they are the thieves, footpads, cut-purses, man-stealers of the community ; or if they are able to speak, they turn false- witnesses and informers. ' No small catalogue of crimes truly, even if the perpetrators are few.
Yes, I said ; but small and great are relative terms, and no crimes which are committed by them approach those of the tyrant, whom this class, growing strong and numerous, create out of themselves. If the people yield, well and good ; but, if they resist, then, as before he beat his father and mother, so now he beats his fatherland and motherland, and places his mercenaries over them.
Such men in their early days live \yith flatterers, and they themselves flatter others, in order to gain their ends; but* they soon discard their followers when they have no longer any need of them ; they are always either masters or servants, — the joys of friendship are unknown to them. And they are utterly treacherous and unjust, if the nature of justice be at all understood by us.
They realize our dream ; and he who is the most of a tyrant by nature, and leads the life of a tyrant for the longest time, will be the worst of them, and being the worst of them, will also be the most miserable. Like man, like State, — the tyrannical man will answer to tyranny, which is the extreme opposite of the royal State ; for one is the best and the other the worst. But which is the happier ?
Great and terrible as the tyrant may appear enthroned amid his satellites, let us not be afraid to go in and ask ; and the answer is, that the monarchical is the happiest, and the tyrannical the most ;77 miserable of States. And may we not ask the same question about the men themselves, requesting some one to look into them who is able to penetrate the inner nature of man, and will not be panic-struck by the vain pomp of tyranny ? I will suppose that he cxxxviii Analysis 577-579- Republic IX. is onc who lias lived with him, and has seen him in family life, Analysis. ^^ perhaps in the hour of trouble and danger. Assuming that we ourselves are the impartial judge for whom we seek, let us begin by comparing the individual and State, and ask first of all, whether the State is likely to be free or enslaved — Will there not be a little freedom and a great deal of slavery ?
And the freedom is of the bad, and the slavery of the good ; and this applies to the man as well as to the State ; for his soul is full of meanness and slavery, and the better part is enslaved to the worse. He cannot do what he would, and his mind is full of confusion ; he is the very reverse of a freeman.
The State will be 57! poor and full of misery and sorrow ; and the man's soul will also be poor and full of sorrows, and he will be the most miserable of men. No, not the most miserable, for there is yet a more miserable. ' Who is that ? ' The tyrannical man who has the misfortune also to become a public tyrant. ' There I suspect that you are right. Say rather, ' I am sure;' conjecture is out of place in an enquiry of this nature.
He is like a wealthy owner of slaves, only he has more of them than any private individual. You will say, ' The owners of slaves are not generally in any fear of them. But why ? Because the* whole city is in a league which protects the individual.
Suppose however that one of these owners and his household is carried off by a god into a wilderness, where there are no freemen to help him — will he not be in an agony of terror ? — will he not be compelled to flatter his slaves and to promise them 57' many things sore against his will ?
And suppose the same god who carried him off were to surround him with neighbours who declare that no man ought to have slaves, and that the owners of them should be punished with death. * Still worse and worse ! He will be in the midst of his enemies.
And is not our tyrant such a captive soul, who is tormented by a swarm of passions which he cannot indulge ; living indoors always like a woman, and jealous of those who can go out and see the world ? Having so many evils, will not the most miserable of men be still more miserable in a public station?
Master of others when he is not master of himself; like a sick man who is compelled to be an athlete ; the meanest of slaves and the most abject of flatterers; wanting all things, and never able to satisfy his desires ; always in fear and distraction, like the State of which he is the representative.
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