Dialogue

1503 Intro|        venture to say that Plato was soured by old age, but certainly
1504 Intro|            equal to any contemporary sovereigns in virtue and ability. In
1505 State|             cycle of births and been sown in the earth her appointed
1506 Intro|             little or nothing in the space between them. Thus there
1507 Intro|              Antonines. The kings of Spain during the last century
1508 Intro|   maintaining the character of chief speaker, when we remember the close
1509 Intro|            and the situations of the speakers are very similar; there
1510 Intro|            regions of transcendental speculation back into the path of common
1511 State|          aims at reaching,—the one a speedier way, which cuts off a small
1512 Intro|         regards this as the best and speediest way of reforming mankind.
1513 Intro|              the preventive sort are spells and antidotes, divine and
1514 State|           which little or nothing is spent upon the sick man, and the
1515 State|        prepared, when twisted by the spindle, and made into a firm thread,
1516 State|             Thus the arts which make spindles, combs, and other instruments
1517 State|          will be discovered; just as spinners, carders, and the rest of
1518 State|          herding animal has now been split up, with the exception of
1519 Intro|       another excellent jest which I spy in the two remaining species.
1520 State|            number, whether simple or square or cube, or comprising motion,—
1521 Intro|            of public opinion. In all stages of civilization human nature,
1522 Intro|             part off all other ways, stamping upon them a single negative
1523 Intro|     legislator has ‘the dialectician standing on his right hand;’ so in
1524 Intro|          Philosopher.’~The Statesman stands midway between the Republic
1525 State|              animals first came to a standstill, and the mortal nature ceased
1526 State|             had better go backwards, starting from the end. We just now
1527 State|              not put in any claim to statecraft or politics?~YOUNG SOCRATES:
1528 State|            you objected to any of my statements. And now I see that we shall
1529 State|              disappeared grew in and stature, and the newly-born children
1530 State|             of the intellect, and of steadiness and gentleness in action,
1531 State|             together of materials by stitching and sewing, of which the
1532 Intro|      deification of law: the ancient Stoic spoke of a wise man perfect
1533 State|      enclosures, whether of earth or stone, and ten thousand other
1534 State|           sifting away the earth and stones and the like; there remain
1535 State|     generation, the age of man again stood still, and a change opposite
1536 State|            might be dissolved in the storm and disappear in infinite
1537 State|     certainly divided them in a most straightforward and manly style; but you
1538 State|           not often praise the quiet strain of action also?~YOUNG SOCRATES:
1539 State|         reasons they were in a great strait; wherefore also the gifts
1540 State|               may at first bloom and strengthen, but at last bursts forth
1541 State|           the process of barking and stripping the cuticle of plants, and
1542 State|             the currier’s art, which strips off the skins of animals,
1543 State|      STRANGER: But the law is always striving to make one;—like an obstinate
1544 Intro|            and this, perhaps, is the strongest ground which can be urged
1545 Intro|              compare Laws). Plato is strongly of opinion that the legislator,
1546 Intro|       supreme over human life.~He is struck by the observation ‘quam
1547 Intro|              and had to carry on the struggle for existence without arts
1548 State|              and Theaetetus, who are students of geometry.~YOUNG SOCRATES:
1549 Intro|            familiarized to us by the study of the Nicomachean Ethics,
1550 Intro|              And thus Plato seems to stumble, almost by accident, on
1551 Intro|        dialogues have in common. The styles and the situations of the
1552 State|              voluntary or compulsory submission, of written law or the absence
1553 Intro|           separate the king from his subordinates or competitors. (4) But
1554 State|           and woof, the entire woven substance is called by us a woollen
1555 Intro|        beyond; for the laws he would substitute the intelligent will of
1556 Intro|            another, would have to be substituted another principle of a more
1557 Intro|            of an imitator, being too subtle and minute to have been
1558 Intro|             the first fall of man is succeeded by a second; the misery
1559 State|              as well as body; in the succeeding stage they wasted away and
1560 Intro|            the world hard to move. A succession of good kings has at the
1561 State|            is here introducing a new suddivision, i.e. that of bipeds into
1562 State|             man will reflect that he suffers strange things at the hands
1563 State|            which the first part will suffice to illustrate the nature
1564 Intro|             but the earth produced a sufficiency of all things, and men were
1565 Intro|            and animals, each of them sufficing for those of whom he had
1566 Intro|         seems to be conscious of the suggestiveness of imagery; the general
1567 Intro|         simple or universal rule can suit them all, or last for ever.
1568 State|            enmity, into deciding the suits of men with one another
1569 Intro|          into his hands.~Here let us sum up:—The science of pure
1570 Intro|       similar process; and we have a summary, probably made for the first
1571 Intro|            spirit of the myth may be summed up in the words of the Lysis: ‘
1572 State|             we arrive at the desired summit. Shall we do as I say?~YOUNG
1573 State|             slaves, but that we will summon an assembly either of all
1574 Intro|    magistrates appointed by them are summoned before an ignorant and unprofessional
1575 State|           previous one, in which God superintended the whole revolution of
1576 Intro|         arithmetic, or of ruling and superintending, like that of the architect
1577 State|           clothes, and the art which superintends them we may call, from the
1578 State|            the pattern which weaving supplied?~YOUNG SOCRATES: I greatly
1579 State|              seems to afford a grand support and satisfactory proof of
1580 Intro|          because all good government supposes a degree of co-operation
1581 State|            manner in which physic or surgical instruments are to be applied
1582 Intro|       Sophist. At first sight we are surprised to find that the Eleatic
1583 State|             And animals, as we know, survive with difficulty great and
1584 Intro|             own very few of them had survived; and on these a mighty change
1585 State|              to the life of man; few survivors of the race are left, and
1586 State|            as far as their nature is susceptible of such influences, and
1587 State|        ministers only remains, and I suspect that in this the real aspirants
1588 Intro|           two suspected ones.~4. The suspicion of them seems mainly to
1589 State|            sending out from the hive swarms of citizens, or, by introducing
1590 Intro|          destiny and natural impulse swayed the world. At the same instant
1591 Intro|             He now eats bread in the sweat of his brow, and has dominion
1592 State|              not always think so, my sweet friend; and in case any
1593 Intro|         props of order, and will not swerve or bend in extreme cases.
1594 State|              length, depth, breadth, swiftness with their opposites; and
1595 State|           priest and the diviner are swollen with pride and prerogative,
1596 Intro|             word has also become the symbol of an imperfect good, which
1597 Intro|            floating before us in the Symposium and the Republic. And in
1598 Intro|            Thirty and afterwards, of Syracuse and the other Sicilian cities
1599 Intro|              not really take a blank tablet and inscribe upon it the
1600 State|           written down on triangular tablets and columns, or enacted
1601 State|             generalship and military tactics be regarded as other than
1602 Intro|           was introduced in order to teach certain lessons; or, as
1603 State|          will entrust them to proper teachers who are the ministers of
1604 State|            which is learned or which teaches?~YOUNG SOCRATES: Far superior.~
1605 Intro|            and is beginning to use a technical language. He is bitter and
1606 Intro|             organisation of posts or telegraphs, hardly the introduction
1607 Intro|      regulation for mixing different tempers in marriage, he never makes
1608 State|             hand those whose natures tend rather to courage, which
1609 State|              the same may be said of tenders of animals in general.~YOUNG
1610 Intro|             person on the other hand tends to degenerate into a new
1611 Intro|           effects would be increased tenfold. For one of the principal
1612 State|            considering how great and terrible the whole art of war is,
1613 State|           down to be the only proper test of the art of medicine,
1614 Intro|              of Plato, as in the New Testament, the word has also become
1615 State|           some who have not yet been tested: in the first place, there
1616 State|           refined away by the use of tests, until the gold is left
1617 Intro|         increasing difficulty of his theme. The idea of the king or
1618      | thence
1619 Intro|            facts. The philosopher or theologian who could realize to mankind
1620 Intro|           mind, as the corresponding theological problems are to us. The
1621 Intro|             application to Christian theology. Here are suggested also
1622 State|             to put forward a strange theory about them.~YOUNG SOCRATES:
1623      | therein
1624 Intro|              apt to overlay the main thesis; there is not the ‘callida
1625 State|    represented in the figure as spun thick and soft, after the manner
1626 State|            as furnish impediments to thieving and acts of violence, and
1627 Intro|      connected in the minds of early thinkers, because there was little
1628 Intro|             compare Theaet.) when he thinks of the king running after
1629 Intro|        should we hunger any more, or thirst any more, or have any similar
1630 Intro|             War, of Athens under the Thirty and afterwards, of Syracuse
1631 State|             are two principles which thoroughly hate one another and are
1632 State|              safe, but is wanting in thoroughness and go.~YOUNG SOCRATES:
1633 State|        spindle, and made into a firm thread, is called the warp, and
1634 State|           suggestion which I hastily threw out is highly important,
1635 Intro|          courageous. The two classes thrive and flourish at first, but
1636 State|           their retainers and a vast throng, as the former class disappears
1637      | throughout
1638 State|             of another class and has thrust himself in, he must get
1639 Intro|           Thousand— characterized by Thucydides as the best government of
1640 Intro|              two equally descriptive titles—either the ‘Statesman,’
1641 State|              suppose you to mean the token of the birth of the golden
1642 State|            and defenceless, and were torn in pieces by the beasts,
1643 State|          wiser than the laws; and as touching healing and health and piloting
1644 Intro|          last, then, we have found a trace of those whom we were seeking.
1645 Intro|              for service, nor of the trader or merchant, who at best
1646 State|               and these last will be traditional customs of the country.~
1647 State|         record, the portent which is traditionally said to have occurred in
1648 State|         their pupils by professional trainers or by others having similar
1649 Intro|            by asking you whether the training master gives a different
1650 State|            but when the elements are transferred into the long and difficult
1651 State|           place at the time when the transition is made to the cycle opposite
1652 State|             this explanation we must translate the words above, ‘freest
1653 Intro|         recognize them when they are translated into the difficult language
1654 State|             the world, and were then transmitted to the animals. While the
1655 State|            make a new beginning, and travel by a different road.~YOUNG
1656 State|        report, although you have not travelled in those regions, of nurseries
1657 State|        co-operative, and those which treat and fabricate the things
1658 Intro|             is called ‘eating of the tree of the knowledge of good
1659 State|             abundance, which grew on trees and shrubs unbidden, and
1660 Intro|              one to the other, is a ‘tremendous error.’ Of the ideal or
1661 State|             shall be written down on triangular tablets and columns, or
1662 State|               just or unjust, to the tribes of men who flock together
1663 State|        payments, which are a sort of tribute, of which little or nothing
1664 State|          however, natures still more troublesome, because they are more nearly
1665 Intro|             you can think of nothing truer;’ or, as in the Statesman,
1666 State|             wool thus prepared, when twisted by the spindle, and made
1667 Intro|      composes, and of which one kind twists and the other interlaces
1668 Intro|           animal, who has a power of two-feet—both which are suggested
1669 State|             now discovered to have a twofold meaning. For the distinction
1670 Intro|            expect to find an uniform type of doctrine and opinion.
1671 Intro|           Socher, Schaarschmidt, and Ueberweg.~I. The hand of the master
1672 State|            affirm, has the cut of my ugly face (compare Theaet.),
1673 Intro|           yielded to for the sake of ulterior objects by those who have
1674 Intro|          discovered to be the single ultimate principle in which all the
1675 State|        communion with one another by unanimity and friendship, and having
1676 State|            say, that they are wholly unaquainted with politics, of which,
1677 State|             grew on trees and shrubs unbidden, and were not planted by
1678 Intro|           gave certainty to what was uncertain. No legislation ever sprang,
1679 Intro|           too few are the sign of an uncivilized one; as soon as commerce
1680 State|           like manner, all alien and uncongenial matter has been separated
1681 Intro|           exercises is underived and uncontrolled,—a characteristic which
1682 Intro|         defined what had before been undefined, and gave certainty to what
1683 Intro|          power which he exercises is underived and uncontrolled,—a characteristic
1684 State|    dialecticians, that some wise and understanding creature, such as a crane
1685 State|              you mean? I cannot have understood your previous remark about
1686 State|             of weaving which we have undertaken to define. For when that
1687 Intro|           violence, in a few moments underwent a parallel change and disappeared.
1688 State|              man of action can be an undisputed master of his science.~YOUNG
1689 Intro|            species left which remain undivided: and how are we to distinguish
1690 Intro|          intrinsic excellence, as an undoubted work of Plato. The detailed
1691 State|          give the reason why we have unearthed this tale, and then we shall
1692 Intro|           brought before him. To the uneducated person he would appear to
1693 State|            would then become utterly unendurable.~STRANGER: But what, if
1694 Intro|             is perpetually waging an unequal warfare with the beasts.
1695 State|               and not leave the work unfinished. But what shall be done
1696 State|              I fear that I have been unfortunate in raising a question about
1697 Intro|             we may expect to find an uniform type of doctrine and opinion.
1698 State|           about the king be true and unimpeachable? Were we right in selecting
1699 State|       STRANGER: Weaving is a sort of uniting?~YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes.~STRANGER:
1700 State|        become possessions; these are unmistakably slaves, and certainly do
1701 State|            Yes.~STRANGER: Which was, unmistakeably, one of the arts of knowledge?~
1702 Intro|          description should not pass unnoticed:—(1) the primitive men are
1703 Intro|           laws for which a nation is unprepared. The greatest power, the
1704 Intro|      summoned before an ignorant and unprofessional court, and may be condemned
1705 State|            excess and defect, not as unrealities, but as real evils, which
1706 State|            came elements of evil and unrighteousness, which, thence derived,
1707 State|              will produce characters unsuited to the political constitution
1708 State|      STRANGER: Because courage, when untempered by the gentler nature during
1709 State|               they become by degrees unwarlike, and bring up their young
1710 Intro|            better governors than the unwise many, yet it is not in their
1711 State|            Statesmen but partisans, —upholders of the most monstrous idols,
1712 Intro|         Admitting of course that the upper and lower classes are equal
1713 Intro|        strongest ground which can be urged for doubting the genuineness
1714 Intro|     conditions of human society. The uselessness, the danger, the true value
1715      | using
1716 Intro|        rivals. No one would think of usurping the prerogatives of the
1717 Intro|              a great earthquake, and utter ruin of all manner of animals.
1718 Intro|            badness of their rulers.’~V. There is also a paradoxical
1719 Intro|             thought; they people the vacant mind, and may often originate
1720 Intro|    themselves customs which have the validity of laws. Even equity, which
1721 Intro|            as well as body, began to vanish away; and the bodies of
1722 Intro|            world, a sort of mephitic vapour exhaling from some ancient
1723 State|           another with the hands, is variously described under all the
1724 State|              What is it?~STRANGER: A vehicle, which is certainly not
1725 Intro|         Plato presents to us in this veiled form. Here, as in the tale
1726 Intro|            satirical and paradoxical vein; (5) the necessary imperfection
1727 Intro|              words. The evil of mere verbal oppositions, the requirement
1728 Intro|             I am not speaking of the veritable slave bought with money,
1729 Intro|            the bird-catcher; king or vermin-destroyer are objects of equal interest
1730 Intro|       respecter of persons: king and vermin-taker are all alike to the philosopher.
1731 Intro|             ought to be is (‘Was ist vernunftig, das ist wirklich’); and
1732 Intro|             a former chaos; ‘a muddy vesture of decay’ was a part of
1733 Intro|             a single passage (Laws).~VI. The Statesman is naturally
1734 Intro|       Athenian Stranger in the Laws.~VII. There would have been little
1735 State|             only act for the best by violating the laws, while in reality
1736 State|           ever dream of calling it a violation of the art, or a breach
1737 State|            we call the management of violent rulers tyranny, and the
1738 Intro|          only parallel, but opposite virtues, and seems to see a similar
1739 State|       suppose that you ever actually visited them—of the preserves of
1740 Intro|        appeals to internal evidence, viz. the perfect coherence of
1741 State|             state, for that too is a vocation which belongs to him.~YOUNG
1742 Intro|          that they elect annually by vote or lot those to whom authority
1743 State|             so far as to be happy is vouchsafed to a city, in no particular
1744 State|          which are incidental to the voyage, how to behave when encountering
1745 Intro|         miserable; he is perpetually waging an unequal warfare with
1746 State|        STRANGER: And now, I will not wait for you to ask the, but
1747 State|            of way, and then again to wake up and to know nothing.~
1748 State|         ought, and you would have us wander still further away. But
1749 Intro|        perpetually waging an unequal warfare with the beasts. At length
1750 Intro|           into seven classes. We are warned against preferring the shorter
1751 State|            the succeeding stage they wasted away and wholly disappeared.
1752 State|            all these arts are on the watch against excess and defect,
1753 State|           subjects? As the pilot, by watching continually over the interests
1754 Intro|      management of land-herds and of water-herds:— I need not say with which
1755 State|           the various arts of making water-tight which are employed in building,
1756 State|             the dangers of winds and waves which are incidental to
1757 State|         defences are either military weapons or protections; and protections
1758 Intro|             unexpected change in the weather, the patient or pupil seems
1759 Intro|             in the Gorgias. But in a well-known passage of the Philebus
1760 State|            seen similar preserves in wells at home?~YOUNG SOCRATES:
1761 State|              simple rule. And no art whatsoever can lay down a rule which
1762      | whence
1763      | whenever
1764 State|             the greatest importance, whilst others should execute his
1765 Intro|             a second; the misery and wickedness of the world increase continually.
1766 Intro|        knowledge, which to us appear wide asunder as the poles, astronomy
1767 State|           forms, jumble together two widely different things, relation
1768 Intro|          stability when resting on a wider basis.’ Both in ancient
1769 Intro|              will think to be an old wife’s tale, but you can think
1770 Intro|        connection with mythology;—he wins a kind of verisimilitude
1771 State|            art of protection against winter cold, which fabricates woollen
1772 Intro|              ist vernunftig, das ist wirklich’); and he ought to be and
1773 Intro|           The invincible Socrates is withdrawn from view; and new foes
1774 State|            or separate possession of women and children; for all men
1775 Intro|            in the abstract is hardly won, and only by use familiarized
1776 Intro|          which furnish gold, silver, wood, bark, and other materials,
1777 State|           other metals, and all that wood-cutting and shearing of every sort
1778 Intro|              language, the danger of word-catching, have frequently been discussed
1779 Intro|            to the king we select the worker in wool, and compare the
1780 Intro|              the notes of music, the workings of the mind, the characters
1781 State|    handicrafts, the knowledge of the workman is merged in his work; he
1782 State|              wise physician, who ‘is worth many another man’—in the
1783 State|           and airiest of creation,’ ‘worthiest and laziest of creation.’)~
1784 State|         include all, and then we may wrap up the Statesman with the
1785 State|             mighty earthquake, which wrought a new destruction of all
1786 State|              or division in wool and yarn, which is effected in one
1787 State|          discoursing with Theaetetus yesterday, and I have just been listening
1788 Intro|           sometimes be flattered and yielded to for the sake of ulterior
1789 State|          baseness she bows under the yoke of slavery.~YOUNG SOCRATES:
1790      | yours
1791      | yourself
1792 State|          former bloom; the bodies of youths in their prime grew softer