The Republic ........................................................................................................................................................1

Plato.........................................................................................................................................................1

THE Republic of Plato is the longest of his works with the exception of the Laws, and is certainly the greatest

of them. There are nearer approaches to modern metaphysics in the Philebus and in the Sophist; the Politicus

or Statesman is more ideal; the form and institutions of the State are more clearly drawn out in the Laws; as

works of art, the Symposium and the Protagoras are of higher excellence. But no other Dialogue of Plato has

the same largeness of view and the same perfection of style; no other shows an equal knowledge of the world,

or contains more of those thoughts which are new as well as old, and not of one age only but of all. Nowhere

in Plato is there a deeper irony or a greater wealth of humor or imagery, or more dramatic power. Nor in any

other of his writings is the attempt made to interweave life and speculation, or to connect politics with

philosophy. The Republic is the centre around which the other Dialogues may be grouped; here philosophy

reaches the highest point to which ancient thinkers ever attained. Plato among the Greeks, like Bacon among

the moderns, was the first who conceived a method of knowledge, although neither of them always

distinguished the bare outline or form from the substance of truth; and both of them had to be content with an

abstraction of science which was not yet realized. He was the greatest metaphysical genius whom the world

has seen; and in him, more than in any other ancient thinker, the germs of future knowledge are contained.

The sciences of logic and psychology, which have supplied so many instruments of thought to afterages, are

based upon the analyses of Socrates and Plato. The principles of definition, the law of contradiction, the

fallacy of arguing in a circle, the distinction between the essence and accidents of a thing or notion, between

means and ends, between causes and conditions; also the division of the mind into the rational, concupiscent,

and irascible elements, or of pleasures and desires into necessary and unnecessary these and other great

forms of thought are all of them to be found in the Republic, and were probably first invented by Plato. The

greatest of all logical truths, and the one of which writers on philosophy are most apt to lose sight, the

difference between words and things, has been most strenuously insisted on by him, although he has not

always avoided the confusion of them in his own writings. But he does not bind up truth in logical

formulae, logic is still veiled in metaphysics; and the science which he imagines to "contemplate all truth

and all existence" is very unlike the doctrine of the syllogism which Aristotle claims to have discovered.

Neither must we forget that the Republic is but the third part of a still larger design which was to have

included an ideal history of Athens, as well as a political and physical philosophy. The fragment of the Critias

has given birth to a worldfamous fiction, second only in importance to the tale of Troy and the legend of

Arthur; and is said as a fact to have inspired some of the early navigators of the sixteenth century. This

mythical tale, of which the subject was a history of the wars of the Athenians against the Island of Atlantis, is

supposed to be founded upon an unfinished poem of Solon, to which it would have stood in the same relation

as the writings of the logographers to the poems of Homer. It would have told of a struggle for Liberty,

intended to represent the conflict of Persia and Hellas. We may judge from the noble commencement of the

Timaeus, from the fragment of the Critias itself, and from the third book of the Laws, in what manner Plato

would have treated this high argument. We can only guess why the great design was abandoned; perhaps

because Plato became sensible of some incongruity in a fictitious history, or because he had lost his interest

in it, or because advancing years forbade the completion of it; and we may please ourselves with the fancy

that had this imaginary narrative ever been finished, we should have found Plato himself sympathizing with

the struggle for Hellenic independence, singing a hymn of triumph over Marathon and Salamis, perhaps

making the reflection of Herodotus where he contemplates the growth of the Athenian empire"How brave

a thing is freedom of speech, which has made the Athenians so far exceed every other state of Hellas in

greatness!" or, more probably, attributing the victory to the ancient good order of Athens and to the favor of

Again, Plato may be regarded as the "captain" ('arhchegoz') or leader of a goodly band of followers; for in the

Republic is to be found the original of Cicero's De Republica, of St. Augustine's City of God, of the Utopia of

Sir Thomas More, and of the numerous other imaginary States which are framed upon the same model. The

extent to which Aristotle or the Aristotelian school were indebted to him in the Politics has been little

recognized, and the recognition is the more necessary because it is not made by Aristotle himself. The two

philosophers had more in common than they were conscious of; and probably some elements of Plato remain

still undetected in Aristotle. In English philosophy too, many affinities may be traced, not only in the works

of the Cambridge Platonists, but in great original writers like Berkeley or Coleridge, to Plato and his ideas.

That there is a truth higher than experience, of which the mind bears witness to herself, is a conviction which

in our own generation has been enthusiastically asserted, and is perhaps gaining ground. Of the Greek authors

who at the Renaissance brought a new life into the world Plato has had the greatest influence. The Republic

of Plato is also the first treatise upon education, of which the writings of Milton and Locke, Rousseau, Jean

Paul, and Goethe are the legitimate descendants. Like Dante or Bunyan, he has a revelation of another life;

like Bacon, he is profoundly impressed with the unity of knowledge; in the early Church he exercised a real

influence on theology, and at the Revival of Literature on politics. Even the fragments of his words when

"repeated at secondhand" have in all ages ravished the hearts of men, who have seen reflected in them their

own higher nature. He is the father of idealism in philosophy, in politics, in literature. And many of the latest

conceptions of modern thinkers and statesmen, such as the unity of knowledge, the reign of law, and the

The argument of the Republic is the search after Justice, the nature of which is first hinted at by Cephalus, the

just and blameless old man then discussed on the basis of proverbial morality by Socrates and

Polemarchusthen caricatured by Thrasymachus and partially explained by Socratesreduced to an

abstraction by Glaucon and Adeimantus, and having become invisible in the individual reappears at length in

the ideal State which is constructed by Socrates. The first care of the rulers is to be education, of which an

outline is drawn after the old Hellenic model, providing only for an improved religion and morality, and more

simplicity in music and gymnastic, a manlier strain of poetry, and greater harmony of the individual and the

State. We are thus led on to the conception of a higher State, in which "no man calls anything his own," and

in which there is neither "marrying nor giving in marriage," and "kings are philosophers" and "philosophers

are kings;" and there is another and higher education, intellectual as well as moral and religious, of science as

well as of art, and not of youth only but of the whole of life. Such a State is hardly to be realized in this world

and would quickly degenerate. To the perfect ideal succeeds the government of the soldier and the lover of

honor, this again declining into democracy, and democracy into tyranny, in an imaginary but regular order

having not much resemblance to the actual facts. When "the wheel has come full circle" we do not begin

again with a new period of human life; but we have passed from the best to the worst, and there we end. The

subject is then changed and the old quarrel of poetry and philosophy which had been more lightly treated in

the earlier books of the Republic is now resumed and fought out to a conclusion. Poetry is discovered to be an

imitation thrice removed from the truth, and Homer, as well as the dramatic poets, having been condemned as

an imitator, is sent into banishment along with them. And the idea of the State is supplemented by the

The division into books, like all similar divisions, is probably later than the age of Plato. The natural

divisions are five in number;( 1) Book I and the first half of Book II down to the paragraph beginning, "I

had always admired the genius of Glaucon and Adeimantus," which is introductory; the first book containing

a refutation of the popular and sophistical notions of justice, and concluding, like some of the earlier

Dialogues, without arriving at any definite result. To this is appended a restatement of the nature of justice

according to common opinion, and an answer is demanded to the questionWhat is justice, stripped of

appearances? The second division (2) includes the remainder of the second and the whole of the third and

fourth books, which are mainly occupied with the construction of the first State and the first education. The

third division (3) consists of the fifth, sixth, and seventh books, in which philosophy rather than justice is the

subject of inquiry, and the second State is constructed on principles of communism and ruled by

philosophers, and the contemplation of the idea of good takes the place of the social and political virtues. In

the eighth and ninth books (4) the perversions of States and of the individuals who correspond to them are

reviewed in succession; and the nature of pleasure and the principle of tyranny are further analyzed in the

individual man. The tenth book (5) is the conclusion of the whole, in which the relations of philosophy to

poetry are finally determined, and the happiness of the citizens in this life, which has now been assured, is

Or a more general division into two parts may be adopted; the first (Books I IV) containing the description

of a State framed generally in accordance with Hellenic notions of religion and morality, while in the second

(Books V X) the Hellenic State is transformed into an ideal kingdom of philosophy, of which all other

governments are the perversions. These two points of view are really opposed, and the opposition is only

veiled by the genius of Plato. The Republic, like the Phaedrus, is an imperfect whole; the higher light of

philosophy breaks through the regularity of the Hellenic temple, which at last fades away into the heavens.

Whether this imperfection of structure arises from an enlargement of the plan; or from the imperfect

reconcilement in the writer's own mind of the struggling elements of thought which are now first brought

together by him; or, perhaps, from the composition of the work at different times are questions, like the

similar question about the Iliad and the Odyssey, which are worth asking, but which cannot have a distinct

answer. In the age of Plato there was no regular mode of publication, and an author would have the less

scruple in altering or adding to a work which was known only to a few of his friends. There is no absurdity in

supposing that he may have laid his labors aside for a time, or turned from one work to another; and such

interruptions would be more likely to occur in the case of a long than of a short writing. In all attempts to

determine the chronological he order of the Platonic writings on internal evidence, this uncertainty about any

single Dialogue being composed at one time is a disturbing element, which must be admitted to affect longer

works, such as the Republic and the Laws, more than shorter ones. But, on the other hand, the seeming

discrepancies of the Republic may only arise out of the discordant elements which the philosopher has

attempted to unite in a single whole, perhaps without being himself able to recognize the inconsistency which

is obvious to us. For there is a judgment of after ages which few great writers have ever been able to

anticipate for themselves. They do not perceive the want of connection in their own writings, or the gaps in

their systems which are visible enough to those who come after them. In the beginnings of literature and

philosophy, amid the first efforts of thought and language, more inconsistencies occur than now, when the

paths of speculation are well worn and the meaning of words precisely defined. For consistency, too, is the

growth of time; and some of the greatest creations of the human mind have been wanting in unity. Tried by

this test, several of the Platonic Dialogues, according to our modern ideas, appear to be defective, but the

deficiency is no proof that they were composed at different times or by different hands. And the supposition

that the Republic was written uninterruptedly and by a continuous effort is in some degree confirmed by the

The second title, "Concerning Justice," is not the one by which the Republic is quoted, either by Aristotle or

generally in antiquity, and, like the other second titles of the Platonic Dialogues, may therefore be assumed to

be of later date. Morgenstern and others have asked whether the definition of justice, which is the professed

aim, or the construction of the State is the principal argument of the work. The answer is, that the two blend

in one, and are two faces of the same truth; for justice is the order of the State, and the State is the visible

embodiment of justice under the conditions of human society. The one is the soul and the other is the body,

and the Greek ideal of the State, as of the individual, is a fair mind in a fair body. In Hegelian phraseology the

State is the reality of which justice is the ideal. Or, described in Christian language, the kingdom of God is

within, and yet develops into a Church or external kingdom; "the house not made with hands, eternal in the

heavens," is reduced to the proportions of an earthly building. Or, to use a Platonic image, justice and the

State are the warp and the woof which run through the whole texture. And when the constitution of the State

is completed, the conception of justice is not dismissed, but reappears under the same or different names

throughout the work, both as the inner law of the individual soul, and finally as the principle of rewards and

punishments in another life. The virtues are based on justice, of which common honesty in buying and selling

is the shadow, and justice is based on the idea of good, which is the harmony of the world, and is reflected

both in the institutions of States and in motions of the heavenly bodies. The Timaeus, which takes up the

political rather than the ethical side of the Republic, and is chiefly occupied with hypotheses concerning the

outward world, yet contains many indications that the same law is supposed to reign over the State, over

Too much, however, has been made of this question both in ancient and in modern times. There is a stage of

criticism in which all works, whether of nature or of art, are referred to design. Now in ancient writings, and

indeed in literature generally, there remains often a large element which was not comprehended in the

original design. For the plan grows under the author's hand; new thoughts occur to him in the act of writing;

he has not worked out the argument to the end before he begins. The reader who seeks to find some one idea

under which the whole may be conceived, must necessarily seize on the vaguest and most general. Thus

Stallbaum, who is dissatisfied with the ordinary explanations of the argument of the Republic, imagines

himself to have found the true argument "in the representation of human life in a State perfected by justice

and governed according to the idea of good." There may be some use in such general descriptions, but they

can hardly be said to express the design of the writer. The truth is, that we may as well speak of many designs

as of one; nor need anything be excluded from the plan of a great work to which the mind is naturally led by

the association of ideas, and which does not interfere with the general purpose. What kind or degree of unity

is to be sought after in a building, in the plastic arts, in poetry, in prose, is a problem which has to be

determined relatively to the subjectmatter. To Plato himself, the inquiry "what was the intention of the

writer," or "what was the principal argument of the Republic" would have been hardly intelligible, and

Is not the Republic the vehicle of three or four great truths which, to Plato's own mind, are most naturally

represented in the form of the State? Just as in the Jewish prophets the reign of Messiah, or "the day of the

Lord," or the suffering Servant or people of God, or the "Sun of righteousness with healing in his wings" only

convey, to us at least, their great spiritual ideals, so through the Greek State Plato reveals to us his own

thoughts about divine perfection, which is the idea of goodlike the sun in the visible world;about human

perfection, which is justice about education beginning in youth and continuing in later years about poets

and sophists and tyrants who are the false teachers and evil rulers of mankindabout "the world" which is

the embodiment of themabout a kingdom which exists nowhere upon earth but is laid up in heaven to be

the pattern and rule of human life. No such inspired creation is at unity with itself, any more than the clouds

of heaven when the sun pierces through them. Every shade of light and dark, of truth, and of fiction which is

the veil of truth, is allowable in a work of philosophical imagination. It is not all on the same plane; it easily

passes from ideas to myths and fancies, from facts to figures of speech. It is not prose but poetry, at least a

great part of it, and ought not to be judged by the rules of logic or the probabilities of history. The writer is

not fashioning his ideas into an artistic whole; they take possession of him and are too much for him. We

have no need therefore to discuss whether a State such as Plato has conceived is practicable or not, or

whether the outward form or the inward life came first into the mind of the writer. For the practicability of his

ideas has nothing to do with their truth; and the highest thoughts to which he attains may be truly said to bear

the greatest "marks of design"justice more than the external framework of the State, the idea of good

more than justice. The great science of dialectic or the organization of ideas has no real content; but is only a

type of the method or spirit in which the higher knowledge is to be pursued by the spectator of all time and all

existence. It is in the fifth, sixth, and seventh books that Plato reaches the "summit of speculation," and these,

although they fail to satisfy the requirements of a modern thinker, may therefore be regarded as the most

It is not necessary to discuss at length a minor question which has been raised by Boeckh, respecting the

imaginary date at which the conversation was held (the year 411 B. C. which is proposed by him will do as

well as any other); for a writer of fiction, and especially a writer who, like Plato, is notoriously careless of

chronology, only aims at general probability. Whether all the persons mentioned in the Republic could ever

have met at any one time is not a difficulty which would have occurred to an Athenian reading the work forty

years later, or to Plato himself at the time of writing (any more than to Shakespeare respecting one of his own

dramas); and need not greatly trouble us now. Yet this may be a question having no answer "which is still

worth asking," because the investigation shows that we can not argue historically from the dates in Plato; it

would be useless therefore to waste time in inventing farfetched reconcilements of them in order avoid

chronological difficulties, such, for example, as the conjecture of C. F. Hermann, that Glaucon and

Adeimantus are not the brothers but the uncles of Plato, or the fancy of Stallbaum that Plato intentionally left

The principal characters in the Republic are Cephalus, Polemarchus, Thrasymachus, Socrates, Glaucon, and

Adeimantus. Cephalus appears in the introduction only, Polemarchus drops at the end of the first argument,

and Thrasymachus is reduced to silence at the close of the first book. The main discussion is carried on by

Socrates, Glaucon, and Adeimantus. Among the company are Lysias (the orator) and Euthydemus, the sons

of Cephalus and brothers of Polemarchus, an unknown Charmantidesthese are mute auditors; also there is

Cleitophon, who once interrupts, where, as in the Dialogue which bears his name, he appears as the friend

Cephalus, the patriarch of house, has been appropriately engaged in offering a sacrifice. He is the pattern of

an old man who has almost done with life, and is at peace with himself and with all mankind. He feels that he

is drawing nearer to the world below, and seems to linger around the memory of the past. He is eager that

Socrates should come to visit him, fond of the poetry of the last generation, happy in the consciousness of a

wellspent life, glad at having escaped from the tyranny of youthful lusts. His love of conversation, his

affection, his indifference to riches, even his garrulity, are interesting traits of character. He is not one of

those who have nothing to say, because their whole mind has been absorbed in making money. Yet he

acknowledges that riches have the advantage of placing men above the temptation to dishonesty or falsehood.

The respectful attention shown to him by Socrates, whose love of conversation, no less than the mission

imposed upon him by the Oracle, leads him to ask questions of all men, young and old alike, should also be

noted. Who better suited to raise the question of justice than Cephalus, whose life might seem to be the

expression of it? The moderation with which old age is pictured by Cephalus as a very tolerable portion of

existence is characteristic, not only of him, but of Greek feeling generally, and contrasts with the

exaggeration of Cicero in the De Senectute. The evening of life is described by Plato in the most expressive

manner, yet with the fewest possible touches. As Cicero remarks (Ep. ad Attic. iv. 16), the aged Cephalus

would have been out of place in the discussion which follows, and which he could neither have understood

His "son and heir" Polemarchus has the frankness and impetuousness of youth; he is for detaining Socrates by

force in the opening scene, and will not "let him off" on the subject of women and children. Like Cephalus,

he is limited in his point of view, and represents the proverbial stage of morality which has rules of life rather

than principles; and he quotes Simonides as his father had quoted Pindar. But after this he has no more to say;

the answers which he makes are only elicited from him by the dialectic of Socrates. He has not yet

experienced the influence of the Sophists like Glaucon and Adeimantus, nor is he sensible of the necessity of

refuting them; he belongs to the preSocratic or predialectical age. He is incapable of arguing, and is

bewildered by Socrates to such a degree that he does not know what he is saying. He is made to admit that

justice is a thief, and that the virtues follow the analogy of the arts. From his brother Lysias we learn that he

fell a victim to the Thirty Tyrants, but no allusion is here made to his fate, nor to the circumstance that

Cephalus and his family were of Syracusan origin, and had migrated from Thurii to Athens.

The "Chalcedonian giant," Thrasymachus, of whom we have already heard in the Phaedrus, is the

personification of the Sophists, according to Plato's conception of them, in some of their worst characteristics.

He is vain and blustering, refusing to discourse unless he is paid, fond of making an oration, and hoping

thereby to escape the inevitable Socrates; but a mere child in argument, and unable to foresee that the next

"move" (to use a Platonic expression) will "shut him up." He has reached the stage of framing general

notions, and in this respect is in advance of Cephalus and Polemarchus. But he is incapable of defending

them in a discussion, and vainly tries to cover his confusion in banter and insolence. Whether such doctrines

as are attributed to him by Plato were really held either by him or by any other Sophist is uncertain; in the

infancy of philosophy serious errors about morality might easily grow up they are certainly put into the

mouths of speakers in Thucydides; but we are concerned at present with Plato's description of him, and not

with the historical reality. The inequality of the contest adds greatly to the humor of the scene. The pompous

and empty Sophist is utterly helpless in the hands of the great master of dialectic, who knows how to touch

all the springs of vanity and weakness in him. He is greatly irritated by the irony of Socrates, but his noisy

and imbecile rage only lays him more and more open to the thrusts of his assailant. His determination to cram

down their throats, or put "bodily into their souls" his own words, elicits a cry of horror from Socrates. The

state of his temper is quite as worthy of remark as the process of the argument. Nothing is more amusing than

his complete submission when he has been once thoroughly beaten. At first he seems to continue the

discussion with reluctance, but soon with apparent goodwill, and he even testifies his interest at a later stage

by one or two occasional remarks. When attacked by Glaucon he is humorously protected by Socrates "as one

who has never been his enemy and is now his friend." From Cicero and Quintilian and from Aristotle's

Rhetoric we learn that the Sophist whom Plato has made so ridiculous was a man of note whose writings

were preserved in later ages. The play on his name which was made by his contemporary Herodicus, "thou

wast ever bold in battle," seems to show that the description of him is not devoid of verisimilitude.

When Thrasymachus has been silenced, the two principal respondents, Glaucon and Adeimantus, appear on

the scene: here, as in Greek tragedy, three actors are introduced. At first sight the two sons of Ariston may

seem to wear a family likeness, like the two friends Simmias and Cebes in the Phaedo. But on a nearer

examination of them the similarity vanishes, and they are seen to be distinct characters. Glaucon is the

impetuous youth who can "just never have enough of fechting" (cf. the character of him in Xen. Mem. iii. 6);

the man of pleasure who is acquainted with the mysteries of love; the "juvenis qui gaudet canibus," and who

improves the breed of animals; the lover of art and music who has all the experiences of youthful life. He is

full of quickness and penetration, piercing easily below the clumsy platitudes of Thrasymachus to the real

difficulty; he turns out to the light the seamy side of human life, and yet does not lose faith in the just and

true. It is Glaucon who seizes what may be termed the ludicrous relation of the philosopher to the world, to

whom a state of simplicity is "a city of pigs," who is always prepared with a jest when the argument offers

him an opportunity, and who is ever ready to second the humor of Socrates and to appreciate the ridiculous,

whether in the connoisseurs of music, or in the lovers of theatricals, or in the fantastic behavior of the citizens

of democracy. His weaknesses are several times alluded to by Socrates, who, however, will not allow him to

be attacked by his brother Adeimantus. He is a soldier, and, like Adeimantus, has been distinguished at the

The character of Adeimantus is deeper and graver, and the profounder objections are commonly put into his

mouth. Glaucon is more demonstrative, and generally opens the game. Adeimantus pursues the argument

further. Glaucon has more of the liveliness and quick sympathy of youth; Adeimantus has the maturer

judgment of a grownup man of the world. In the second book, when Glaucon insists that justice and

injustice shall be considered without regard to their consequences, Adeimantus remarks that they are regarded

by mankind in general only for the sake of their consequences; and in a similar vein of reflection he urges at

the beginning of the fourth book that Socrates falls in making his citizens happy, and is answered that

happiness is not the first but the second thing, not the direct aim but the indirect consequence of the good

government of a State. In the discussion about religion and mythology, Adeimantus is the respondent, but

Glaucon breaks in with a slight jest, and carries on the conversation in a lighter tone about music and

gymnastic to the end of the book. It is Adeimantus again who volunteers the criticism of common sense on

the Socratic method of argument, and who refuses to let Socrates pass lightly over the question of women and

children. It is Adeimantus who is the respondent in the more argumentative, as Glaucon in the lighter and

more imaginative portions of the Dialogue. For example, throughout the greater part of the sixth book, the

causes of the corruption of philosophy and the conception of the idea of good are discussed with Adeimantus.

Then Glaucon resumes his place of principal respondent; but he has a difficulty in apprehending the higher

education of Socrates, and makes some false hits in the course of the discussion. Once more Adeimantus

returns with the allusion to his brother Glaucon whom he compares to the contentious State; in the next book

Thus in a succession of characters Plato represents the successive stages of morality, beginning with the

Athenian gentleman of the olden time, who is followed by the practical man of that day regulating his life by

proverbs and saws; to him succeeds the wild generalization of the Sophists, and lastly come the young

disciples of the great teacher, who know the sophistical arguments but will not be convinced by them, and

desire to go deeper into the nature of things. These too, like Cephalus, Polemarchus, Thrasymachus, are

clearly distinguished from one another. Neither in the Republic, nor in any other Dialogue of Plato, is a single

The delineation of Socrates in the Republic is not wholly consistent. In the first book we have more of the

real Socrates, such as he is depicted in the Memorabilia of Xenophon, in the earliest Dialogues of Plato, and

in the Apology. He is ironical, provoking, questioning, the old enemy of the Sophists, ready to put on the

mask of Silenus as well as to argue seriously. But in the sixth book his enmity towards the Sophists abates; he

acknowledges that they are the representatives rather than the corrupters of the world. He also becomes more

dogmatic and constructive, passing beyond the range either of the political or the speculative ideas of the real

Socrates. In one passage Plato himself seems to intimate that the time had now come for Socrates, who had

passed his whole life in philosophy, to give his own opinion and not to be always repeating the notions of

other men. There is no evidence that either the idea of good or the conception of a perfect State were

comprehended in the Socratic teaching, though he certainly dwelt on the nature of the universal and of final

causes (cp. Xen. Mem. i. 4; Phaedo 97); and a deep thinker like him in his thirty or forty years of public

teaching, could hardly have falled to touch on the nature of family relations, for which there is also some

positive evidence in the Memorabilia (Mem. i. 2, 51 foll.) The Socratic method is nominally retained; and

every inference is either put into the mouth of the respondent or represented as the common discovery of him

and Socrates. But any one can see that this is a mere form, of which the affectation grows wearisome as the

work advances. The method of inquiry has passed into a method of teaching in which by the help of

The nature of the process is truly characterized by Glaucon, when he describes himself as a companion who

is not good for much in an investigation, but can see what he is shown, and may, perhaps, give the answer to

Neither can we be absolutely certain that, Socrates himself taught the immortality of the soul, which is

unknown to his disciple Glaucon in the Republic; nor is there any reason to suppose that he used myths or

revelations of another world as a vehicle of instruction, or that he would have banished poetry or have

denounced the Greek mythology. His favorite oath is retained, and a slight mention is made of the

daemonium, or internal sign, which is alluded to by Socrates as a phenomenon peculiar to himself. A real

element of Socratic teaching, which is more prominent in the Republic than in any of the other Dialogues of

Plato, is the use of example and illustration ('taphorhtika auto prhospherhontez'): "Let us apply the test of

common instances." "You," says Adeimantus, ironically, in the sixth book, "are so unaccustomed to speak in

images." And this use of examples or images, though truly Socratic in origin, is enlarged by the genius of

Plato into the form of an allegory or parable, which embodies in the concrete what has been already

described, or is about to be described, in the abstract. Thus the figure of the cave in Book VII is a

recapitulation of the divisions of knowledge in Book VI. The composite animal in Book IX is an allegory of

the parts of the soul. The noble captain and the ship and the true pilot in Book VI are a figure of the relation

of the people to the philosophers in the State which has been described. Other figures, such as the dog in the

second, third, and fourth books, or the marriage of the portionless maiden in the sixth book, or the drones and

wasps in the eighth and ninth books, also form links of connection in long passages, or are used to recall

Plato is most true to the character of his master when he describes him as "not of this world." And with this

representation of him the ideal State and the other paradoxes of the Republic are quite in accordance, though

they can not be shown to have been speculations of Socrates. To him, as to other great teachers both

philosophical and religious, when they looked upward, the world seemed to be the embodiment of error and

evil. The common sense of mankind has revolted against this view, or has only partially admitted it. And

even in Socrates himself the sterner judgment of the multitude at times passes into a sort of ironical pity or

love. Men in general are incapable of philosophy, and are therefore at enmity with the philosopher; but their

misunderstanding of him is unavoidable: for they have never seen him as he truly is in his own image; they

are only acquainted with artificial systems possessing no native force of truthwords which admit of many

applications. Their leaders have nothing to measure with, and are therefore ignorant of their own stature. But

they are to be pitied or laughed at, not to be quarrelled with; they mean well with their nostrums, if they could

only learn that they are cutting off a Hydra's head. This moderation towards those who are in error is one of

the most characteristic features of Socrates in the Republic. In all the different representations of Socrates,

whether of Xenophon or Plato, and the differences of the earlier or later Dialogues, he always retains the

character of the unwearied and disinterested seeker after truth, without which he would have ceased to be

Leaving the characters we may now analyze the contents of the Republic, and then proceed to consider (1)

The general aspects of this Hellenic ideal of the State, (2) The modern lights in which the thoughts of Plato

I WENT down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon the son of Ariston, that I might offer up my prayers to

the goddess; and also because I wanted to see in what manner they would celebrate the festival, which was a

new thing. I was delighted with the procession of the inhabitants; but that of the Thracians was equally, if not

more, beautiful. When we had finished our prayers and viewed the spectacle, we turned in the direction of the

city; and at that instant Polemarchus the son of Cephalus chanced to catch sight of us from a distance as we

were starting on our way home, and told his servant to run and bid us wait for him. The servant took hold of

Certainly we will, said Glaucon; and in a few minutes Polemarchus appeared, and with him Adeimantus,

Glaucon's brother, Niceratus the son of Nicias, and several others who had been at the procession.

Polemarchus said to me: I perceive, Socrates, that you and our companion are already on your way to the

And are you stronger than all these? for if not, you will have to remain where you are.

May there not be the alternative, I said, that we may persuade you to let us go?

Adeimantus added: Has no one told you of the torchrace on horseback in honour of the goddess which will

With horses! I replied: That is a novelty. Will horsemen carry torches and pass them one to another during

Yes, said Polemarchus, and not only so, but a festival will he celebrated at night, which you certainly ought

to see. Let us rise soon after supper and see this festival; there will be a gathering of young men, and we will

Accordingly we went with Polemarchus to his house; and there we found his brothers Lysias and

Euthydemus, and with them Thrasymachus the Chalcedonian, Charmantides the Paeanian, and Cleitophon

the son of Aristonymus. There too was Cephalus the father of Polemarchus, whom I had not seen for a long

time, and I thought him very much aged. He was seated on a cushioned chair, and had a garland on his head,

for he had been sacrificing in the court; and there were some other chairs in the room arranged in a

semicircle, upon which we sat down by him. He saluted me eagerly, and then he said:

You don't come to see me, Socrates, as often as you ought: If I were still able to go and see you I would not

ask you to come to me. But at my age I can hardly get to the city, and therefore you should come oftener to

the Piraeus. For let me tell you, that the more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the

pleasure and charm of conversation. Do not then deny my request, but make our house your resort and keep

company with these young men; we are old friends, and you will be quite at home with us.

I replied: There is nothing which for my part I like better, Cephalus, than conversing with aged men; for I

regard them as travellers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of whom I ought to

enquire, whether the way is smooth and easy, or rugged and difficult. And this is a question which I should

like to ask of you who have arrived at that time which the poets call the `threshold of old age'Is life harder

I will tell you, Socrates, he said, what my own feeling is. Men of my age flock together; we are birds of a

feather, as the old proverb says; and at our meetings the tale of my acquaintance commonly isI cannot eat,

I cannot drink; the pleasures of youth and love are fled away: there was a good time once, but now that is

gone, and life is no longer life. Some complain of the slights which are put upon them by relations, and they

will tell you sadly of how many evils their old age is the cause. But to me, Socrates, these complainers seem

to blame that which is not really in fault. For if old age were the cause, I too being old, and every other old

man, would have felt as they do. But this is not my own experience, nor that of others whom I have known.

How well I remember the aged poet Sophocles, when in answer to the question, How does love suit with age,

Sophocles,are you still the man you were? Peace, he replied; most gladly have I escaped the thing of which

you speak; I feel as if I had escaped from a mad and furious master. His words have often occurred to my

mind since, and they seem as good to me now as at the time when he uttered them. For certainly old age has a

great sense of calm and freedom; when the passions relax their hold, then, as Sophocles says, we are freed

from the grasp not of one mad master only, but of many. The truth is, Socrates, that these regrets, and also the

complaints about relations, are to be attributed to the same cause, which is not old age, but men's characters

and tempers; for he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is

I listened in admiration, and wanting to draw him out, that he might go onYes, Cephalus, I said: but I

rather suspect that people in general are not convinced by you when you speak thus; they think that old age

sits lightly upon you, not because of your happy disposition, but because you are rich, and wealth is well

You are right, he replied; they are not convinced: and there is something in what they say; not, however, so

much as they imagine. I might answer them as Themistocles answered the Seriphian who was abusing him

and saying that he was famous, not for his own merits but because he was an Athenian: `If you had been a

native of my country or I of yours, neither of us would have been famous.' And to those who are not rich and

are impatient of old age, the same reply may be made; for to the good poor man old age cannot be a light

May I ask, Cephalus, whether your fortune was for the most part inherited or acquired by you?

Acquired! Socrates; do you want to know how much I acquired? In the art of making money I have been

midway between my father and grandfather: for my grandfather, whose name I bear, doubled and trebled the

value of his patrimony, that which he inherited being much what I possess now; but my father Lysanias

reduced the property below what it is at present: and I shall be satisfied if I leave to these my sons not less but

That was why I asked you the question, I replied, because I see that you are indifferent about money, which is

a characteristic rather of those who have inherited their fortunes than of those who have acquired them; the

makers of fortunes have a second love of money as a creation of their own, resembling the affection of

authors for their own poems, or of parents for their children, besides that natural love of it for the sake of use

and profit which is common to them and all men. And hence they are very bad company, for they can talk

Yes, that is very true, but may I ask another question? What do you consider to be the greatest blessing which

One, he said, of which I could not expect easily to convince others. For let me tell you, Socrates, that when a

man thinks himself to be near death, fears and cares enter into his mind which he never had before; the tales

of a world below and the punishment which is exacted there of deeds done here were once a laughing matter

to him, but now he is tormented with the thought that they may be true: either from the weakness of age, or

because he is now drawing nearer to that other place, he has a clearer view of these things; suspicions and

alarms crowd thickly upon him, and he begins to reflect and consider what wrongs he has done to others. And

when he finds that the sum of his transgressions is great he will many a time like a child start up in his sleep

for fear, and he is filled with dark forebodings. But to him who is conscious of no sin, sweet hope, as Pindar

Hope, he says, cherishes the soul of him who lives in justice and holiness and is the nurse of his age and the

companion of his journey;hope which is mightiest to sway the restless soul of man.

How admirable are his words! And the great blessing of riches, I do not say to every man, but to a good man,

is, that he has had no occasion to deceive or to defraud others, either intentionally or unintentionally; and

when he departs to the world below he is not in any apprehension about offerings due to the gods or debts

which he owes to men. Now to this peace of mind the possession of wealth greatly contributes; and therefore

I say, that, setting one thing against another, of the many advantages which wealth has to give, to a man of

Well said, Cephalus, I replied; but as concerning justice, what is it? to speak the truth and to pay your

debtsno more than this? And even to this are there not exceptions? Suppose that a friend when in his right

mind has deposited arms with me and he asks for them when he is not in his right mind, ought I to give them

back to him? No one would say that I ought or that I should be right in doing so, any more than they would

But then, I said, speaking the truth and paying your debts is not a correct definition of justice.

Quite correct, Socrates, if Simonides is to be believed, said Polemarchus interposing.

I fear, said Cephalus, that I must go now, for I have to look after the sacrifices, and I hand over the argument

Tell me then, O thou heir of the argument, what did Simonides say, and according to you truly say, about

He said that the repayment of a debt is just, and in saying so he appears to me to be right.

I should be sorry to doubt the word of such a wise and inspired man, but his meaning, though probably clear

to you, is the reverse of clear to me. For he certainly does not mean, as we were now saying that I ought to

return a return a deposit of arms or of anything else to one who asks for it when he is not in his right senses;

Then when the person who asks me is not in his right mind I am by no means to make the return?

When Simonides said that the repayment of a debt was justice, he did not mean to include that case?

Certainly not; for he thinks that a friend ought always to do good to a friend and never evil.

You mean that the return of a deposit of gold which is to the injury of the receiver, if the two parties are

friends, is not the repayment of a debt,that is what you would imagine him to say?

To be sure, he said, they are to receive what we owe them, and an enemy, as I take it, owes to an enemy that

Simonides, then, after the manner of poets, would seem to have spoken darkly of the nature of justice; for he

really meant to say that justice is the giving to each man what is proper to him, and this he termed a debt.

By heaven! I replied; and if we asked him what due or proper thing is given by medicine, and to whom, what

He would surely reply that medicine gives drugs and meat and drink to human bodies.

If, Socrates, we are to be guided at all by the analogy of the preceding instances, then justice is the art which

And who is best able to do good to his friends and evil to his enemies in time of sickness?

And in what sort of actions or with a view to what result is the just man most able to do harm to his enemy

But is the just man or the skilful player a more useful and better partner at a game of draughts?

And in the laying of bricks and stones is the just man a more useful or better partner than the builder?

Then in what sort of partnership is the just man a better partner than the harpplayer, as in playing the harp

Yes, Polemarchus, but surely not in the use of money; for you do not want a just man to be your counsellor

the purchase or sale of a horse; a man who is knowing about horses would be better for that, would he not?

Then what is that joint use of silver or gold in which the just man is to be preferred?

And when you want to keep a pruninghook safe, then justice is useful to the individual and to the state; but

And when you want to keep a shield or a lyre, and not to use them, you would say that justice is useful; but

And so of all the other things;justice is useful when they are useless, and useless when they are useful?

Then justice is not good for much. But let us consider this further point: Is not he who can best strike a blow

And he who is most skilful in preventing or escaping from a disease is best able to create one?

And he is the best guard of a camp who is best able to steal a march upon the enemy?

Then after all the just man has turned out to be a thief. And this is a lesson which I suspect you must have

learnt out of Homer; for he, speaking of Autolycus, the maternal grandfather of Odysseus, who is a favourite

And so, you and Homer and Simonides are agreed that justice is an art of theft; to be practised however `for

No, certainly not that, though I do not now know what I did say; but I still stand by the latter words.

Well, there is another question: By friends and enemies do we mean those who are so really, or only in

Surely, he said, a man may be expected to love those whom he thinks good, and to hate those whom he thinks

Yes, but do not persons often err about good and evil: many who are not good seem to be so, and conversely?

And in that case they will be right in doing good to the evil and evil to the good?

But see the consequence:Many a man who is ignorant of human nature has friends who are bad friends,

and in that case he ought to do harm to them; and he has good enemies whom he ought to benefit; but, if so,

we shall be saying the very opposite of that which we affirmed to be the meaning of Simonides.

Very true, he said: and I think that we had better correct an error into which we seem to have fallen in the use

We should rather say that he is a friend who is, as well as seems, good; and that he who seems only, and is

not good, only seems to be and is not a friend; and of an enemy the same may be said.

And instead of saying simply as we did at first, that it is just to do good to our friends and harm to our

enemies, we should further say: It is just to do good to our friends when they are good and harm to our

And will not men who are injured be deteriorated in that which is the proper virtue of man?

And can the just by justice make men unjust, or speaking general can the good by virtue make them bad?

Then to injure a friend or any one else is not the act of a just man, but of the opposite, who is the unjust?

Then if a man says that justice consists in the repayment of debts, and that good is the debt which a man owes

to his friends, and evil the debt which he owes to his enemies,to say this is not wise; for it is not true, if, as

Then you and I are prepared to take up arms against any one who attributes such a saying to Simonides or

I believe that Periander or Perdiccas or Xerxes or Ismenias the Theban, or some other rich and mighty man,

who had a great opinion of his own power, was the first to say that justice is `doing good to your friends and

Yes, I said; but if this definition of justice also breaks down, what other can be offered?

Several times in the course of the discussion Thrasymachus had made an attempt to get the argument into his

own hands, and had been put down by the rest of the company, who wanted to hear the end. But when

Polemarchus and I had done speaking and there was a pause, he could no longer hold his peace; and,

gathering himself up, he came at us like a wild beast, seeking to devour us. We were quite panicstricken at

He roared out to the whole company: What folly. Socrates, has taken possession of you all? And why,

sillybillies, do you knock under to one another? I say that if you want really to know what justice is, you

should not only ask but answer, and you should not seek honour to yourself from the refutation of an

opponent, but have your own answer; for there is many a one who can ask and cannot answer. And now I will

not have you say that justice is duty or advantage or profit or gain or interest, for this sort of nonsense will

I was panicstricken at his words, and could not look at him without trembling. Indeed I believe that if I had

not fixed my eye upon him, I should have been struck dumb: but when I saw his fury rising, I looked at him

Thrasymachus, I said, with a quiver, don't be hard upon us. Polemarchus and I may have been guilty of a little

mistake in the argument, but I can assure you that the error was not intentional. If we were seeking for a piece

of gold, you would not imagine that we were `knocking under to one another,' and so losing our chance of

finding it. And why, when we are seeking for justice, a thing more precious than many pieces of gold, do you

say that we are weakly yielding to one another and not doing our utmost to get at the truth? Nay, my good

friend, we are most willing and anxious to do so, but the fact is that we cannot. And if so, you people who

How characteristic of Socrates! he replied, with a bitter laugh; that's your ironical style! Did I not

foreseehave I not already told you, that whatever he was asked he would refuse to answer, and try irony or

You are a philosopher, Thrasymachus, I replied, and well know that if you ask a person what numbers make

up twelve, taking care to prohibit him whom you ask from answering twice six, or three times four, or six

times two, or four times three, `for this sort of nonsense will not do for me,'then obviously, that is your

way of putting the question, no one can answer you. But suppose that he were to retort, `Thrasymachus, what

do you mean? If one of these numbers which you interdict be the true answer to the question, am I falsely to

say some other number which is not the right one?is that your meaning?' How would you answer him?

Why should they not be? I replied; and even if they are not, but only appear to be so to the person who is

I dare say that I may, notwithstanding the danger, if upon reflection I approve of any of them.

But what if I give you an answer about justice other and better, he said, than any of these? What do you

Done to me!as becomes the ignorant, I must learn from the wise that is what I deserve to have done to

But you have, Socrates, said Glaucon: and you, Thrasymachus, need be under no anxiety about money, for

Yes, he replied, and then Socrates will do as he always does refuse to answer himself, but take and pull to

Why, my good friend, I said, how can any one answer who knows, and says that he knows, just nothing; and

who, even if he has some faint notions of his own, is told by a man of authority not to utter them? The natural

thing is, that the speaker should be some one like yourself who professes to know and can tell what he knows.

Glaucon and the rest of the company joined in my request and Thrasymachus, as any one might see, was in

reality eager to speak; for he thought that he had an excellent answer, and would distinguish himself. But at

first he to insist on my answering; at length he consented to begin. Behold, he said, the wisdom of Socrates;

he refuses to teach himself, and goes about learning of others, to whom he never even says thank you.

That I learn of others, I replied, is quite true; but that I am ungrateful I wholly deny. Money I have none, and

therefore I pay in praise, which is all I have: and how ready I am to praise any one who appears to me to

speak well you will very soon find out when you answer; for I expect that you will answer well.

Listen, then, he said; I proclaim that justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger. And now why do

Let me first understand you, I replied. justice, as you say, is the interest of the stronger. What, Thrasymachus,

is the meaning of this? You cannot mean to say that because Polydamas, the pancratiast, is stronger than we

are, and finds the eating of beef conducive to his bodily strength, that to eat beef is therefore equally for our

That's abominable of you, Socrates; you take the words in the sense which is most damaging to the argument.

Not at all, my good sir, I said; I am trying to understand them; and I wish that you would be a little clearer.

Well, he said, have you never heard that forms of government differ; there are tyrannies, and there are

And the different forms of government make laws democratical, aristocratical, tyrannical, with a view to their

several interests; and these laws, which are made by them for their own interests, are the justice which they

deliver to their subjects, and him who transgresses them they punish as a breaker of the law, and unjust. And

that is what I mean when I say that in all states there is the same principle of justice, which is the interest of

the government; and as the government must be supposed to have power, the only reasonable conclusion is,

that everywhere there is one principle of justice, which is the interest of the stronger.

Now I understand you, I said; and whether you are right or not I will try to discover. But let me remark, that

in defining justice you have yourself used the word `interest' which you forbade me to use. It is true,

Great or small, never mind about that: we must first enquire whether what you are saying is the truth. Now

we are both agreed that justice is interest of some sort, but you go on to say `of the stronger'; about this

I will; and first tell me, Do you admit that it is just or subjects to obey their rulers?

But are the rulers of states absolutely infallible, or are they sometimes liable to err?

Then in making their laws they may sometimes make them rightly, and sometimes not?

When they make them rightly, they make them agreeably to their interest; when they are mistaken, contrary

And the laws which they make must be obeyed by their subjects, and that is what you call justice?

Then justice, according to your argument, is not only obedience to the interest of the stronger but the reverse?

I am only repeating what you are saying, I believe. But let us consider: Have we not admitted that the rulers

may be mistaken about their own interest in what they command, and also that to obey them is justice? Has

Then you must also have acknowledged justice not to be for the interest of the stronger, when the rulers

unintentionally command things to be done which are to their own injury. For if, as you say, justice is the

obedience which the subject renders to their commands, in that case, O wisest of men, is there any escape

from the conclusion that the weaker are commanded to do, not what is for the interest, but what is for the

But there is no need of any witness, said Polemarchus, for Thrasymachus himself acknowledges that rulers

may sometimes command what is not for their own interest, and that for subjects to obey them is justice.

Yes, Polemarchus,Thrasymachus said that for subjects to do what was commanded by their rulers is just.

Yes, Cleitophon, but he also said that justice is the interest of the stronger, and, while admitting both these

propositions, he further acknowledged that the stronger may command the weaker who are his subjects to do

what is not for his own interest; whence follows that justice is the injury quite as much as the interest of the

But, said Cleitophon, he meant by the interest of the stronger what the stronger thought to be his

interest,this was what the weaker had to do; and this was affirmed by him to be justice.

Never mind, I replied, if he now says that they are, let us accept his statement. Tell me, Thrasymachus, I said,

did you mean by justice what the stronger thought to be his interest, whether really so or not?

Certainly not, he said. Do you suppose that I call him who is mistaken the stronger at the time when he is

Yes, I said, my impression was that you did so, when you admitted that the ruler was not infallible but might

You argue like an informer, Socrates. Do you mean, for example, that he who is mistaken about the sick is a

physician in that he is mistaken? or that he who errs in arithmetic or grammar is an arithmetician or

grammarian at the me when he is making the mistake, in respect of the mistake? True, we say that the

physician or arithmetician or grammarian has made a mistake, but this is only a way of speaking; for the fact

is that neither the grammarian nor any other person of skill ever makes a mistake in so far as he is what his

name implies; they none of them err unless their skill fails them, and then they cease to be skilled artists. No

artist or sage or ruler errs at the time when he is what his name implies; though he is commonly said to err,

and I adopted the common mode of speaking. But to be perfectly accurate, since you are such a lover of

accuracy, we should say that the ruler, in so far as he is the ruler, is unerring, and, being unerring, always

commands that which is for his own interest; and the subject is required to execute his commands; and

therefore, as I said at first and now repeat, justice is the interest of the stronger.

And you suppose that I ask these questions with any design of injuring you in the argument?

Nay, he replied, `suppose' is not the wordI know it; but you will be found out, and by sheer force of

I shall not make the attempt, my dear man; but to avoid any misunderstanding occurring between us in future,

let me ask, in what sense do you speak of a ruler or stronger whose interest, as you were saying, he being the

superior, it is just that the inferior should execute is he a ruler in the popular or in the strict sense of the

In the strictest of all senses, he said. And now cheat and play the informer if you can; I ask no quarter at your

And do you imagine, I said, that I am such a madman as to try and cheat, Thrasymachus? I might as well

Enough, I said, of these civilities. It will be better that I should ask you a question: Is the physician, taken in

that strict sense of which you are speaking, a healer of the sick or a maker of money? And remember that I

And the pilotthat is to say, the true pilotis he a captain of sailors or a mere sailor?

The circumstance that he sails in the ship is not to be taken into account; neither is he to be called a sailor; the

name pilot by which he is distinguished has nothing to do with sailing, but is significant of his skill and of his

I mean what I may illustrate negatively by the example of the body. Suppose you were to ask me whether the

body is selfsufficing or has wants, I should reply: Certainly the body has wants; for the body may be ill and

require to be cured, and has therefore interests to which the art of medicine ministers; and this is the origin

But is the art of medicine or any other art faulty or deficient in any quality in the same way that the eye may

be deficient in sight or the ear fail of hearing, and therefore requires another art to provide for the interests of

seeing and hearing has art in itself, I say, any similar liability to fault or defect, and does every art require

another supplementary art to provide for its interests, and that another and another without end? Or have the

arts to look only after their own interests? Or have they no need either of themselves or of another?having

no faults or defects, they have no need to correct them, either by the exercise of their own art or of any other;

they have only to consider the interest of their subjectmatter. For every art remains pure and faultless while

remaining truethat is to say, while perfect and unimpaired. Take the words in your precise sense, and tell

Then medicine does not consider the interest of medicine, but the interest of the body?

Nor does the art of horsemanship consider the interests of the art of horsemanship, but the interests of the

horse; neither do any other arts care for themselves, for they have no needs; they care only for that which is

But surely, Thrasymachus, the arts are the superiors and rulers of their own subjects?

Then, I said, no science or art considers or enjoins the interest of the stronger or superior, but only the interest

Then, I continued, no physician, in so far as he is a physician, considers his own good in what he prescribes,

but the good of his patient; for the true physician is also a ruler having the human body as a subject, and is

And the pilot likewise, in the strict sense of the term, is a ruler of sailors and not a mere sailor?

And such a pilot and ruler will provide and prescribe for the interest of the sailor who is under him, and not

Then, I said, Thrasymachus, there is no one in any rule who, in so far as he is a ruler, considers or enjoins

what is for his own interest, but always what is for the interest of his subject or suitable to his art; to that he

When we had got to this point in the argument, and every one saw that the definition of justice had been

completely upset, Thrasymachus, instead of replying to me, said: Tell me, Socrates, have you got a nurse?

Because she leaves you to snivel, and never wipes your nose: she has not even taught you to know the

Because you fancy that the shepherd or neatherd fattens of tends the sheep or oxen with a view to their own

good and not to the good of himself or his master; and you further imagine that the rulers of states, if they are

true rulers, never think of their subjects as sheep, and that they are not studying their own advantage day and

night. Oh, no; and so entirely astray are you in your ideas about the just and unjust as not even to know that

justice and the just are in reality another's good; that is to say, the interest of the ruler and stronger, and the

loss of the subject and servant; and injustice the opposite; for the unjust is lord over the truly simple and just:

he is the stronger, and his subjects do what is for his interest, and minister to his happiness, which is very far

from being their own. Consider further, most foolish Socrates, that the just is always a loser in comparison

with the unjust. First of all, in private contracts: wherever the unjust is the partner of the just you will find

that, when the partnership is dissolved, the unjust man has always more and the just less. Secondly, in their

dealings with the State: when there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the

same amount of income; and when there is anything to be received the one gains nothing and the other much.

Observe also what happens when they take an office; there is the just man neglecting his affairs and perhaps

suffering other losses, and getting nothing out of the public, because he is just; moreover he is hated by his

friends and acquaintance for refusing to serve them in unlawful ways. But all this is reversed in the case of

the unjust man. I am speaking, as before, of injustice on a large scale in which the advantage of the unjust is

more apparent; and my meaning will be most clearly seen if we turn to that highest form of injustice in which

the criminal is the happiest of men, and the sufferers or those who refuse to do injustice are the most

miserablethat is to say tyranny, which by fraud and force takes away the property of others, not little by

little but wholesale; comprehending in one, things sacred as well as profane, private and public; for which

acts of wrong, if he were detected perpetrating any one of them singly, he would be punished and incur great

disgrace they who do such wrong in particular cases are called robbers of temples, and manstealers and

burglars and swindlers and thieves. But when a man besides taking away the money of the citizens has made

slaves of them, then, instead of these names of reproach, he is termed happy and blessed, not only by the

citizens but by all who hear of his having achieved the consummation of injustice. For mankind censure

injustice, fearing that they may be the victims of it and not because they shrink from committing it. And thus,

as I have shown, Socrates, injustice, when on a sufficient scale, has more strength and freedom and mastery

than justice; and, as I said at first, justice is the interest of the stronger, whereas injustice is a man's own profit

Thrasymachus, when he had thus spoken, having, like a bathman, deluged our ears with his words, had a

mind to go away. But the company would not let him; they insisted that he should remain and defend his

position; and I myself added my own humble request that he would not leave us. Thrasymachus, I said to

him, excellent man, how suggestive are your remarks! And are you going to run away before you have fairly

taught or learned whether they are true or not? Is the attempt to determine the way of man's life so small a

matter in your eyesto determine how life may be passed by each one of us to the greatest advantage?

You appear rather, I replied, to have no care or thought about us, Thrasymachuswhether we live better or

worse from not knowing what you say you know, is to you a matter of indifference. Prithee, friend, do not

keep your knowledge to yourself; we are a large party; and any benefit which you confer upon us will be

amply rewarded. For my own part I openly declare that I am not convinced, and that I do not believe injustice

to be more gainful than justice, even if uncontrolled and allowed to have free play. For, granting that there

may be an unjust man who is able to commit injustice either by fraud or force, still this does not convince me

of the superior advantage of injustice, and there may be others who are in the same predicament with myself.

Perhaps we may be wrong; if so, you in your wisdom should convince us that we are mistaken in preferring

And how am I to convince you, he said, if you are not already convinced by what I have just said; what more

Heaven forbid! I said; I would only ask you to be consistent; or, if you change, change openly and let there be

no deception. For I must remark, Thrasymachus, if you will recall what was previously said, that although

you began by defining the true physician in an exact sense, you did not observe a like exactness when

speaking of the shepherd; you thought that the shepherd as a shepherd tends the sheep not with a view to their

own good, but like a mere diner or banqueter with a view to the pleasures of the table; or, again, as a trader

for sale in the market, and not as a shepherd. Yet surely the art of the shepherd is concerned only with the

good of his subjects; he has only to provide the best for them, since the perfection of the art is already

ensured whenever all the requirements of it are satisfied. And that was what I was saying just now about the

ruler. I conceived that the art of the ruler, considered as ruler, whether in a state or in private life, could only

regard the good of his flock or subjects; whereas you seem to think that the rulers in states, that is to say, the

Then why in the case of lesser offices do men never take them willingly without payment, unless under the

idea that they govern for the advantage not of themselves but of others? Let me ask you a question: Are not

the several arts different, by reason of their each having a separate function? And, my dear illustrious friend,

And each art gives us a particular good and not merely a general one medicine, for example, gives us

And the art of payment has the special function of giving pay: but we do not confuse this with other arts, any

more than the art of the pilot is to be confused with the art of medicine, because the health of the pilot may be

improved by a sea voyage. You would not be inclined to say, would you, that navigation is the art of

Or because a man is in good health when he receives pay you would not say that the art of payment is

Nor would you say that medicine is the art of receiving pay because a man takes fees when he is engaged in

And we have admitted, I said, that the good of each art is specially confined to the art?

Then, if there be any good which all artists have in common, that is to be attributed to something of which

And when the artist is benefited by receiving pay the advantage is gained by an additional use of the art of

Then the pay is not derived by the several artists from their respective arts. But the truth is, that while the art

of medicine gives health, and the art of the builder builds a house, another art attends them which is the art of

pay. The various arts may be doing their own business and benefiting that over which they preside, but would

Then now, Thrasymachus, there is no longer any doubt that neither arts nor governments provide for their

own interests; but, as we were before saying, they rule and provide for the interests of their subjects who are

the weaker and not the stronger to their good they attend and not to the good of the superior.

And this is the reason, my dear Thrasymachus, why, as I was just now saying, no one is willing to govern;

because no one likes to take in hand the reformation of evils which are not his concern without remuneration.

For, in the execution of his work, and in giving his orders to another, the true artist does not regard his own

interest, but always that of his subjects; and therefore in order that rulers may be willing to rule, they must be

paid in one of three modes of payment: money, or honour, or a penalty for refusing.

What do you mean, Socrates? said Glaucon. The first two modes of payment are intelligible enough, but what

You mean that you do not understand the nature of this payment which to the best men is the great

inducement to rule? Of course you know that ambition and avarice are held to be, as indeed they are, a

And for this reason, I said, money and honour have no attraction for them; good men do not wish to be

openly demanding payment for governing and so to get the name of hirelings, nor by secretly helping

themselves out of the public revenues to get the name of thieves. And not being ambitious they do not care

about honour. Wherefore necessity must be laid upon them, and they must be induced to serve from the fear

of punishment. And this, as I imagine, is the reason why the forwardness to take office, instead of waiting to

be compelled, has been deemed dishonourable. Now the worst part of the punishment is that he who refuses

to rule is liable to be ruled by one who is worse than himself. And the fear of this, as I conceive, induces the

good to take office, not because they would, but because they cannot helpnot under the idea that they are

going to have any benefit or enjoyment themselves, but as a necessity, and because they are not able to

commit the task of ruling to any one who is better than themselves, or indeed as good. For there is reason to

think that if a city were composed entirely of good men, then to avoid office would be as much an object of

contention as to obtain office is at present; then we should have plain proof that the true ruler is not meant by

nature to regard his own interest, but that of his subjects; and every one who knew this would choose rather to

receive a benefit from another than to have the trouble of conferring one. So far am I from agreeing with

Thrasymachus that justice is the interest of the stronger. This latter question need not be further discussed at

present; but when Thrasymachus says that the life of the unjust is more advantageous than that of the just, his

new statement appears to me to be of a far more serious character. Which of us has spoken truly? And which

I for my part deem the life of the just to be the more advantageous, he answered.

Did you hear all the advantages of the unjust which Thrasymachus was rehearsing?

Then shall we try to find some way of convincing him, if we can, that he is saying what is not true?

If, I said, he makes a set speech and we make another recounting all the advantages of being just, and he

answers and we rejoin, there must be a numbering and measuring of the goods which are claimed on either

side, and in the end we shall want judges to decide; but if we proceed in our enquiry as we lately did, by

making admissions to one another, we shall unite the offices of judge and advocate in our own persons.

Well, then, Thrasymachus, I said, suppose you begin at the beginning and answer me. You say that perfect

And what is your view about them? Would you call one of them virtue and the other vice?

What a charming notion! So likely too, seeing that I affirm injustice to be profitable and justice not.

Yes, he said; at any rate those of them who are able to be perfectly unjust, and who have the power of

subduing states and nations; but perhaps you imagine me to be talking of cutpurses.

Even this profession if undetected has advantages, though they are not to be compared with those of which I

I do not think that I misapprehend your meaning, Thrasymachus, I replied; but still I cannot hear without

amazement that you class injustice with wisdom and virtue, and justice with the opposite.

Now, I said, you are on more substantial and almost unanswerable ground; for if the injustice which you were

maintaining to be profitable had been admitted by you as by others to be vice and deformity, an answer might

have been given to you on received principles; but now I perceive that you will call injustice honourable and

strong, and to the unjust you will attribute all the qualities which were attributed by us before to the just,

Then I certainly ought not to shrink from going through with the argument so long as I have reason to think

that you, Thrasymachus, are speaking your real mind; for I do believe that you are now in earnest and are not

I may be in earnest or not, but what is that to you?to refute the argument is your business.

Very true, I said; that is what I have to do: But will you be so good as answer yet one more question? Does

And how would he regard the attempt to gain an advantage over the unjust; would that be considered by him

He would think it just, and would try to gain the advantage; but he would not be able.

Whether he would or would not be able, I said, is not to the point. My question is only whether the just man,

while refusing to have more than another just man, would wish and claim to have more than the unjust?

And what of the unjustdoes he claim to have more than the just man and to do more than is just

And the unjust man will strive and struggle to obtain more than the unjust man or action, in order that he may

We may put the matter thus, I saidthe just does not desire more than his like but more than his unlike,

Of course, he said, he who is of a certain nature, is like those who are of a certain nature; he who is not, not.

Very good, Thrasymachus, I said; and now to take the case of the arts: you would admit that one man is a

And do you think, my excellent friend, that a musician when he adjusts the lyre would desire or claim to

And what would you say of the physician? In prescribing meats and drinks would he wish to go beyond

And about knowledge and ignorance in general; see whether you think that any man who has knowledge ever

would wish to have the choice of saying or doing more than another man who has knowledge. Would he not

And what of the ignorant? would he not desire to have more than either the knowing or the ignorant?

Then the wise and good will not desire to gain more than his like, but more than his unlike and opposite?

But did we not say, Thrasymachus, that the unjust goes beyond both his like and unlike? Were not these your

Then the just is like the wise and good, and the unjust like the evil and ignorant?

Then the just has turned out to be wise and good and the unjust evil and ignorant.

Thrasymachus made all these admissions, not fluently, as I repeat them, but with extreme reluctance; it was a

hot summer's day, and the perspiration poured from him in torrents; and then I saw what I had never seen

before, Thrasymachus blushing. As we were now agreed that justice was virtue and wisdom, and injustice

Well, I said, Thrasymachus, that matter is now settled; but were we not also saying that injustice had

Yes, I remember, he said, but do not suppose that I approve of what you are saying or have no answer; if

however I were to answer, you would be quite certain to accuse me of haranguing; therefore either permit me

to have my say out, or if you would rather ask, do so, and I will answer `Very good,' as they say to

Yes, he said, I will, to please you, since you will not let me speak. What else would you have?

Nothing in the world, I said; and if you are so disposed I will ask and you shall answer.

Then I will repeat the question which I asked before, in order that our examination of the relative nature of

justice and injustice may be carried on regularly. A statement was made that injustice is stronger and more

powerful than justice, but now justice, having been identified with wisdom and virtue, is easily shown to be

stronger than injustice, if injustice is ignorance; this can no longer be questioned by any one. But I want to

view the matter, Thrasymachus, in a different way: You would not deny that a state may be unjust and may

be unjustly attempting to enslave other states, or may have already enslaved them, and may be holding many

True, he replied; and I will add the best and perfectly unjust state will be most likely to do so.

I know, I said, that such was your position; but what I would further consider is, whether this power which is

If you are right in you view, and justice is wisdom, then only with justice; but if I am right, then without

I am delighted, Thrasymachus, to see you not only nodding assent and dissent, but making answers which are

You are very kind, I said; and would you have the goodness also to inform me, whether you think that a state,

or an army, or a band of robbers and thieves, or any other gang of evildoers could act at all if they injured

But if they abstained from injuring one another, then they might act together better?

And this is because injustice creates divisions and hatreds and fighting, and justice imparts harmony and

How good of you, I said; but I should like to know also whether injustice, having this tendency to arouse

hatred, wherever existing, among slaves or among freemen, will not make them hate one another and set

And even if injustice be found in two only, will they not quarrel and fight, and become enemies to one

And suppose injustice abiding in a single person, would your wisdom say that she loses or that she retains her

Yet is not the power which injustice exercises of such a nature that wherever she takes up her abode, whether

in a city, in an army, in a family, or in any other body, that body is, to begin with, rendered incapable of

united action by reason of sedition and distraction; and does it not become its own enemy and at variance

And is not injustice equally fatal when existing in a single person; in the first place rendering him incapable

of action because he is not at unity with himself, and in the second place making him an enemy to himself

But if so, the unjust will be the enemy of the gods, and the just will be their friend?

Feast away in triumph, and take your fill of the argument; I will not oppose you, lest I should displease the

Well then, proceed with your answers, and let me have the remainder of my repast. For we have already

shown that the just are clearly wiser and better and abler than the unjust, and that the unjust are incapable of

common action; nay ing at more, that to speak as we did of men who are evil acting at any time vigorously

together, is not strictly true, for if they had been perfectly evil, they would have laid hands upon one another;

but it is evident that there must have been some remnant of justice in them, which enabled them to combine;

if there had not been they would have injured one another as well as their victims; they were but

halfvillains in their enterprises; for had they been whole villains, and utterly unjust, they would have been

utterly incapable of action. That, as I believe, is the truth of the matter, and not what you said at first. But

whether the just have a better and happier life than the unjust is a further question which we also proposed to

consider. I think that they have, and for the reasons which to have given; but still I should like to examine

further, for no light matter is at stake, nothing less than the rule of human life.

I will proceed by asking a question: Would you not say that a horse has some end?

And the end or use of a horse or of anything would be that which could not be accomplished, or not so well

But you can cut off a vinebranch with a dagger or with a chisel, and in many other ways?

Then now I think you will have no difficulty in understanding my meaning when I asked the question

whether the end of anything would be that which could not be accomplished, or not so well accomplished, by

And that to which an end is appointed has also an excellence? Need I ask again whether the eye has an end?

And the same is true of all other things; they have each of them an end and a special excellence?

Well, and can the eyes fulfil their end if they are wanting in their own proper excellence and have a defect

You mean to say, if they have lost their proper excellence, which is sight; but I have not arrived at that point

yet. I would rather ask the question more generally, and only enquire whether the things which fulfil their

ends fulfil them by their own proper excellence, and fall of fulfilling them by their own defect?

I might say the same of the ears; when deprived of their own proper excellence they cannot fulfil their end?

Well; and has not the soul an end which nothing else can fulfil? for example, to superintend and command

and deliberate and the like. Are not these functions proper to the soul, and can they rightly be assigned to any

And can she or can she not fulfil her own ends when deprived of that excellence?

Then an evil soul must necessarily be an evil ruler and superintendent, and the good soul a good ruler?

And we have admitted that justice is the excellence of the soul, and injustice the defect of the soul?

Then the just soul and the just man will live well, and the unjust man will live ill?

And he who lives well is blessed and happy, and he who lives ill the reverse of happy?

Then, my blessed Thrasymachus, injustice can never be more profitable than justice.

For which I am indebted to you, I said, now that you have grown gentle towards me and have left off

scolding. Nevertheless, I have not been well entertained; but that was my own fault and not yours. As an

epicure snatches a taste of every dish which is successively brought to table, he not having allowed himself

time to enjoy the one before, so have I gone from one subject to another without having discovered what I

sought at first, the nature of justice. I left that enquiry and turned away to consider whether justice is virtue

and wisdom or evil and folly; and when there arose a further question about the comparative advantages of

justice and injustice, I could not refrain from passing on to that. And the result of the whole discussion has

been that I know nothing at all. For I know not what justice is, and therefore I am not likely to know whether

it is or is not a virtue, nor can I say whether the just man is happy or unhappy.

WITH these words I was thinking that I had made an end of the discussion; but the end, in truth, proved to be

only a beginning. For Glaucon, who is always the most pugnacious of men, was dissatisfied at Thrasymachus'

retirement; he wanted to have the battle out. So he said to me: Socrates, do you wish really to persuade us, or

only to seem to have persuaded us, that to be just is always better than to be unjust?

Then you certainly have not succeeded. Let me ask you now:How would you arrange goodsare there

not some which we welcome for their own sakes, and independently of their consequences, as, for example,

harmless pleasures and enjoyments, which delight us at the time, although nothing follows from them?

Is there not also a second class of goods, such as knowledge, sight, health, which are desirable not only in

And would you not recognize a third class, such as gymnastic, and the care of the sick, and the physician's

art; also the various ways of moneymakingthese do us good but we regard them as disagreeable; and no

one would choose them for their own sakes, but only for the sake of some reward or result which flows from

In the highest class, I replied,among those goods which he who would be happy desires both for their own

Then the many are of another mind; they think that justice is to be reckoned in the troublesome class, among

goods which are to be pursued for the sake of rewards and of reputation, but in themselves are disagreeable

I know, I said, that this is their manner of thinking, and that this was the thesis which Thrasymachus was

maintaining just now, when he censured justice and praised injustice. But I am too stupid to be convinced by

I wish, he said, that you would hear me as well as him, and then I shall see whether you and I agree. For

Thrasymachus seems to me, like a snake, to have been charmed by your voice sooner than he ought to have

been; but to my mind the nature of justice and injustice have not yet been made clear. Setting aside their

rewards and results, I want to know what they are in themselves, and how they inwardly work in the soul. If

you, please, then, I will revive the argument of Thrasymachus. And first I will speak of the nature and origin

of justice according to the common view of them. Secondly, I will show that all men who practise justice do

so against their will, of necessity, but not as a good. And thirdly, I will argue that there is reason in this view,

for the life of the unjust is after all better far than the life of the justif what they say is true, Socrates, since

I myself am not of their opinion. But still I acknowledge that I am perplexed when I hear the voices of

Thrasymachus and myriads of others dinning in my ears; and, on the other hand, I have never yet heard the

superiority of justice to injustice maintained by any one in a satisfactory way. I want to hear justice praised in

respect of itself; then I shall be satisfied, and you are the person from whom I think that I am most likely to

hear this; and therefore I will praise the unjust life to the utmost of my power, and my manner of speaking

will indicate the manner in which I desire to hear you too praising justice and censuring injustice. Will you

Indeed I do; nor can I imagine any theme about which a man of sense would oftener wish to converse.

I am delighted, he replied, to hear you say so, and shall begin by speaking, as I proposed, of the nature and

They say that to do injustice is, by nature, good; to suffer injustice, evil; but that the evil is greater than the

good. And so when men have both done and suffered injustice and have had experience of both, not being

able to avoid the one and obtain the other, they think that they had better agree among themselves to have

neither; hence there arise laws and mutual covenants; and that which is ordained by law is termed by them

lawful and just. This they affirm to be the origin and nature of justice;it is a mean or compromise, between

the best of all, which is to do injustice and not be punished, and the worst of all, which is to suffer injustice

without the power of retaliation; and justice, being at a middle point between the two, is tolerated not as a

good, but as the lesser evil, and honoured by reason of the inability of men to do injustice. For no man who is

worthy to be called a man would ever submit to such an agreement if he were able to resist; he would be mad

if he did. Such is the received account, Socrates, of the nature and origin of justice.

Now that those who practise justice do so involuntarily and because they have not the power to be unjust will

best appear if we imagine something of this kind: having given both to the just and the unjust power to do

what they will, let us watch and see whither desire will lead them; then we shall discover in the very act the

just and unjust man to be proceeding along the same road, following their interest, which all natures deem to

be their good, and are only diverted into the path of justice by the force of law. The liberty which we are

supposing may be most completely given to them in the form of such a power as is said to have been

possessed by Gyges the ancestor of Croesus the Lydian. According to the tradition, Gyges was a shepherd in

the service of the king of Lydia; there was a great storm, and an earthquake made an opening in the earth at

the place where he was feeding his flock. Amazed at the sight, he descended into the opening, where, among

other marvels, he beheld a hollow brazen horse, having doors, at which he stooping and looking in saw a

dead body of stature, as appeared to him, more than human, and having nothing on but a gold ring; this he

took from the finger of the dead and reascended. Now the shepherds met together, according to custom, that

they might send their monthly report about the flocks to the king; into their assembly he came having the ring

on his finger, and as he was sitting among them he chanced to turn the collet of the ring inside his hand, when

instantly he became invisible to the rest of the company and they began to speak of him as if he were no

longer present. He was astonished at this, and again touching the ring he turned the collet outwards and

reappeared; he made several trials of the ring, and always with the same resultwhen he turned the collet

inwards he became invisible, when outwards he reappeared. Whereupon he contrived to be chosen one of the

messengers who were sent to the court; where as soon as he arrived he seduced the queen, and with her help

conspired against the king and slew him, and took the kingdom. Suppose now that there were two such magic

rings, and the just put on one of them and the unjust the other;,no man can be imagined to be of such an iron

nature that he would stand fast in justice. No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he

could safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with any one at his pleasure, or

kill or release from prison whom he would, and in all respects be like a God among men. Then the actions of

the just would be as the actions of the unjust; they would both come at last to the same point. And this we

may truly affirm to be a great proof that a man is just, not willingly or because he thinks that justice is any

good to him individually, but of necessity, for wherever any one thinks that he can safely be unjust, there he

is unjust. For all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice,

and he who argues as I have been supposing, will say that they are right. If you could imagine any one

obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another's, he

would be thought by the lookerson to be a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one

another's faces, and keep up appearances with one another from a fear that they too might suffer injustice.

Now, if we are to form a real judgment of the life of the just and unjust, we must isolate them; there is no

other way; and how is the isolation to be effected? I answer: Let the unjust man be entirely unjust, and the

just man entirely just; nothing is to be taken away from either of them, and both are to be perfectly furnished

for the work of their respective lives. First, let the unjust be like other distinguished masters of craft; like the

skilful pilot or physician, who knows intuitively his own powers and keeps within their limits, and who, if he

fails at any point, is able to recover himself. So let the unjust make his unjust attempts in the right way, and

lie hidden if he means to be great in his injustice (he who is found out is nobody): for the highest reach of

injustice is: to be deemed just when you are not. Therefore I say that in the perfectly unjust man we must

assume the most perfect injustice; there is to be no deduction, but we must allow him, while doing the most

unjust acts, to have acquired the greatest reputation for justice. If he have taken a false step he must be able to

recover himself; he must be one who can speak with effect, if any of his deeds come to light, and who can

force his way where force is required his courage and strength, and command of money and friends. And at

his side let us place the just man in his nobleness and simplicity, wishing, as Aeschylus says, to be and not to

seem good. There must be no seeming, for if he seem to be just he will be honoured and rewarded, and then

we shall not know whether he is just for the sake of justice or for the sake of honours and rewards; therefore,

let him be clothed in justice only, and have no other covering; and he must be imagined in a state of life the

opposite of the former. Let him be the best of men, and let him be thought the worst; then he will have been

put to the proof; and we shall see whether he will be affected by the fear of infamy and its consequences. And

let him continue thus to the hour of death; being just and seeming to be unjust. When both have reached the

uttermost extreme, the one of justice and the other of injustice, let judgment be given which of them is the

Heavens! my dear Glaucon, I said, how energetically you polish them up for the decision, first one and then

I do my best, he said. And now that we know what they are like there is no difficulty in tracing out the sort of

life which awaits either of them. This I will proceed to describe; but as you may think the description a little

too coarse, I ask you to suppose, Socrates, that the words which follow are not mine. Let me put them into

the mouths of the eulogists of injustice: They will tell you that the just man who is thought unjust will be

scourged, racked, boundwill have his eyes burnt out; and, at last, after suffering every kind of evil, he will

be impaled: Then he will understand that he ought to seem only, and not to be, just; the words of Aeschylus

may be more truly spoken of the unjust than of the just. For the unjust is pursuing a reality; he does not live

In the first place, he is thought just, and therefore bears rule in the city; he can marry whom he will, and give

in marriage to whom he will; also he can trade and deal where he likes, and always to his own advantage,

because he has no misgivings about injustice and at every contest, whether in public or private, he gets the

better of his antagonists, and gains at their expense, and is rich, and out of his gains he can benefit his friends,

and harm his enemies; moreover, he can offer sacrifices, and dedicate gifts to the gods abundantly and

magnificently, and can honour the gods or any man whom he wants to honour in a far better style than the

just, and therefore he is likely to be dearer than they are to the gods. And thus, Socrates, gods and men are

said to unite in making the life of the unjust better than the life of the just.

I was going to say something in answer to Glaucon, when Adeimantus, his brother, interposed: Socrates, he

Well, then, according to the proverb, `Let brother help brother' if he fails in any part do you assist him;

although I must confess that Glaucon has already said quite enough to lay me in the dust, and take from me

Nonsense, he replied. But let me add something more: There is another side to Glaucon's argument about the

praise and censure of justice and injustice, which is equally required in order to bring out what I believe to be

his meaning. Parents and tutors are always telling their sons and their wards that they are to be just; but why?

not for the sake of justice, but for the sake of character and reputation; in the hope of obtaining for him who is

reputed just some of those offices, marriages, and the like which Glaucon has enumerated among the

advantages accruing to the unjust from the reputation of justice. More, however, is made of appearances by

this class of persons than by the others; for they throw in the good opinion of the gods, and will tell you of a

shower of benefits which the heavens, as they say, rain upon the pious; and this accords with the testimony of

the noble Hesiod and Homer, the first of whom says, that the gods make the oaks of the just

To hear acorns at their summit, and bees I the middle; And the sheep the bowed down bowed the with the

and many other blessings of a like kind are provided for them. And Homer has a very similar strain; for he

As the fame of some blameless king who, like a god, Maintains justice to whom the black earth brings forth

Wheat and barley, whose trees are bowed with fruit, And his sheep never fail to bear, and the sea gives him

Still grander are the gifts of heaven which Musaeus and his son vouchsafe to the just; they take them down

into the world below, where they have the saints lying on couches at a feast, everlastingly drunk, crowned

with garlands; their idea seems to be that an immortality of drunkenness is the highest meed of virtue. Some

extend their rewards yet further; the posterity, as they say, of the faithful and just shall survive to the third

and fourth generation. This is the style in which they praise justice. But about the wicked there is another

strain; they bury them in a slough in Hades, and make them carry water in a sieve; also while they are yet

living they bring them to infamy, and inflict upon them the punishments which Glaucon described as the

portion of the just who are reputed to be unjust; nothing else does their invention supply. Such is their manner

Once more, Socrates, I will ask you to consider another way of speaking about justice and injustice, which is

not confined to the poets, but is found in prose writers. The universal voice of mankind is always declaring

that justice and virtue are honourable, but grievous and toilsome; and that the pleasures of vice and injustice

are easy of attainment, and are only censured by law and opinion. They say also that honesty is for the most

part less profitable than dishonesty; and they are quite ready to call wicked men happy, and to honour them

both in public and private when they are rich or in any other way influential, while they despise and overlook

those who may be weak and poor, even though acknowledging them to be better than the others. But most

extraordinary of all is their mode of speaking about virtue and the gods: they say that the gods apportion

calamity and misery to many good men, and good and happiness to the wicked. And mendicant prophets go

to rich men's doors and persuade them that they have a power committed to them by the gods of making an

atonement for a man's own or his ancestor's sins by sacrifices or charms, with rejoicings and feasts; and they

promise to harm an enemy, whether just or unjust, at a small cost; with magic arts and incantations binding

heaven, as they say, to execute their will. And the poets are the authorities to whom they appeal, now

Vice may be had in abundance without trouble; the way is smooth and her dwellingplace is near. But before

and a tedious and uphill road: then citing Homer as a witness that the gods may be influenced by men; for he

The gods, too, may he turned from their purpose; and men pray to them and avert their wrath by sacrifices

and soothing entreaties, and by libations and the odour of fat, when they have sinned and transgressed.

And they produce a host of books written by Musaeus and Orpheus, who were children of the Moon and the

Musesthat is what they say according to which they perform their ritual, and persuade not only

individuals, but whole cities, that expiations and atonements for sin may be made by sacrifices and

amusements which fill a vacant hour, and are equally at the service of the living and the dead; the latter sort

they call mysteries, and they redeem us from the pains of hell, but if we neglect them no one knows what

He proceeded: And now when the young hear all this said about virtue and vice, and the way in which gods

and men regard them, how are their minds likely to be affected, my dear Socrates, those of them, I mean,

who are quickwitted, and, like bees on the wing, light on every flower, and from all that they hear are prone

to draw conclusions as to what manner of persons they should be and in what way they should walk if they

would make the best of life? Probably the youth will say to himself in the words of Pindar

Can I by justice or by crooked ways of deceit ascend a loftier tower which may he a fortress to me all my

For what men say is that, if I am really just and am not also thought just profit there is none, but the pain and

loss on the other hand are unmistakable. But if, though unjust, I acquire the reputation of justice, a heavenly

life is promised to me. Since then, as philosophers prove, appearance tyrannizes over truth and is lord of

happiness, to appearance I must devote myself. I will describe around me a picture and shadow of virtue to be

the vestibule and exterior of my house; behind I will trail the subtle and crafty fox, as Archilochus, greatest of

sages, recommends. But I hear some one exclaiming that the concealment of wickedness is often difficult; to

which I answer, Nothing great is easy. Nevertheless, the argument indicates this, if we would be happy, to be

the path along which we should proceed. With a view to concealment we will establish secret brotherhoods

and political clubs. And there are professors of rhetoric who teach the art of persuading courts and

assemblies; and so, partly by persuasion and partly by force, I shall make unlawful gains and not be punished.

Still I hear a voice saying that the gods cannot be deceived, neither can they be compelled. But what if there

are no gods? or, suppose them to have no care of human thingswhy in either case should we mind about

concealment? And even if there are gods, and they do care about us, yet we know of them only from tradition

and the genealogies of the poets; and these are the very persons who say that they may be influenced and

turned by `sacrifices and soothing entreaties and by offerings.' Let us be consistent then, and believe both or

neither. If the poets speak truly, why then we had better be unjust, and offer of the fruits of injustice; for if we

are just, although we may escape the vengeance of heaven, we shall lose the gains of injustice; but, if we are

unjust, we shall keep the gains, and by our sinning and praying, and praying and sinning, the gods will be

propitiated, and we shall not be punished. `But there is a world below in which either we or our posterity will

suffer for our unjust deeds.' Yes, my friend, will be the reflection, but there are mysteries and atoning deities,

and these have great power. That is what mighty cities declare; and the children of the gods, who were their

On what principle, then, shall we any longer choose justice rather than the worst injustice? when, if we only

unite the latter with a deceitful regard to appearances, we shall fare to our mind both with gods and men, in

life and after death, as the most numerous and the highest authorities tell us. Knowing all this, Socrates, how

can a man who has any superiority of mind or person or rank or wealth, be willing to honour justice; or

indeed to refrain from laughing when he hears justice praised? And even if there should be some one who is

able to disprove the truth of my words, and who is satisfied that justice is best, still he is not angry with the

unjust, but is very ready to forgive them, because he also knows that men are not just of their own free will;

unless, peradventure, there be some one whom the divinity within him may have inspired with a hatred of

injustice, or who has attained knowledge of the truthbut no other man. He only blames injustice who,

owing to cowardice or age or some weakness, has not the power of being unjust. And this is proved by the

fact that when he obtains the power, he immediately becomes unjust as far as he can be.

The cause of all this, Socrates, was indicated by us at the beginning of the argument, when my brother and I

told you how astonished we were to find that of all the professing panegyrists of justice beginning with the

ancient heroes of whom any memorial has been preserved to us, and ending with the men of our own time

no one has ever blamed injustice or praised justice except with a view to the glories, honours, and benefits

which flow from them. No one has ever adequately described either in verse or prose the true essential nature

of either of them abiding in the soul, and invisible to any human or divine eye; or shown that of all the things

of a man's soul which he has within him, justice is the greatest good, and injustice the greatest evil. Had this

been the universal strain, had you sought to persuade us of this from our youth upwards, we should not have

been on the watch to keep one another from doing wrong, but every one would have been his own watchman,

because afraid, if he did wrong, of harbouring in himself the greatest of evils. I dare say that Thrasymachus

and others would seriously hold the language which I have been merely repeating, and words even stronger

than these about justice and injustice, grossly, as I conceive, perverting their true nature. But I speak in this

vehement manner, as I must frankly confess to you, because I want to hear from you the opposite side; and I

would ask you to show not only the superiority which justice has over injustice, but what effect they have on

the possessor of them which makes the one to be a good and the other an evil to him. And please, as Glaucon

requested of you, to exclude reputations; for unless you take away from each of them his true reputation and

add on the false, we shall say that you do not praise justice, but the appearance of it; we shall think that you

are only exhorting us to keep injustice dark, and that you really agree with Thrasymachus in thinking that

justice is another's good and the interest of the stronger, and that injustice is a man's own profit and interest,

though injurious to the weaker. Now as you have admitted that justice is one of that highest class of goods

which are desired indeed for their results, but in a far greater degree for their own sakeslike sight or

hearing or knowledge or health, or any other real and natural and not merely conventional good I would

ask you in your praise of justice to regard one point only: I mean the essential good and evil which justice and

injustice work in the possessors of them. Let others praise justice and censure injustice, magnifying the

rewards and honours of the one and abusing the other; that is a manner of arguing which, coming from them,

I am ready to tolerate, but from you who have spent your whole life in the consideration of this question,

unless I hear the contrary from your own lips, I expect something better. And therefore, I say, not only prove

to us that justice is better than injustice, but show what they either of them do to the possessor of them, which

makes the one to be a good and the other an evil, whether seen or unseen by gods and men.

I had always admired the genius of Glaucon and Adeimantus, but on hearing these words I was quite

delighted, and said: Sons of an illustrious father, that was not a bad beginning of the Elegiac verses which the

admirer of Glaucon made in honour of you after you had distinguished yourselves at the battle of Megara:

The epithet is very appropriate, for there is something truly divine in being able to argue as you have done for

the superiority of injustice, and remaining unconvinced by your own arguments. And I do believe that you are

not convincedthis I infer from your general character, for had I judged only from your speeches I should

have mistrusted you. But now, the greater my confidence in you, the greater is my difficulty in knowing what

to say. For I am in a strait between two; on the one hand I feel that I am unequal to the task; and my inability

is brought home to me by the fact that you were not satisfied with the answer which I made to Thrasymachus,

proving, as I thought, the superiority which justice has over injustice. And yet I cannot refuse to help, while

breath and speech remain to me; I am afraid that there would be an impiety in being present when justice is

evil spoken of and not lifting up a hand in her defence. And therefore I had best give such help as I can.

Glaucon and the rest entreated me by all means not to let the question drop, but to proceed in the

investigation. They wanted to arrive at the truth, first, about the nature of justice and injustice, and secondly,

about their relative advantages. I told them, what I really thought, that the enquiry would be of a serious

nature, and would require very good eyes. Seeing then, I said, that we are no great wits, I think that we had

better adopt a method which I may illustrate thus; suppose that a shortsighted person had been asked by

some one to read small letters from a distance; and it occurred to some one else that they might be found in

another place which was larger and in which the letters were larger if they were the same and he could

read the larger letters first, and then proceed to the lesserthis would have been thought a rare piece of good

I will tell you, I replied; justice, which is the subject of our enquiry, is, as you know, sometimes spoken of as

Then in the larger the quantity of justice is likely to be larger and more easily discernible. I propose therefore

that we enquire into the nature of justice and injustice, first as they appear in the State, and secondly in the

And if we imagine the State in process of creation, we shall see the justice and injustice of the State in

When the State is completed there may be a hope that the object of our search will be more easily discovered.

But ought we to attempt to construct one? I said; for to do so, as I am inclined to think, will be a very serious

A State, I said, arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is selfsufficing, but all of us have

Then, as we have many wants, and many persons are needed to supply them, one takes a helper for one

purpose and another for another; and when these partners and helpers are gathered together in one habitation

And they exchange with one another, and one gives, and another receives, under the idea that the exchange

Then, I said, let us begin and create in idea a State; and yet the true creator is necessity, who is the mother of

Now the first and greatest of necessities is food, which is the condition of life and existence.

And now let us see how our city will be able to supply this great demand: We may suppose that one man is a

husbandman, another a builder, some one else a weavershall we add to them a shoemaker, or perhaps some

And how will they proceed? Will each bring the result of his labours into a common stock?the individual

husbandman, for example, producing for four, and labouring four times as long and as much as he need in the

provision of food with which he supplies others as well as himself; or will he have nothing to do with others

and not be at the trouble of producing for them, but provide for himself alone a fourth of the food in a fourth

of the time, and in the remaining threefourths of his time be employed in making a house or a coat or a pair

of shoes, having no partnership with others, but supplying himself all his own wants?

Adeimantus thought that he should aim at producing food only and not at producing everything.

Probably, I replied, that would be the better way; and when I hear you say this, I am myself reminded that we

are not all alike; there are diversities of natures among us which are adapted to different occupations.

And will you have a work better done when the workman has many occupations, or when he has only one?

Further, there can be no doubt that a work is spoilt when not done at the right time?

For business is not disposed to wait until the doer of the business is at leisure; but the doer must follow up

And if so, we must infer that all things are produced more plentifully and easily and of a better quality when

one man does one thing which is natural to him and does it at the right time, and leaves other things.

Then more than four citizens will be required; for the husbandman will not make his own plough or mattock,

or other implements of agriculture, if they are to be good for anything. Neither will the builder make his

Then carpenters, and smiths, and many other artisans, will be sharers in our little State, which is already

Yet even if we add neatherds, shepherds, and other herdsmen, in order that our husbandmen may have oxen

to plough with, and builders as well as husbandmen may have draught cattle, and curriers and weavers fleeces

That is true; yet neither will it be a very small State which contains all these.

Then, again, there is the situation of the cityto find a place where nothing need be imported is wellnigh

Then there must be another class of citizens who will bring the required supply from another city?

But if the trader goes emptyhanded, having nothing which they require who would supply his need, he will

And therefore what they produce at home must be not only enough for themselves, but such both in quantity

And if merchandise is to be carried over the sea, skilful sailors will also be needed, and in considerable

Then, again, within the city, how will they exchange their productions? To secure such an exchange was, as

you will remember, one of our principal objects when we formed them into a society and constituted a State.

Suppose now that a husbandman, or an artisan, brings some production to market, and he comes at a time

when there is no one to exchange with him,is he to leave his calling and sit idle in the marketplace?

Not at all; he will find people there who, seeing the want, undertake the office of salesmen. In wellordered

States they are commonly those who are the weakest in bodily strength, and therefore of little use for any

other purpose; their duty is to be in the market, and to give money in exchange for goods to those who desire

This want, then, creates a class of retailtraders in our State. Is not `retailer' the term which is applied to those

who sit in the marketplace engaged in buying and selling, while those who wander from one city to another

And there is another class of servants, who are intellectually hardly on the level of companionship; still they

have plenty of bodily strength for labour, which accordingly they sell, and are called, if I do not mistake,

Where, then, is justice, and where is injustice, and in what part of the State did they spring up?

Probably in the dealings of these citizens with one another. cannot imagine that they are more likely to be

I dare say that you are right in your suggestion, I said; we had better think the matter out, and not shrink from

Let us then consider, first of all, what will be their way of life, now that we have thus established them. Will

they not produce corn, and wine, and clothes, and shoes, and build houses for themselves? And when they are

housed, they will work, in summer, commonly, stripped and barefoot, but in winter substantially clothed and

shod. They will feed on barleymeal and flour of wheat, baking and kneading them, making noble cakes and

loaves; these they will serve up on a mat of reeds or on clean leaves, themselves reclining the while upon

beds strewn with yew or myrtle. And they and their children will feast, drinking of the wine which they have

made, wearing garlands on their heads, and hymning the praises of the gods, in happy converse with one

another. And they will take care that their families do not exceed their means; having an eye to poverty or

True, I replied, I had forgotten; of course they must have a relishsalt, and olives, and cheese, and they will

boil roots and herbs such as country people prepare; for a dessert we shall give them figs, and peas, and

beans; and they will roast myrtleberries and acorns at the fire, drinking in moderation. And with such a diet

they may be expected to live in peace and health to a good old age, and bequeath a similar life to their

Yes, Socrates, he said, and if you were providing for a city of pigs, how else would you feed the beasts?

Why, he said, you should give them the ordinary conveniences of life. People who are to be comfortable are

accustomed to lie on sofas, and dine off tables, and they should have sauces and sweets in the modern style.

Yes, I said, now I understand: the question which you would have me consider is, not only how a State, but

how a luxurious State is created; and possibly there is no harm in this, for in such a State we shall be more

likely to see how justice and injustice originate. In my opinion the true and healthy constitution of the State is

the one which I have described. But if you wish also to see a State at fever heat, I have no objection. For I

suspect that many will not be satisfied with the simpler way of way They will be for adding sofas, and tables,

and other furniture; also dainties, and perfumes, and incense, and courtesans, and cakes, all these not of one

sort only, but in every variety; we must go beyond the necessaries of which I was at first speaking, such as

houses, and clothes, and shoes: the arts of the painter and the embroiderer will have to be set in motion, and

Then we must enlarge our borders; for the original healthy State is no longer sufficient. Now will the city

have to fill and swell with a multitude of callings which are not required by any natural want; such as the

whole tribe of hunters and actors, of whom one large class have to do with forms and colours; another will be

the votaries of musicpoets and their attendant train of rhapsodists, players, dancers, contractors; also

makers of divers kinds of articles, including women's dresses. And we shall want more servants. Will not

tutors be also in request, and nurses wet and dry, tirewomen and barbers, as well as confectioners and cooks;

and swineherds, too, who were not needed and therefore had no place in the former edition of our State, but

are needed now? They must not be forgotten: and there will be animals of many other kinds, if people eat

And living in this way we shall have much greater need of physicians than before?

And the country which was enough to support the original inhabitants will be too small now, and not enough?

Then a slice of our neighbours' land will be wanted by us for pasture and tillage, and they will want a slice of

ours, if, like ourselves, they exceed the limit of necessity, and give themselves up to the unlimited

Then without determining as yet whether war does good or harm, thus much we may affirm, that now we

have discovered war to be derived from causes which are also the causes of almost all the evils in States,

And our State must once more enlarge; and this time the will be nothing short of a whole army, which will

have to go out and fight with the invaders for all that we have, as well as for the things and persons whom we

No, I said; not if we were right in the principle which was acknowledged by all of us when we were framing

the State: the principle, as you will remember, was that one man cannot practise many arts with success.

And the shoemaker was not allowed by us to be husbandman, or a weaver, a builderin order that we might

have our shoes well made; but to him and to every other worker was assigned one work for which he was by

nature fitted, and at that he was to continue working all his life long and at no other; he was not to let

opportunities slip, and then he would become a good workman. Now nothing can be more important than that

the work of a soldier should be well done. But is war an art so easily acquired that a man may be a warrior

who is also a husbandman, or shoemaker, or other artisan; although no one in the world would be a good dice

or draught player who merely took up the game as a recreation, and had not from his earliest years devoted

No tools will make a man a skilled workman, or master of defence, nor be of any use to him who has not

learned how to handle them, and has never bestowed any attention upon them. How then will he who takes up

a shield or other implement of war become a good fighter all in a day, whether with heavyarmed or any

Yes, he said, the tools which would teach men their own use would be beyond price.

And the higher the duties of the guardian, I said, the more time, and skill, and art, and application will be

Then it will be our duty to select, if we can, natures which are fitted for the task of guarding the city?

And the selection will be no easy matter, I said; but we must be brave and do our best.

Is not the noble youth very like a wellbred dog in respect of guarding and watching?

I mean that both of them ought to be quick to see, and swift to overtake the enemy when they see him; and

And is he likely to be brave who has no spirit, whether horse or dog or any other animal? Have you never

observed how invincible and unconquerable is spirit and how the presence of it makes the soul of any

Then now we have a clear notion of the bodily qualities which are required in the guardian.

But are not these spirited natures apt to be savage with one another, and with everybody else?

Whereas, I said, they ought to be dangerous to their enemies, and gentle to their friends; if not, they will

What is to be done then? I said; how shall we find a gentle nature which has also a great spirit, for the one is

He will not be a good guardian who is wanting in either of these two qualities; and yet the combination of

them appears to be impossible; and hence we must infer that to be a good guardian is impossible.

Here feeling perplexed I began to think over what had preceded. My friend, I said, no wonder that we are in a

Many animals, I replied, furnish examples of them; our friend the dog is a very good one: you know that

wellbred dogs are perfectly gentle to their familiars and acquaintances, and the reverse to strangers.

Then there is nothing impossible or out of the order of nature in our finding a guardian who has a similar

Would not he who is fitted to be a guardian, besides the spirited nature, need to have the qualities of a

The trait of which I am speaking, I replied, may be also seen in the dog, and is remarkable in the animal.

Why, a dog, whenever he sees a stranger, is angry; when an acquaintance, he welcomes him, although the one

has never done him any harm, nor the other any good. Did this never strike you as curious?

The matter never struck me before; but I quite recognise the truth of your remark.

And surely this instinct of the dog is very charming;your dog is a true philosopher.

Why, because he distinguishes the face of a friend and of an enemy only by the criterion of knowing and not

knowing. And must not an animal be a lover of learning who determines what he likes and dislikes by the test

And may we not say confidently of man also, that he who is likely to be gentle to his friends and

Then he who is to be a really good and noble guardian of the State will require to unite in himself philosophy

Then we have found the desired natures; and now that we have found them, how are they to be reared and

educated? Is not this enquiry which may be expected to throw light on the greater enquiry which is our final

endHow do justice and injustice grow up in States? for we do not want either to omit what is to the point

Then, I said, my dear friend, the task must not be given up, even if somewhat long.

Come then, and let us pass a leisure hour in storytelling, and our story shall be the education of our heroes.

And what shall be their education? Can we find a better than the traditional sort?and this has two divisions,

You know, I said, that we begin by telling children stories which, though not wholly destitute of truth, are in

the main fictitious; and these stories are told them when they are not of an age to learn gymnastics.

You know also that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young

and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression is

And shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any casual tales which may be devised by casual persons,

and to receive into their minds ideas for the most part the very opposite of those which we should wish them

Then the first thing will be to establish a censorship of the writers of fiction, and let the censors receive any

tale of fiction which is good, and reject the bad; and we will desire mothers and nurses to tell their children

the authorised ones only. Let them fashion the mind with such tales, even more fondly than they mould the

body with their hands; but most of those which are now in use must be discarded.

You may find a model of the lesser in the greater, I said; for they are necessarily of the same type, and there

Very likely, he replied; but I do not as yet know what you would term the greater.

Those, I said, which are narrated by Homer and Hesiod, and the rest of the poets, who have ever been the

A fault which is most serious, I said; the fault of telling a lie, and, what is more, a bad lie.

Whenever an erroneous representation is made of the nature of gods and heroes,as when a painter paints a

Yes, he said, that sort of thing is certainly very blamable; but what are the stories which you mean?

First of all, I said, there was that greatest of all lies, in high places, which the poet told about Uranus, and

which was a bad lie too, I mean what Hesiod says that Uranus did, and how Cronus retaliated on him. The

doings of Cronus, and the sufferings which in turn his son inflicted upon him, even if they were true, ought

certainly not to be lightly told to young and thoughtless persons; if possible, they had better be buried in

silence. But if there is an absolute necessity for their mention, a chosen few might hear them in a mystery,

and they should sacrifice not a common [Eleusinian] pig, but some huge and unprocurable victim; and then

Yes, Adeimantus, they are stories not to be repeated in our State; the young man should not be told that in

committing the worst of crimes he is far from doing anything outrageous; and that even if he chastises his

father when does wrong, in whatever manner, he will only be following the example of the first and greatest

I entirely agree with you, he said; in my opinion those stories are quite unfit to be repeated.

Neither, if we mean our future guardians to regard the habit of quarrelling among themselves as of all things

the basest, should any word be said to them of the wars in heaven, and of the plots and fightings of the gods

against one another, for they are not true. No, we shall never mention the battles of the giants, or let them be

embroidered on garments; and we shall be silent about the innumerable other quarrels of gods and heroes

with their friends and relatives. If they would only believe us we would tell them that quarrelling is unholy,

and that never up to this time has there been any, quarrel between citizens; this is what old men and old

women should begin by telling children; and when they grow up, the poets also should be told to compose for

them in a similar spirit. But the narrative of Hephaestus binding Here his mother, or how on another occasion

Zeus sent him flying for taking her part when she was being beaten, and all the battles of the gods in

Homerthese tales must not be admitted into our State, whether they are supposed to have an allegorical

meaning or not. For a young person cannot judge what is allegorical and what is literal; anything that he

receives into his mind at that age is likely to become indelible and unalterable; and therefore it is most

important that the tales which the young first hear should be models of virtuous thoughts.

There you are right, he replied; but if any one asks where are such models to be found and of what tales are

I said to him, You and I, Adeimantus, at this moment are not poets, but founders of a State: now the founders

of a State ought to know the general forms in which poets should cast their tales, and the limits which must

Something of this kind, I replied:God is always to be represented as he truly is, whatever be the sort of

It follows therefore that the good is not the cause of all things, but of the good only?

Then God, if he be good, is not the author of all things, as the many assert, but he is the cause of a few things

only, and not of most things that occur to men. For few are the goods of human life, and many are the evils,

and the good is to be attributed to God alone; of the evils the causes are to be sought elsewhere, and not in

Then we must not listen to Homer or to any other poet who is guilty of the folly of saying that two casks

Lie at the threshold of Zeus, full of lots, one of good, the other of evil lots,

And if any one asserts that the violation of oaths and treaties, which was really the work of Pandarus, was

brought about by Athene and Zeus, or that the strife and contention of the gods was instigated by Themis and

Zeus, he shall not have our approval; neither will we allow our young men to hear the words of Aeschylus,

And if a poet writes of the sufferings of Niobethe subject of the tragedy in which these iambic verses

occuror of the house of Pelops, or of the Trojan war or on any similar theme, either we must not permit

him to say that these are the works of God, or if they are of God, he must devise some explanation of them

such as we are seeking; he must say that God did what was just and right, and they were the better for being

punished; but that those who are punished are miserable, and that God is the author of their misery the poet

is not to be permitted to say; though he may say that the wicked are miserable because they require to be

punished, and are benefited by receiving punishment from God; but that God being good is the author of evil

to any one is to be strenuously denied, and not to be said or sung or heard in verse or prose by any one

whether old or young in any wellordered commonwealth. Such a fiction is suicidal, ruinous, impious.

Let this then be one of our rules and principles concerning the gods, to which our poets and reciters will be

And what do you think of a second principle? Shall I ask you whether God is a magician, and of a nature to

appear insidiously now in one shape, and now in anothersometimes himself changing and passing into

many forms, sometimes deceiving us with the semblance of such transformations; or is he one and the same

Well, I said; but if we suppose a change in anything, that change must be effected either by the thing itself, or

And things which are at their best are also least liable to be altered or discomposed; for example, when

healthiest and strongest, the human frame is least liable to be affected by meats and drinks, and the plant

which is in the fullest vigour also suffers least from winds or the heat of the sun or any similar causes.

And will not the bravest and wisest soul be least confused or deranged by any external influence?

And the same principle, as I should suppose, applies to all composite thingsfurniture, houses, garments;

Then everything which is good, whether made by art or nature, or both, is least liable to suffer change from

And will he then change himself for the better and fairer, or for the worse and more unsightly?

If he change at all he can only change for the worse, for we cannot suppose him to be deficient either in virtue

Very true, Adeimantus; but then, would any one, whether God or man, desire to make himself worse?

Then it is impossible that God should ever be willing to change; being, as is supposed, the fairest and best

The gods, taking the disguise of strangers from other lands, walk up and down cities in all sorts of forms;

and let no one slander Proteus and Thetis, neither let any one, either in tragedy or in any other kind of poetry,

let us have no more lies of that sort. Neither must we have mothers under the influence of the poets scaring

their children with a bad version of these mythstelling how certain gods, as they say, `Go about by night in

the likeness of so many strangers and in divers forms'; but let them take heed lest they make cowards of their

But although the gods are themselves unchangeable, still by witchcraft and deception they may make us think

Well, but can you imagine that God will be willing to lie, whether in word or deed, or to put forth a phantom

Do you not know, I said, that the true lie, if such an expression may be allowed, is hated of gods and men?

I mean that no one is willingly deceived in that which is the truest and highest part of himself, or about the

truest and highest matters; there, above all, he is most afraid of a lie having possession of him.

The reason is, I replied, that you attribute some profound meaning to my words; but I am only saying that

deception, or being deceived or uninformed about the highest realities in the highest part of themselves,

which is the soul, and in that part of them to have and to hold the lie, is what mankind least like;that, I say,

And, as I was just now remarking, this ignorance in the soul of him who is deceived may be called the true

lie; for the lie in words is only a kind of imitation and shadowy image of a previous affection of the soul, not

Whereas the lie in words is in certain cases useful and not hateful; in dealing with enemiesthat would be an

instance; or again, when those whom we call our friends in a fit of madness or illusion are going to do some

harm, then it is useful and is a sort of medicine or preventive; also in the tales of mythology, of which we

were just now speakingbecause we do not know the truth about ancient times, we make falsehood as much

But can any of these reasons apply to God? Can we suppose that he is ignorant of antiquity, and therefore has

Then is God perfectly simple and true both in word and deed; he changes not; he deceives not, either by sign

You agree with me then, I said, that this is the second type or form in which we should write and speak about

divine things. The gods are not magicians who transform themselves, neither do they deceive mankind in any

Then, although we are admirers of Homer, we do not admire the lying dream which Zeus sends to

Agamemnon; neither will we praise the verses of Aeschylus in which Thetis says that Apollo at her nuptials

Was celebrating in song her fair progeny whose days were to he long, and to know no sickness. And when he

had spoken of my lot as in all things blessed of heaven he raised a note of triumph and cheered my soul. And

I thought that the word of Phoebus being divine and full of prophecy, would not fail. And now he himself

who uttered the strain, he who was present at the banquet, and who said thishe it is who has slain my son.

These are the kind of sentiments about the gods which will arouse our anger; and he who utters them shall be

refused a chorus; neither shall we allow teachers to make use of them in the instruction of the young,

meaning, as we do, that our guardians, as far as men can be, should be true worshippers of the gods and like

I entirely agree, be said, in these principles, and promise to make them my laws.

SUCH then, I said, are our principles of theologysome tales are to be told, and others are not to be told to

our disciples from their youth upwards, if we mean them to honour the gods and their parents, and to value

But if they are to be courageous, must they not learn other lessons besides these, and lessons of such a kind as

will take away the fear of death? Can any man be courageous who has the fear of death in him?

And can he be fearless of death, or will he choose death in battle rather than defeat and slavery, who believes

Then we must assume a control over the narrators of this class of tales as well as over the others, and beg

them not simply to but rather to commend the world below, intimating to them that their descriptions are

Then, I said, we shall have to obliterate many obnoxious passages, beginning with the verses,

I would rather he a serf on the land of a poor and portionless man than rule over all the dead who have come

Lest the mansions grim and squalid which the gods abhor should he seen both of mortals and immortals.

O heavens! verily in the house of Hades there is soul and ghostly form but no mind at all!

[To him even after death did Persephone grant mind,] that he alone should be wise; but the other souls are

The soul flying from the limbs had gone to Hades, lamentng her fate, leaving manhood and youth.

As bats in hollow of mystic cavern, whenever any of the has dropped out of the string and falls from the rock,

fly shrilling and cling to one another, so did they with shrilling cry hold together as they moved.

And we must beg Homer and the other poets not to be angry if we strike out these and similar passages, not

because they are unpoetical, or unattractive to the popular ear, but because the greater the poetical charm of

them, the less are they meet for the ears of boys and men who are meant to be free, and who should fear

Also we shall have to reject all the terrible and appalling names describe the world belowCocytus and

Styx, ghosts under the earth, and sapless shades, and any similar words of which the very mention causes a

shudder to pass through the inmost soul of him who hears them. I do not say that these horrible stories may

not have a use of some kind; but there is a danger that the nerves of our guardians may be rendered too

But shall we be right in getting rid of them? Reflect: our principle is that the good man will not consider

And therefore he will not sorrow for his departed friend as though he had suffered anything terrible?

Such an one, as we further maintain, is sufficient for himself and his own happiness, and therefore is least in

And for this reason the loss of a son or brother, or the deprivation of fortune, is to him of all men least

And therefore he will be least likely to lament, and will bear with the greatest equanimity any misfortune of

Then we shall be right in getting rid of the lamentations of famous men, and making them over to women

(and not even to women who are good for anything), or to men of a baser sort, that those who are being

Then we will once more entreat Homer and the other poets not to depict Achilles, who is the son of a

goddess, first lying on his side, then on his back, and then on his face; then starting up and sailing in a frenzy

along the shores of the barren sea; now taking the sooty ashes in both his hands and pouring them over his

head, or weeping and wailing in the various modes which Homer has delineated. Nor should he describe

Still more earnestly will we beg of him at all events not to introduce the gods lamenting and saying,

But if he must introduce the gods, at any rate let him not dare so completely to misrepresent the greatest of

O heavens! with my eyes verily I behold a dear friend of mine chased round and round the city, and my heart

Woe is me that I am fated to have Sarpedon, dearest of men to me, subdued at the hands of Patroclus the son

For if, my sweet Adeimantus, our youth seriously listen to such unworthy representations of the gods, instead

of laughing at them as they ought, hardly will any of them deem that he himself, being but a man, can be

dishonoured by similar actions; neither will he rebuke any inclination which may arise in his mind to say and

do the like. And instead of having any shame or selfcontrol, he will be always whining and lamenting on

Yes, I replied; but that surely is what ought not to be, as the argument has just proved to us; and by that proof

Neither ought our guardians to be given to laughter. For a fit of laughter which has been indulged to excess

Then persons of worth, even if only mortal men, must not be represented as overcome by laughter, and still

Then we shall not suffer such an expression to be used about the gods as that of Homer when he describes

Inextinguishable laughter arose among the blessed gods, when they saw Hephaestus bustling about the

On my views, if you like to father them on me; that we must not admit them is certain.

Again, truth should be highly valued; if, as we were saying, a lie is useless to the gods, and useful only as a

medicine to men, then the use of such medicines should be restricted to physicians; private individuals have

Then if any one at all is to have the privilege of lying, the rulers of the State should be the persons; and they,

in their dealings either with enemies or with their own citizens, may be allowed to lie for the public good. But

nobody else should meddle with anything of the kind; and although the rulers have this privilege, for a

private man to lie to them in return is to be deemed a more heinous fault than for the patient or the pupil of a

gymnasium not to speak the truth about his own bodily illnesses to the physician or to the trainer, or for a

sailor not to tell the captain what is happening about the ship and the rest of the crew, and how things are

he will punish him for introducing a practice which is equally subversive and destructive of ship or State.

Are not the chief elements of temperance, speaking generally, obedience to commanders and selfcontrol in

and of the words which follow? Would you say that these, or any similar impertinences which private

individuals are supposed to address to their rulers, whether in verse or prose, are well or ill spoken?

They may very possibly afford some amusement, but they do not conduce to temperance. And therefore they

And then, again, to make the wisest of men say that nothing in his opinion is more glorious than

When the tables are full of bread and meat, and the cupbearer carries round wine which he draws from the

is it fit or conducive to temperance for a young man to hear such words? Or the verse

What would you say again to the tale of Zeus, who, while other gods and men were asleep and he the only

person awake, lay devising plans, but forgot them all in a moment through his lust, and was so completely

overcome at the sight of Here that he would not even go into the hut, but wanted to lie with her on the

ground, declaring that he had never been in such a state of rapture before, even when they first met one

or that other tale of how Hephaestus, because of similar goings on, cast a chain around Ares and Aphrodite?

Indeed, he said, I am strongly of opinion that they ought not to hear that sort of thing.

But any deeds of endurance which are done or told by famous men, these they ought to see and hear; as, for

He smote his breast, and thus reproached his heart, Endure, my heart; far worse hast thou endured!

In the next place, we must not let them be receivers of gifts or lovers of money.

Neither is Phoenix, the tutor of Achilles, to be approved or deemed to have given his pupil good counsel

when he told him that he should take the gifts of the Greeks and assist them; but that without a gift he should

not lay aside his anger. Neither will we believe or acknowledge Achilles himself to have been such a lover of

money that he took Agamemnon's or that when he had received payment he restored the dead body of Hector,

Loving Homer as I do, I hardly like to say that in attributing these feelings to Achilles, or in believing that

they are truly to him, he is guilty of downright impiety. As little can I believe the narrative of his insolence to

Thou hast wronged me, O fardarter, most abominable of deities. Verily I would he even with thee, if I had

or his insubordination to the rivergod, on whose divinity he is ready to lay hands; or his offering to the dead

Patroclus of his own hair, which had been previously dedicated to the other rivergod Spercheius, and that he

actually performed this vow; or that he dragged Hector round the tomb of Patroclus, and slaughtered the

captives at the pyre; of all this I cannot believe that he was guilty, any more than I can allow our citizens to

believe that he, the wise Cheiron's pupil, the son of a goddess and of Peleus who was the gentlest of men and

third in descent from Zeus, was so disordered in his wits as to be at one time the slave of two seemingly

inconsistent passions, meanness, not untainted by avarice, combined with overweening contempt of gods and

And let us equally refuse to believe, or allow to be repeated, the tale of Theseus son of Poseidon, or of

Peirithous son of Zeus, going forth as they did to perpetrate a horrid rape; or of any other hero or son of a god

daring to do such impious and dreadful things as they falsely ascribe to them in our day: and let us further

compel the poets to declare either that these acts were not done by them, or that they were not the sons of

gods; both in the same breath they shall not be permitted to affirm. We will not have them trying to

persuade our youth that the gods are the authors of evil, and that heroes are no better than mensentiments

which, as we were saying, are neither pious nor true, for we have already proved that evil cannot come from

And further they are likely to have a bad effect on those who hear them; for everybody will begin to excuse

his own vices when he is convinced that similar wickednesses are always being perpetrated by

The kindred of the gods, the relatives of Zeus, whose ancestral altar, the attar of Zeus, is aloft in air on the

And therefore let us put an end to such tales, lest they engender laxity of morals among the young.

But now that we are determining what classes of subjects are or are not to be spoken of, let us see whether

any have been omitted by us. The manner in which gods and demigods and heroes and the world below

And what shall we say about men? That is clearly the remaining portion of our subject.

Because, if I am not mistaken, we shall have to say that about men poets and storytellers are guilty of

making the gravest misstatements when they tell us that wicked men are often happy, and the good miserable;

and that injustice is profitable when undetected, but that justice is a man's own loss and another's gainthese

things we shall forbid them to utter, and command them to sing and say the opposite.

But if you admit that I am right in this, then I shall maintain that you have implied the principle for which we

That such things are or are not to be said about men is a question which we cannot determine until we have

discovered what justice is, and how naturally advantageous to the possessor, whether he seems to be just or

Enough of the subjects of poetry: let us now speak of the style; and when this has been considered, both

Then I must make you understand; and perhaps I may be more intelligible if I put the matter in this way. You

are aware, I suppose, that all mythology and poetry is a narration of events, either past, present, or to come?

And narration may be either simple narration, or imitation, or a union of the two?

I fear that I must be a ridiculous teacher when I have so much difficulty in making myself apprehended. Like

a bad speaker, therefore, I will not take the whole of the subject, but will break a piece off in illustration of

my meaning. You know the first lines of the Iliad, in which the poet says that Chryses prayed Agamemnon to

release his daughter, and that Agamemnon flew into a passion with him; whereupon Chryses, failing of his

object, invoked the anger of the God against the Achaeans. Now as far as these lines,

And he prayed all the Greeks, but especially the two sons of Atreus, the chiefs of the people,

the poet is speaking in his own person; he never leads us to suppose that he is any one else. But in what

follows he takes the person of Chryses, and then he does all that he can to make us believe that the speaker is

not Homer, but the aged priest himself. And in this double form he has cast the entire narrative of the events

And a narrative it remains both in the speeches which the poet recites from time to time and in the

But when the poet speaks in the person of another, may we not say that he assimilates his style to that of the

And this assimilation of himself to another, either by the use of voice or gesture, is the imitation of the person

Then in this case the narrative of the poet may be said to proceed by way of imitation?

Or, if the poet everywhere appears and never conceals himself, then again the imitation is dropped, and his

poetry becomes simple narration. However, in order that I may make my meaning quite clear, and that you

may no more say, I don't understand,' I will show how the change might be effected. If Homer had said, `The

priest came, having his daughter's ransom in his hands, supplicating the Achaeans, and above all the kings;'

and then if, instead of speaking in the person of Chryses, he had continued in his own person, the words

would have been, not imitation, but simple narration. The passage would have run as follows (I am no poet,

and therefore I drop the metre), `The priest came and prayed the gods on behalf of the Greeks that they might

capture Troy and return safely home, but begged that they would give him back his daughter, and take the

ransom which he brought, and respect the God. Thus he spoke, and the other Greeks revered the priest and

assented. But Agamemnon was wroth, and bade him depart and not come again, lest the staff and chaplets of

the God should be of no avail to him the daughter of Chryses should not be released, he said she should

grow old with him in Argos. And then he told him to go away and not to provoke him, if he intended to get

home unscathed. And the old man went away in fear and silence, and, when he had left the camp, he called

upon Apollo by his many names, reminding him of everything which he had done pleasing to him, whether in

building his temples, or in offering sacrifice, and praying that his good deeds might be returned to him, and

that the Achaeans might expiate his tears by the arrows of the god,'and so on. In this way the whole

Or you may suppose the opposite casethat the intermediate passages are omitted, and the dialogue only

You have conceived my meaning perfectly; and if I mistake not, what you failed to apprehend before is now

made clear to you, that poetry and mythology are, in some cases, wholly imitative instances of this are

supplied by tragedy and comedy; there is likewise the opposite style, in which the my poet is the only

speaker of this the dithyramb affords the best example; and the combination of both is found in epic, and

I will ask you to remember also what I began by saying, that we had done with the subject and might proceed

In saying this, I intended to imply that we must come to an understanding about the mimetic art,whether

the poets, in narrating their stories, are to be allowed by us to imitate, and if so, whether in whole or in part,

You mean, I suspect, to ask whether tragedy and comedy shall be admitted into our State?

Yes, I said; but there may be more than this in question: I really do not know as yet, but whither the argument

Then, Adeimantus, let me ask you whether our guardians ought to be imitators; or rather, has not this

question been decided by the rule already laid down that one man can only do one thing well, and not many;

and that if he attempt many, he will altogether fall of gaining much reputation in any?

And this is equally true of imitation; no one man can imitate many things as well as he would imitate a single

Then the same person will hardly be able to play a serious part in life, and at the same time to be an imitator

and imitate many other parts as well; for even when two species of imitation are nearly allied, the same

persons cannot succeed in both, as, for example, the writers of tragedy and comedydid you not just now

Yes, I did; and you are right in thinking that the same persons cannot succeed in both.

Neither are comic and tragic actors the same; yet all these things are but imitations.

And human nature, Adeimantus, appears to have been coined into yet smaller pieces, and to be as incapable

of imitating many things well, as of performing well the actions of which the imitations are copies.

If then we adhere to our original notion and bear in mind that our guardians, setting aside every other

business, are to dedicate themselves wholly to the maintenance of freedom in the State, making this their

craft, and engaging in no work which does not bear on this end, they ought not to practise or imitate anything

else; if they imitate at all, they should imitate from youth upward only those characters which are suitable to

their profession the courageous, temperate, holy, free, and the like; but they should not depict or be skilful

at imitating any kind of illiberality or baseness, lest from imitation they should come to be what they imitate.

Did you never observe how imitations, beginning in early youth and continuing far into life, at length grow

Then, I said, we will not allow those for whom we profess a care and of whom we say that they ought to be

good men, to imitate a woman, whether young or old, quarrelling with her husband, or striving and vaunting

against the gods in conceit of her happiness, or when she is in affliction, or sorrow, or weeping; and certainly

Neither must they represent slaves, male or female, performing the offices of slaves?

And surely not bad men, whether cowards or any others, who do the reverse of what we have just been

prescribing, who scold or mock or revile one another in drink or out of in drink or, or who in any other

manner sin against themselves and their neighbours in word or deed, as the manner of such is. Neither should

they be trained to imitate the action or speech of men or women who are mad or bad; for madness, like vice,

Neither may they imitate smiths or other artificers, or oarsmen, or boatswains, or the like?

How can they, he said, when they are not allowed to apply their minds to the callings of any of these?

Nor may they imitate the neighing of horses, the bellowing of bulls, the murmur of rivers and roll of the

Nay, he said, if madness be forbidden, neither may they copy the behaviour of madmen.

You mean, I said, if I understand you aright, that there is one sort of narrative style which may be employed

by a truly good man when he has anything to say, and that another sort will be used by a man of an opposite

Suppose, I answered, that a just and good man in the course of a narration comes on some saying or action of

another good man, I should imagine that he will like to personate him, and will not be ashamed of this sort

of imitation: he will be most ready to play the part of the good man when he is acting firmly and wisely; in a

less degree when he is overtaken by illness or love or drink, or has met with any other disaster. But when he

comes to a character which is unworthy of him, he will not make a study of that; he will disdain such a

person, and will assume his likeness, if at all, for a moment only when he is performing some good action; at

other times he will be ashamed to play a part which he has never practised, nor will he like to fashion and

frame himself after the baser models; he feels the employment of such an art, unless in jest, to be beneath

Then he will adopt a mode of narration such as we have illustrated out of Homer, that is to say, his style will

be both imitative and narrative; but there will be very little of the former, and a great deal of the latter. Do

Certainly, he said; that is the model which such a speaker must necessarily take.

But there is another sort of character who will narrate anything, and, the worse lie is, the more unscrupulous

he will be; nothing will be too bad for him: and he will be ready to imitate anything, not as a joke, but in right

good earnest, and before a large company. As I was just now saying, he will attempt to represent the roll of

thunder, the noise of wind and hall, or the creaking of wheels, and pulleys, and the various sounds of flutes;

pipes, trumpets, and all sorts of instruments: he will bark like a dog, bleat like a sheep, or crow like a cock;

his entire art will consist in imitation of voice and gesture, and there will be very little narration.

And you would agree with me in saying that one of them is simple and has but slight changes; and if the

harmony and rhythm are also chosen for their simplicity, the result is that the speaker, if hc speaks correctly,

is always pretty much the same in style, and he will keep within the limits of a single harmony (for the

changes are not great), and in like manner he will make use of nearly the same rhythm?

Whereas the other requires all sorts of harmonies and all sorts of rhythms, if the music and the style are to

And do not the two styles, or the mixture of the two, comprehend all poetry, and every form of expression in

words? No one can say anything except in one or other of them or in both together.

And shall we receive into our State all the three styles, or one only of the two unmixed styles? or would you

Yes, I said, Adeimantus, but the mixed style is also very charming: and indeed the pantomimic, which is the

opposite of the one chosen by you, is the most popular style with children and their attendants, and with the

But I suppose you would argue that such a style is unsuitable to our State, in which human nature is not

And this is the reason why in our State, and in our State only, we shall find a shoemaker to be a shoemaker

and not a pilot also, and a husbandman to be a husbandman and not a dicast also, and a soldier a soldier and

And therefore when any one of these pantomimic gentlemen, who are so clever that they can imitate

anything, comes to us, and makes a proposal to exhibit himself and his poetry, we will fall down and worship

him as a sweet and holy and wonderful being; but we must also inform him that in our State such as he are

not permitted to exist; the law will not allow them. And so when we have anointed him with myrrh, and set a

garland of wool upon his head, we shall send him away to another city. For we mean to employ for our souls'

health the rougher and severer poet or storyteller, who will imitate the style of the virtuous only, and will

follow those models which we prescribed at first when we began the education of our soldiers.

Then now, my friend, I said, that part of music or literary education which relates to the story or myth may be

Every one can see already what we ought to say about them, if we are to be consistent with ourselves.

I fear, said Glaucon, laughing, that the words `every one' hardly includes me, for I cannot at the moment say

At any rate you can tell that a song or ode has three parts the words, the melody, and the rhythm; that

And as for the words, there surely be no difference words between words which are and which are not set to

music; both will conform to the same laws, and these have been already determined by us?

We were saying, when we spoke of the subjectmatter, that we had no need of lamentations and strains of

And which are the harmonies expressive of sorrow? You are musical, and can tell me.

The harmonies which you mean are the mixed or tenor Lydian, and the fulltoned or bass Lydian, and such

These then, I said, must be banished; even to women who have a character to maintain they are of no use, and

In the next place, drunkenness and softness and indolence are utterly unbecoming the character of our

Quite the reverse, he replied; and if so the Dorian and the Phrygian are the only ones which you have left.

I answered: Of the harmonies I know nothing, but I want to have one warlike, to sound the note or accent

which a brave man utters in the hour of danger and stern resolve, or when his cause is failing, and he is going

to wounds or death or is overtaken by some other evil, and at every such crisis meets the blows of fortune

with firm step and a determination to endure; and another to be used by him in times of peace and freedom of

action, when there is no pressure of necessity, and he is seeking to persuade God by prayer, or man by

instruction and admonition, or on the other hand, when he is expressing his willingness to yield to persuasion

or entreaty or admonition, and which represents him when by prudent conduct he has attained his end, not

carried away by his success, but acting moderately and wisely under the circumstances, and acquiescing in

the event. These two harmonies I ask you to leave; the strain of necessity and the strain of freedom, the strain

of the unfortunate and the strain of the fortunate, the strain of courage, and the strain of temperance; these, I

And these, he replied, are the Dorian and Phrygian harmonies of which I was just now speaking.

Then, I said, if these and these only are to be used in our songs and melodies, we shall not want multiplicity

Then we shall not maintain the artificers of lyres with three corners and complex scales, or the makers of any

But what do you say to flutemakers and fluteplayers? Would you admit them into our State when you

reflect that in this composite use of harmony the flute is worse than all the stringed instruments put together;

There remain then only the lyre and the harp for use in the city, and the shepherds may have a pipe in the

The preferring of Apollo and his instruments to Marsyas and his instruments is not at all strange, I said.

And so, by the dog of Egypt, we have been unconsciously purging the State, which not long ago we termed

Then let us now finish the purgation, I said. Next in order to harmonies, rhythms will naturally follow, and

they should be subject to the same rules, for we ought not to seek out complex systems of metre, or metres of

every kind, but rather to discover what rhythms are the expressions of a courageous and harmonious life; and

when we have found them, we shall adapt the foot and the melody to words having a like spirit, not the words

to the foot and melody. To say what these rhythms are will be your dutyyou must teach me them, as you

But, indeed, he replied, I cannot tell you. I only know that there are some three principles of rhythm out of

which metrical systems are framed, just as in sounds there are four notes out of which all the harmonies are

composed; that is an observation which I have made. But of what sort of lives they are severally the

Then, I said, we must take Damon into our counsels; and he will tell us what rhythms are expressive of

meanness, or insolence, or fury, or other unworthiness, and what are to be reserved for the expression of

opposite feelings. And I think that I have an indistinct recollection of his mentioning a complex Cretic

rhythm; also a dactylic or heroic, and he arranged them in some manner which I do not quite understand,

making the rhythms equal in the rise and fall of the foot, long and short alternating; and, unless I am

mistaken, he spoke of an iambic as well as of a trochaic rhythm, and assigned to them short and long

quantities. Also in some cases he appeared to praise or censure the movement of the foot quite as much as the

rhythm; or perhaps a combination of the two; for I am not certain what he meant. These matters, however, as

I was saying, had better be referred to Damon himself, for the analysis of the subject would be difficult, you

But there is no difficulty in seeing that grace or the absence of grace is an effect of good or bad rhythm.

And also that good and bad rhythm naturally assimilate to a good and bad style; and that harmony and

discord in like manner follow style; for our principle is that rhythm and harmony are regulated by the words,

And will not the words and the character of the style depend on the temper of the soul?

Then beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity,I mean the true

simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only an

And if our youth are to do their work in life, must they not make these graces and harmonies their perpetual

And surely the art of the painter and every other creative and constructive art are full of them,weaving,

embroidery, architecture, and every kind of manufacture; also nature, animal and vegetable, in all of them

there is grace or the absence of grace. And ugliness and discord and inharmonious motion are nearly allied to

ill words and ill nature, as grace and harmony are the twin sisters of goodness and virtue and bear their

But shall our superintendence go no further, and are the poets only to be required by us to express the image

of the good in their works, on pain, if they do anything else, of expulsion from our State? Or is the same

control to be extended to other artists, and are they also to be prohibited from exhibiting the opposite forms of

vice and intemperance and meanness and indecency in sculpture and building and the other creative arts; and

is he who cannot conform to this rule of ours to be prevented from practising his art in our State, lest the taste

of our citizens be corrupted by him? We would not have our guardians grow up amid images of moral

deformity, as in some noxious pasture, and there browse and feed upon many a baneful herb and flower day

by day, little by little, until they silently gather a festering mass of corruption in their own soul. Let our artists

rather be those who are gifted to discern the true nature of the beautiful and graceful; then will our youth

dwell in a land of health, amid fair sights and sounds, and receive the good in everything; and beauty, the

effluence of fair works, shall flow into the eye and ear, like a healthgiving breeze from a purer region, and

insensibly draw the soul from earliest years into likeness and sympathy with the beauty of reason.

And therefore, I said, Glaucon, musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm

and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting

grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is illeducated ungraceful;

and also because he who has received this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive

omissions or faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives into

his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will justly blame and hate the bad, now in the days of his

youth, even before he is able to know the reason why; and when reason comes he will recognise and salute

Yes, he said, I quite agree with you in thinking that our youth should be trained in music and on the grounds

Just as in learning to read, I said, we were satisfied when we knew the letters of the alphabet, which are very

few, in all their recurring sizes and combinations; not slighting them as unimportant whether they occupy a

space large or small, but everywhere eager to make them out; and not thinking ourselves perfect in the art of

Or, as we recognise the reflection of letters in the water, or in a mirror, only when we know the letters

Even so, as I maintain, neither we nor our guardians, whom we have to educate, can ever become musical

until we and they know the essential forms, in all their combinations, and can recognise them and their

images wherever they are found, not slighting them either in small things or great, but believing them all to

And when a beautiful soul harmonises with a beautiful form, and the two are cast in one mould, that will be

And the man who has the spirit of harmony will be most in love with the loveliest; but he will not love him

That is true, he replied, if the deficiency be in his soul; but if there be any merely bodily defect in another he

I perceive, I said, that you have or have had experiences of this sort, and I agree. But let me ask you another

How can that be? he replied; pleasure deprives a man of the use of his faculties quite as much as pain.

Then mad or intemperate pleasure must never be allowed to come near the lover and his beloved; neither of

Then I suppose that in the city which we are founding you would make a law to the effect that a friend should

use no other familiarity to his love than a father would use to his son, and then only for a noble purpose, and

he must first have the other's consent; and this rule is to limit him in all his intercourse, and he is never to be

seen going further, or, if he exceeds, he is to be deemed guilty of coarseness and bad taste.

Thus much of music, which makes a fair ending; for what should be the end of music if not the love of

Gymnastic as well as music should begin in early years; the training in it should be careful and should

continue through life. Now my belief is,and this is a matter upon which I should like to have your opinion

in confirmation of my own, but my own belief is, not that the good body by any bodily excellence

improves the soul, but, on the contrary, that the good soul, by her own excellence, improves the body as far as

Then, to the mind when adequately trained, we shall be right in handing over the more particular care of the

body; and in order to avoid prolixity we will now only give the general outlines of the subject.

That they must abstain from intoxication has been already remarked by us; for of all persons a guardian

Yes, he said; that a guardian should require another guardian to take care of him is ridiculous indeed.

But next, what shall we say of their food; for the men are in training for the great contest of allare they

I am afraid, I said, that a habit of body such as they have is but a sleepy sort of thing, and rather perilous to

health. Do you not observe that these athletes sleep away their lives, and are liable to most dangerous

illnesses if they depart, in ever so slight a degree, from their customary regimen?

Then, I said, a finer sort of training will be required for our warrior athletes, who are to be like wakeful dogs,

and to see and hear with the utmost keenness; amid the many changes of water and also of food, of summer

heat and winter cold, which they will have to endure when on a campaign, they must not be liable to break

The really excellent gymnastic is twin sister of that simple music which we were just now describing.

Why, I conceive that there is a gymnastic which, like our music, is simple and good; and especially the

My meaning may be learned from Homer; he, you know, feeds his heroes at their feasts, when they are

campaigning, on soldiers' fare; they have no fish, although they are on the shores of the Hellespont, and they

are not allowed boiled meats but only roast, which is the food most convenient for soldiers, requiring only

that they should light a fire, and not involving the trouble of carrying about pots and pans.

And I can hardly be mistaken in saying that sweet sauces are nowhere mentioned in Homer. In proscribing

them, however, he is not singular; all professional athletes are well aware that a man who is to be in good

Then you would not approve of Syracusan dinners, and the refinements of Sicilian cookery?

Nor, if a man is to be in condition, would you allow him to have a Corinthian girl as his fair friend?

Neither would you approve of the delicacies, as they are thought, of Athenian confectionery?

All such feeding and living may be rightly compared by us to melody and song composed in the panharmonic

There complexity engendered license, and here disease; whereas simplicity in music was the parent of

But when intemperance and disease multiply in a State, halls of justice and medicine are always being

opened; and the arts of the doctor and the lawyer give themselves airs, finding how keen is the interest which

And yet what greater proof can there be of a bad and disgraceful state of education than this, that not only

artisans and the meaner sort of people need the skill of firstrate physicians and judges, but also those who

would profess to have had a liberal education? Is it not disgraceful, and a great sign of want of

goodbreeding, that a man should have to go abroad for his law and physic because he has none of his own at

home, and must therefore surrender himself into the hands of other men whom he makes lords and judges

Would you say `most,' I replied, when you consider that there is a further stage of the evil in which a man is

not only a lifelong litigant, passing all his days in the courts, either as plaintiff or defendant, but is actually

led by his bad taste to pride himself on his litigiousness; he imagines that he is a master in dishonesty; able to

take every crooked turn, and wriggle into and out of every hole, bending like a withy and getting out of the

way of justice: and all for what?in order to gain small points not worth mentioning, he not knowing that so

to order his life as to be able to do without a napping judge is a far higher and nobler sort of thing. Is not that

Well, I said, and to require the help of medicine, not when a wound has to be cured, or on occasion of an

epidemic, but just because, by indolence and a habit of life such as we have been describing, men fill

themselves with waters and winds, as if their bodies were a marsh, compelling the ingenious sons of

Asclepius to find more names for diseases, such as flatulence and catarrh; is not this, too, a disgrace?

Yes, he said, they do certainly give very strange and newfangled names to diseases.

Yes, I said, and I do not believe that there were any such diseases in the days of Asclepius; and this I infer

from the circumstance that the hero Eurypylus, after he has been wounded in Homer, drinks a posset of

Pramnian wine well besprinkled with barleymeal and grated cheese, which are certainly inflammatory, and

yet the sons of Asclepius who were at the Trojan war do not blame the damsel who gives him the drink, or

Well, he said, that was surely an extraordinary drink to be given to a person in his condition.

Not so extraordinary, I replied, if you bear in mind that in former days, as is commonly said, before the time

of Herodicus, the guild of Asclepius did not practise our present system of medicine, which may be said to

educate diseases. But Herodicus, being a trainer, and himself of a sickly constitution, by a combination of

training and doctoring found out a way of torturing first and chiefly himself, and secondly the rest of the

By the invention of lingering death; for he had a mortal disease which he perpetually tended, and as recovery

was out of the question, he passed his entire life as a valetudinarian; he could do nothing but attend upon

himself, and he was in constant torment whenever he departed in anything from his usual regimen, and so

Yes, I said; a reward which a man might fairly expect who never understood that, if Asclepius did not instruct

his descendants in valetudinarian arts, the omission arose, not from ignorance or inexperience of such a

branch of medicine, but because he knew that in all wellordered states every individual has an occupation to

which he must attend, and has therefore no leisure to spend in continually being ill. This we remark in the

case of the artisan, but, ludicrously enough, do not apply the same rule to people of the richer sort.

I mean this: When a carpenter is ill he asks the physician for a rough and ready cure; an emetic or a purge or

a cautery or the knife, these are his remedies. And if some one prescribes for him a course of dietetics, and

tells him that he must swathe and swaddle his head, and all that sort of thing, he replies at once that he has no

time to be ill, and that he sees no good in a life which is spent in nursing his disease to the neglect of his

customary employment; and therefore bidding goodbye to this sort of physician, he resumes his ordinary

habits, and either gets well and lives and does his business, or, if his constitution falls, he dies and has no

Yes, he said, and a man in his condition of life ought to use the art of medicine thus far only.

Has he not, I said, an occupation; and what profit would there be in his life if he were deprived of his

But with the rich man this is otherwise; of him we do not say that he has any specially appointed work which

Then you never heard of the saying of Phocylides, that as soon as a man has a livelihood he should practise

Let us not have a dispute with him about this, I said; but rather ask ourselves: Is the practice of virtue

obligatory on the rich man, or can he live without it? And if obligatory on him, then let us raise a further

question, whether this dieting of disorders which is an impediment to the application of the mind t in

carpentering and the mechanical arts, does not equally stand in the way of the sentiment of Phocylides?

Of that, he replied, there can be no doubt; such excessive care of the body, when carried beyond the rules of

Yes, indeed, I replied, and equally incompatible with the management of a house, an army, or an office of

state; and, what is most important of all, irreconcilable with any kind of study or thought or

selfreflectionthere is a constant suspicion that headache and giddiness are to be ascribed to philosophy,

and hence all practising or making trial of virtue in the higher sense is absolutely stopped; for a man is always

fancying that he is being made ill, and is in constant anxiety about the state of his body.

And therefore our politic Asclepius may be supposed to have exhibited the power of his art only to persons

who, being generally of healthy constitution and habits of life, had a definite ailment; such as these he cured

by purges and operations, and bade them live as usual, herein consulting the interests of the State; but bodies

which disease had penetrated through and through he would not have attempted to cure by gradual processes

of evacuation and infusion: he did not want to lengthen out goodfornothing lives, or to have weak fathers

begetting weaker sons;if a man was not able to live in the ordinary way he had no business to cure him; for

Clearly; and his character is further illustrated by his sons. Note that they were heroes in the days of old and

practised the medicines of which I am speaking at the siege of Troy: You will remember how, when Pandarus

but they never prescribed what the patient was afterwards to eat or drink in the case of Menelaus, any more

than in the case of Eurypylus; the remedies, as they conceived, were enough to heal any man who before he

was wounded was healthy and regular in habits; and even though he did happen to drink a posset of Pramnian

wine, he might get well all the same. But they would have nothing to do with unhealthy and intemperate

subjects, whose lives were of no use either to themselves or others; the art of medicine was not designed for

their good, and though they were as rich as Midas, the sons of Asclepius would have declined to attend them.

Naturally so, I replied. Nevertheless, the tragedians and Pindar disobeying our behests, although they

acknowledge that Asclepius was the son of Apollo, say also that he was bribed into healing a rich man who

was at the point of death, and for this reason he was struck by lightning. But we, in accordance with the

principle already affirmed by us, will not believe them when they tell us both; if he was the son of a god,

we maintain that hd was not avaricious; or, if he was avaricious he was not the son of a god.

All that, Socrates, is excellent; but I should like to put a question to you: Ought there not to be good

physicians in a State, and are not the best those who have treated the greatest number of constitutions good

and bad? and are not the best judges in like manner those who are acquainted with all sorts of moral natures?

Yes, I said, I too would have good judges and good physicians. But do you know whom I think good?

I will, if I can. Let me however note that in the same question you join two things which are not the same.

Why, I said, you join physicians and judges. Now the most skilful physicians are those who, from their youth

upwards, have combined with the knowledge of their art the greatest experience of disease; they had better

not be robust in health, and should have had all manner of diseases in their own persons. For the body, as I

conceive, is not the instrument with which they cure the body; in that case we could not allow them ever to be

or to have been sickly; but they cure the body with the mind, and the mind which has become and is sick can

But with the judge it is otherwise; since he governs mind by mind; he ought not therefore to have been

trained among vicious minds, and to have associated with them from youth upwards, and to have gone

through the whole calendar of crime, only in order that he may quickly infer the crimes of others as he might

their bodily diseases from his own selfconsciousness; the honourable mind which is to form a healthy

judgment should have had no experience or contamination of evil habits when young. And this is the reason

why in youth good men often appear to be simple, and are easily practised upon by the dishonest, because

Therefore, I said, the judge should not be young; he should have learned to know evil, not from his own soul,

but from late and long observation of the nature of evil in others: knowledge should be his guide, not personal

Yes, I replied, and he will be a good man (which is my answer to your question); for he is good who has a

good soul. But the cunning and suspicious nature of which we spoke,he who has committed many crimes,

and fancies himself to be a master in wickedness, when he is amongst his fellows, is wonderful in the

precautions which he takes, because he judges of them by himself: but when he gets into the company of men

of virtue, who have the experience of age, he appears to be a fool again, owing to his unseasonable

suspicions; he cannot recognise an honest man, because he has no pattern of honesty in himself; at the same

time, as the bad are more numerous than the good, and he meets with them oftener, he thinks himself, and is

Then the good and wise judge whom we are seeking is not this man, but the other; for vice cannot know

virtue too, but a virtuous nature, educated by time, will acquire a knowledge both of virtue and vice: the

This is the sort of medicine, and this is the sort of law, which you sanction in your State. They will minister

to better natures, giving health both of soul and of body; but those who are diseased in their bodies they will

leave to die, and the corrupt and incurable souls they will put an end to themselves.

And thus our youth, having been educated only in that simple music which, as we said, inspires temperance,

And the musician, who, keeping to the same track, is content to practise the simple gymnastic, will have

The very exercises and tolls which he undergoes are intended to stimulate the spirited element of his nature,

and not to increase his strength; he will not, like common athletes, use exercise and regimen to develop his

Neither are the two arts of music and gymnastic really designed, as is often supposed, the one for the training

I believe, I said, that the teachers of both have in view chiefly the improvement of the soul.

Did you never observe, I said, the effect on the mind itself of exclusive devotion to gymnastic, or the opposite

The one producing a temper of hardness and ferocity, the other of softness and effeminacy, I replied.

Yes, he said, I am quite aware that the mere athlete becomes too much of a savage, and that the mere

Yet surely, I said, this ferocity only comes from spirit, which, if rightly educated, would give courage, but, if

On the other hand the philosopher will have the quality of gentleness. And this also, when too much

indulged, will turn to softness, but, if educated rightly, will be gentle and moderate.

And, when a man allows music to play upon him and to pour into his soul through the funnel of his ears those

sweet and soft and melancholy airs of which we were just now speaking, and his whole life is passed in

warbling and the delights of song; in the first stage of the process the passion or spirit which is in him is

tempered like iron, and made useful, instead of brittle and useless. But, if he carries on the softening and

soothing process, in the next stage he begins to melt and waste, until he has wasted away his spirit and cut out

If the element of spirit is naturally weak in him the change is speedily accomplished, but if he have a good

deal, then the power of music weakening the spirit renders him excitable;on the least provocation he

flames up at once, and is speedily extinguished; instead of having spirit he grows irritable and passionate and

And so in gymnastics, if a man takes violent exercise and is a great feeder, and the reverse of a great student

of music and philosophy, at first the high condition of his body fills him with pride and spirit, and lie

And what happens? if he do nothing else, and holds no cona verse with the Muses, does not even that

intelligence which there may be in him, having no taste of any sort of learning or enquiry or thought or

culture, grow feeble and dull and blind, his mind never waking up or receiving nourishment, and his senses

And he ends by becoming a hater of philosophy, uncivilized, never using the weapon of persuasion,he is

like a wild beast, all violence and fierceness, and knows no other way of dealing; and he lives in all ignorance

And as there are two principles of human nature, one the spirited and the other the philosophical, some God,

as I should say, has given mankind two arts answering to them (and only indirectly to the soul and body), in

order that these two principles (like the strings of an instrument) may be relaxed or drawn tighter until they

And he who mingles music with gymnastic in the fairest proportions, and best attempers them to the soul,

may be rightly called the true musician and harmonist in a far higher sense than the tuner of the strings.

And such a presiding genius will be always required in our State if the government is to last.

Such, then, are our principles of nurture and education: Where would be the use of going into further details

about the dances of our citizens, or about their hunting and coursing, their gymnastic and equestrian contests?

For these all follow the general principle, and having found that, we shall have no difficulty in discovering

Very good, I said; then what is the next question? Must we not ask who are to be rulers and who subjects?

And as we are to have the best of guardians for our city, must they not be those who have most the character

And to this end they ought to be wise and efficient, and to have a special care of the State?

And he will be most likely to love that which he regards as having the same interests with himself, and that of

which the good or evil fortune is supposed by him at any time most to affect his own?

Then there must be a selection. Let us note among the guardians those who in their whole life show the

greatest eagerness to do what is for the good of their country, and the greatest repugnance to do what is

And they will have to be watched at every age, in order that we may see whether they preserve their

resolution, and never, under the influence either of force or enchantment, forget or cast off their sense of duty

I will explain to you, I replied. A resolution may go out of a man's mind either with his will or against his

will; with his will when he gets rid of a falsehood and learns better, against his will whenever he is deprived

I understand, he said, the willing loss of a resolution; the meaning of the unwilling I have yet to learn.

Why, I said, do you not see that men are unwillingly deprived of good, and willingly of evil? Is not to have

lost the truth an evil, and to possess the truth a good? and you would agree that to conceive things as they are

Yes, he replied; I agree with you in thinking that mankind are deprived of truth against their will.

And is not this involuntary deprivation caused either by theft, or force, or enchantment?

I fear that I must have been talking darkly, like the tragedians. I only mean that some men are changed by

persuasion and that others forget; argument steals away the hearts of one class, and time of the other; and this

Those again who are forced are those whom the violence of some pain or grief compels to change their

And you would also acknowledge that the enchanted are those who change their minds either under the softer

Therefore, as I was just now saying, we must enquire who are the best guardians of their own conviction that

what they think the interest of the State is to be the rule of their lives. We must watch them from their youth

upwards, and make them perform actions in which they are most likely to forget or to be deceived, and he

who remembers and is not deceived is to be selected, and he who falls in the trial is to be rejected. That will

And there should also be toils and pains and conflicts prescribed for them, in which they will be made to give

And then, I said, we must try them with enchantments that is the third sort of testand see what will be their

behaviour: like those who take colts amid noise and tumult to see if they are of a timid nature, so must we

take our youth amid terrors of some kind, and again pass them into pleasures, and prove them more

thoroughly than gold is proved in the furnace, that we may discover whether they are armed against all

enchantments, and of a noble bearing always, good guardians of themselves and of the music which they

have learned, and retaining under all circumstances a rhythmical and harmonious nature, such as will be most

serviceable to the individual and to the State. And he who at every age, as boy and youth and in mature life,

has come out of the trial victorious and pure, shall be appointed a ruler and guardian of the State; he shall be

honoured in life and death, and shall receive sepulture and other memorials of honour, the greatest that we

have to give. But him who fails, we must reject. I am inclined to think that this is the sort of way in which our

rulers and guardians should be chosen and appointed. I speak generally, and not with any pretension to

And perhaps the word `guardian' in the fullest sense ought to be applied to this higher class only who

preserve us against foreign enemies and maintain peace among our citizens at home, that the one may not

have the will, or the others the power, to harm us. The young men whom we before called guardians may be

more properly designated auxiliaries and supporters of the principles of the rulers.

How then may we devise one of those needful falsehoods of which we lately spokejust one royal lie which

may deceive the rulers, if that be possible, and at any rate the rest of the city?

Nothing new, I replied; only an old Phoenician tale of what has often occurred before now in other places, (as

the poets say, and have made the world believe,) though not in our time, and I do not know whether such an

Well then, I will speak, although I really know not how to look you in the face, or in what words to utter the

audacious fiction, which I propose to communicate gradually, first to the rulers, then to the soldiers, and

lastly to the people. They are to be told that their youth was a dream, and the education and training which

they received from us, an appearance only; in reality during all that time they were being formed and fed in

the womb of the earth, where they themselves and their arms and appurtenances were manufactured; when

they were completed, the earth, their mother, sent them up; and so, their country being their mother and also

their nurse, they are bound to advise for her good, and to defend her against attacks, and her citizens they are

You had good reason, he said, to be ashamed of the lie which you were going to tell.

True, I replied, but there is more coming; I have only told you half. Citizens, we shall say to them in our tale,

you are brothers, yet God has framed you differently. Some of you have the power of command, and in the

composition of these he has mingled gold, wherefore also they have the greatest honour; others he has made

of silver, to be auxillaries; others again who are to be husbandmen and craftsmen he has composed of brass

and iron; and the species will generally be preserved in the children. But as all are of the same original stock,

a golden parent will sometimes have a silver son, or a silver parent a golden son. And God proclaims as a first

principle to the rulers, and above all else, that there is nothing which should so anxiously guard, or of which

they are to be such good guardians, as of the purity of the race. They should observe what elements mingle in

their off spring; for if the son of a golden or silver parent has an admixture of brass and iron, then nature

orders a transposition of ranks, and the eye of the ruler must not be pitiful towards the child because he has to

descend in the scale and become a husbandman or artisan, just as there may be sons of artisans who having an

admixture of gold or silver in them are raised to honour, and become guardians or auxiliaries. For an oracle

says that when a man of brass or iron guards the State, it will be destroyed. Such is the tale; is there any

Not in the present generation, he replied; there is no way of accomplishing this; but their sons may be made

I see the difficulty, I replied; yet the fostering of such a belief will make them care more for the city and for

one another. Enough, however, of the fiction, which may now fly abroad upon the wings of rumour, while we

arm our earthborn heroes, and lead them forth under the command of their rulers. Let them look round and

select a spot whence they can best suppress insurrection, if any prove refractory within, and also defend

themselves against enemies, who like wolves may come down on the fold from without; there let them

encamp, and when they have encamped, let them sacrifice to the proper Gods and prepare their dwellings.

And their dwellings must be such as will shield them against the cold of winter and the heat of summer.

That I will endeavour to explain, I replied. To keep watchdogs, who, from want of discipline or hunger, or

some evil habit, or evil habit or other, would turn upon the sheep and worry them, and behave not like dogs

And therefore every care must be taken that our auxiliaries, being stronger than our citizens, may not grow to

I cannot be so confident, my dear Glaucon, I said; I am much certain that they ought to be, and that true

education, whatever that may be, will have the greatest tendency to civilize and humanize them in their

And not only their education, but their habitations, and all that belongs to them, should be such as will neither

impair their virtue as guardians, nor tempt them to prey upon the other citizens. Any man of sense must

Then let us consider what will be their way of life, if they are to realize our idea of them. In the first place,

none of them should have any property of his own beyond what is absolutely necessary; neither should they

have a private house or store closed against any one who has a mind to enter; their provisions should be only

such as are required by trained warriors, who are men of temperance and courage; they should agree to

receive from the citizens a fixed rate of pay, enough to meet the expenses of the year and no more; and they

will go and live together like soldiers in a camp. Gold and silver we will tell them that they have from God;

the diviner metal is within them, and they have therefore no need of the dross which is current among men,

and ought not to pollute the divine by any such earthly admixture; for that commoner metal has been the

source of many unholy deeds, but their own is undefiled. And they alone of all the citizens may not touch or

handle silver or gold, or be under the same roof with them, or wear them, or drink from them. And this will

be their salvation, and they will be the saviours of the State. But should they ever acquire homes or lands or

moneys of their own, they will become housekeepers and husbandmen instead of guardians, enemies and

tyrants instead of allies of the other citizens; hating and being hated, plotting and being plotted against, they

will pass their whole life in much greater terror of internal than of external enemies, and the hour of ruin,

both to themselves and to the rest of the State, will be at hand. For all which reasons may we not say that thus

shall our State be ordered, and that these shall be the regulations appointed by us for guardians concerning

HERE Adeimantus interposed a question: How would you answer, Socrates, said he, if a person were to say

that you are making these people miserable, and that they are the cause of their own unhappiness; the city in

fact belongs to them, but they are none the better for it; whereas other men acquire lands, and build large and

handsome houses, and have everything handsome about them, offering sacrifices to the gods on their own

account, and practising hospitality; moreover, as you were saying just now, they have gold and silver, and all

that is usual among the favourites of fortune; but our poor citizens are no better than mercenaries who are

Yes, I said; and you may add that they are only fed, and not paid in addition to their food, like other men; and

therefore they cannot, if they would, take a journey of pleasure; they have no money to spend on a mistress or

any other luxurious fancy, which, as the world goes, is thought to be happiness; and many other accusations

If we proceed along the old path, my belief, I said, is that we shall find the answer. And our answer will be

that, even as they are, our guardians may very likely be the happiest of men; but that our aim in founding the

State was not the disproportionate happiness of any one class, but the greatest happiness of the whole; we

thought that in a State which is ordered with a view to the good of the whole we should be most likely to find

Justice, and in the illordered State injustice: and, having found them, we might then decide which of the two

is the happier. At present, I take it, we are fashioning the happy State, not piecemeal, or with a view of

making a few happy citizens, but as a whole; and byandby we will proceed to view the opposite kind of

State. Suppose that we were painting a statue, and some one came up to us and said, Why do you not put the

most beautiful colours on the most beautiful parts of the bodythe eyes ought to be purple, but you have

made them blackto him we might fairly answer, Sir, you would not surely have us beautify the eyes to

such a degree that they are no longer eyes; consider rather whether, by giving this and the other features their

due proportion, we make the whole beautiful. And so I say to you, do not compel us to assign to the

guardians a sort of happiness which will make them anything but guardians; for we too can clothe our

husbandmen in royal apparel, and set crowns of gold on their heads, and bid them till the ground as much as

they like, and no more. Our potters also might be allowed to repose on couches, and feast by the fireside,

passing round the winecup, while their wheel is conveniently at hand, and working at pottery only as much as

they like; in this way we might make every class happyand then, as you imagine, the whole State would be

happy. But do not put this idea into our heads; for, if we listen to you, the husbandman will be no longer a

husbandman, the potter will cease to be a potter, and no one will have the character of any distinct class in the

State. Now this is not of much consequence where the corruption of society, and pretension to be what you

are not, is confined to cobblers; but when the guardians of the laws and of the government are only seemingly

and not real guardians, then see how they turn the State upside down; and on the other hand they alone have

the power of giving order and happiness to the State. We mean our guardians to be true saviours and not the

destroyers of the State, whereas our opponent is thinking of peasants at a festival, who are enjoying a life of

revelry, not of citizens who are doing their duty to the State. But, if so, we mean different things, and he is

speaking of something which is not a State. And therefore we must consider whether in appointing our

guardians we would look to their greatest happiness individually, or whether this principle of happiness does

not rather reside in the State as a whole. But the latter be the truth, then the guardians and auxillaries, and all

others equally with them, must be compelled or induced to do their own work in the best way. And thus the

whole State will grow up in a noble order, and the several classes will receive the proportion of happiness

The process is as follows: When a potter becomes rich, will he, think you, any longer take the same pains

But, on the other hand, if he has no money, and cannot provide himself tools or instruments, he will not work

equally well himself, nor will he teach his sons or apprentices to work equally well.

Then, under the influence either of poverty or of wealth, workmen and their work are equally liable to

Here, then, is a discovery of new evils, I said, against which the guardians will have to watch, or they will

Wealth, I said, and poverty; the one is the parent of luxury and indolence, and the other of meanness and

That is very true, he replied; but still I should like to know, Socrates, how our city will be able to go to war,

especially against an enemy who is rich and powerful, if deprived of the sinews of war.

There would certainly be a difficulty, I replied, in going to war with one such enemy; but there is no

In the first place, I said, if we have to fight, our side will be trained warriors fighting against an army of rich

And do you not suppose, Adeimantus, that a single boxer who was perfect in his art would easily be a match

What, not, I said, if he were able to run away and then turn and strike at the one who first came up? And

supposing he were to do this several times under the heat of a scorching sun, might he not, being an expert,

And yet rich men probably have a greater superiority in the science and practice of boxing than they have in

Then we may assume that our athletes will be able to fight with two or three times their own number?

And suppose that, before engaging, our citizens send an embassy to one of the two cities, telling them what is

the truth: Silver and gold we neither have nor are permitted to have, but you may; do you therefore come and

help us in war, of and take the spoils of the other city: Who, on hearing these words, would choose to fight

against lean wiry dogs, rather th than, with the dogs on their side, against fat and tender sheep?

That is not likely; and yet there might be a danger to the poor State if the wealth of many States were to be

You ought to speak of other States in the plural number; not one of them is a city, but many cities, as they say

in the game. For indeed any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other

of the rich; these are at war with one another; and in either there are many smaller divisions, and you would

be altogether beside the mark if you treated them all as a single State. But if you deal with them as many, and

give the wealth or power or persons of the one to the others, you will always have a great many friends and

not many enemies. And your State, while the wise order which has now been prescribed continues to prevail

in her, will be the greatest of States, I do not mean to say in reputation or appearance, but in deed and truth,

though she number not more than a thousand defenders. A single State which is her equal you will hardly

find, either among Hellenes or barbarians, though many that appear to be as great and many times greater.

And what, I said, will be the best limit for our rulers to fix when they are considering the size of the State and

the amount of territory which they are to include, and beyond which they will not go?

I would allow the State to increase so far as is consistent with unity; that, I think, is the proper limit.

Here then, I said, is another order which will have to be conveyed to our guardians: Let our city be accounted

And the other, said I, of which we were speaking before is lighter still, I mean the duty of degrading the

offspring of the guardians when inferior, and of elevating into the rank of guardians the offspring of the lower

classes, when naturally superior. The intention was, that, in the case of the citizens generally, each individual

should be put to the use for which nature which nature intended him, one to one work, and then every man

would do his own business, and be one and not many; and so the whole city would be one and not many.

The regulations which we are prescribing, my good Adeimantus, are not, as might be supposed, a number of

great principles, but trifles all, if care be taken, as the saying is, of the one great thing, a thing, however,

Education, I said, and nurture: If our citizens are well educated, and grow into sensible men, they will easily

see their way through all these, as well as other matters which I omit; such, for example, as marriage, the

possession of women and the procreation of children, which will all follow the general principle that friends

Also, I said, the State, if once started well, moves with accumulating force like a wheel. For good nurture and

education implant good constitutions, and these good constitutions taking root in a good education improve

more and more, and this improvement affects the breed in man as in other animals.

Then to sum up: This is the point to which, above all, the attention of our rulers should be directed,that

music and gymnastic be preserved in their original form, and no innovation made. They must do their utmost

they will be afraid that he may be praising, not new songs, but a new kind of song; and this ought not to be

praised, or conceived to be the meaning of the poet; for any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole

State, and ought to be prohibited. So Damon tells me, and I can quite believe him;he says that when modes

Then, I said, our guardians must lay the foundations of their fortress in music?

Yes, I replied, in the form of amusement; and at first sight it appears harmless.

Why, yes, he said, and there is no harm; were it not that little by little this spirit of licence, finding a home,

imperceptibly penetrates into manners and customs; whence, issuing with greater force, it invades contracts

between man and man, and from contracts goes on to laws and constitutions, in utter recklessness, ending at

Then, as I was saying, our youth should be trained from the first in a stricter system, for if amusements

become lawless, and the youths themselves become lawless, they can never grow up into wellconducted and

And when they have made a good beginning in play, and by the help of music have gained the habit of good

order, then this habit of order, in a manner how unlike the lawless play of the others! will accompany them in

all their actions and be a principle of growth to them, and if there be any fallen places a principle in the State

Thus educated, they will invent for themselves any lesser rules which their predecessors have altogether

I mean such things as these:when the young are to be silent before their elders; how they are to show

respect to them by standing and making them sit; what honour is due to parents; what garments or shoes are

to be worn; the mode of dressing the hair; deportment and manners in general. You would agree with me?

But there is, I think, small wisdom in legislating about such matters, I doubt if it is ever done; nor are any

It would seem, Adeimantus, that the direction in which education starts a man, will determine his future life.

Until some one rare and grand result is reached which may be good, and may be the reverse of good?

And for this reason, I said, I shall not attempt to legislate further about them.

Well, and about the business of the agora, dealings and the ordinary dealings between man and man, or again

about agreements with the commencement with artisans; about insult and injury, of the commencement of

actions, and the appointment of juries, what would you say? there may also arise questions about any

impositions and extractions of market and harbour dues which may be required, and in general about the

regulations of markets, police, harbours, and the like. But, oh heavens! shall we condescend to legislate on

I think, he said, that there is no need to impose laws about them on good men; what regulations are necessary

Yes, I said, my friend, if God will only preserve to them the laws which we have given them.

And without divine help, said Adeimantus, they will go on for ever making and mending their laws and their

You would compare them, I said, to those invalids who, having no selfrestraint, will not leave off their

Yes, I said; and what a delightful life they lead! they are always doctoring and increasing and complicating

their disorders, and always fancying that they will be cured by any nostrum which anybody advises them to

Yes, I replied; and the charming thing is that they deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth,

which is simply that, unless they give up eating and drinking and wenching and idling, neither drug nor

Charming! he replied. I see nothing charming in going into a passion with a man who tells you what is right.

Nor would you praise the behaviour of States which act like the men whom I was just now describing. For are

there not illordered States in which the citizens are forbidden under pain of death to alter the constitution;

and yet he who most sweetly courts those who live under this regime and indulges them and fawns upon

them and is skilful in anticipating and gratifying their humours is held to be a great and good statesman do

Yes, he said; the States are as bad as the men; and I am very far from praising them.

But do you not admire, I said, the coolness and dexterity of these ready ministers of political corruption?

Yes, he said, I do; but not of all of them, for there are some whom the applause of the multitude has deluded

into the belief that they are really statesmen, and these are not much to be admired.

What do you mean? I said; you should have more feeling for them. When a man cannot measure, and a great

many others who cannot measure declare that he is four cubits high, can he help believing what they say?

Well, then, do not be angry with them; for are they not as good as a play, trying their hand at paltry reforms

such as I was describing; they are always fancying that by legislation they will make an end of frauds in

contracts, and the other rascalities which I was mentioning, not knowing that they are in reality cutting off the

I conceive, I said, that the true legislator will not trouble himself with this class of enactments whether

concerning laws or the constitution either in an illordered or in a wellordered State; for in the former they

are quite useless, and in the latter there will be no difficulty in devising them; and many of them will

Nothing to us, I replied; but to Apollo, the God of Delphi, there remains the ordering of the greatest and

The institution of temples and sacrifices, and the entire service of gods, demigods, and heroes; also the

ordering of the repositories of the dead, and the rites which have to be observed by him who would propitiate

the inhabitants of the world below. These are matters of which we are ignorant ourselves, and as founders of

a city we should be unwise in trusting them to any interpreter but our ancestral deity. He is the god who sits

in the center, on the navel of the earth, and he is the interpreter of religion to all mankind.

But where, amid all this, is justice? son of Ariston, tell me where. Now that our city has been made habitable,

light a candle and search, and get your brother and Polemarchus and the rest of our friends to help, and let us

see where in it we can discover justice and where injustice, and in what they differ from one another, and

which of them the man who would be happy should have for his portion, whether seen or unseen by gods and

Nonsense, said Glaucon: did you not promise to search yourself, saying that for you not to help justice in her

I do not deny that I said so, and as you remind me, I will be as good as my word; but you must join.

Well, then, I hope to make the discovery in this way: I mean to begin with the assumption that our State, if

And whichever of these qualities we find in the State, the one which is not found will be the residue?

If there were four things, and we were searching for one of them, wherever it might be, the one sought for

might be known to us from the first, and there would be no further trouble; or we might know the other three

And is not a similar method to be pursued about the virtues, which are also four in number?

First among the virtues found in the State, wisdom comes into view, and in this I detect a certain peculiarity.

The State which we have been describing is said to be wise as being good in counsel?

And good counsel is clearly a kind of knowledge, for not by ignorance, but by knowledge, do men counsel

There is the knowledge of the carpenter; but is that the sort of knowledge which gives a city the title of wise

Certainly not; that would only give a city the reputation of skill in carpentering.

Then a city is not to be called wise because possessing a knowledge which counsels for the best about

Nor by reason of a knowledge which advises about brazen pots, I said, nor as possessing any other similar

Nor yet by reason of a knowledge which cultivates the earth; that would give the city the name of

Well, I said, and is there any knowledge in our recently founded State among any of the citizens which

advises, not about any particular thing in the State, but about the whole, and considers how a State can best

It is the knowledge of the guardians, he replied, and found among those whom we were just now describing

And what is the name which the city derives from the possession of this sort of knowledge?

Will not the guardians be the smallest of all the classes who receive a name from the profession of some kind

And so by reason of the smallest part or class, and of the knowledge which resides in this presiding and ruling

part of itself, the whole State, being thus constituted according to nature, will be wise; and this, which has the

only knowledge worthy to be called wisdom, has been ordained by nature to be of all classes the least.

Thus, then, I said, the nature and place in the State of one of the four virtues has somehow or other been

Again, I said, there is no difficulty in seeing the nature of courage; and in what part that quality resides which

Why, I said, every one who calls any State courageous or cowardly, will be thinking of the part which fights

The rest of the citizens may be courageous or may be cowardly but their courage or cowardice will not, as I

The city will be courageous in virtue of a portion of herself which preserves under all circumstances that

opinion about the nature of things to be feared and not to be feared in which our legislator educated them; and

I should like to hear what you are saying once more, for I do not think that I perfectly understand you.

Of the opinion respecting things to be feared, what they are and of what nature, which the law implants

through education; and I mean by the words `under all circumstances' to intimate that in pleasure or in pain,

or under the influence of desire or fear, a man preserves, and does not lose this opinion. Shall I give you an

You know, I said, that dyers, when they want to dye wool for making the true seapurple, begin by selecting

their white colour first; this they prepare and dress with much care and pains, in order that the white ground

may take the purple hue in full perfection. The dyeing then proceeds; and whatever is dyed in this manner

becomes a fast colour, and no washing either with lyes or without them can take away the bloom. But, when

the ground has not been duly prepared, you will have noticed how poor is the look either of purple or of any

Then now, I said, you will understand what our object was in selecting our soldiers, and educating them in

music and gymnastic; we were contriving influences which would prepare them to take the dye of the laws in

perfection, and the colour of their opinion about dangers and of every other opinion was to be indelibly fixed

by their nurture and training, not to be washed away by such potent lyes as pleasure mightier agent far in

washing the soul than any soda or lye; or by sorrow, fear, and desire, the mightiest of all other solvents. And

this sort of universal saving power of true opinion in conformity with law about real and false dangers I call

But I agree, he replied; for I suppose that you mean to exclude mere uninstructed courage, such as that of a

wild beast or of a slave this, in your opinion, is not the courage which the law ordains, and ought to have

Why, yes, said I, you may, and if you add the words `of a citizen,' you will not be far wrong;hereafter, if

you like, we will carry the examination further, but at present we are we w seeking not for courage but

Two virtues remain to be discovered in the Statefirst temperance, and then justice which is the end of our

I do not know how that can be accomplished, he said, nor do I desire that justice should be brought to light

and temperance lost sight of; and therefore I wish that you would do me the favour of considering temperance

Yes, I replied; I will; and as far as I can at present see, the virtue of temperance has more of the nature of

Temperance, I replied, is the ordering or controlling of certain pleasures and desires; this is curiously enough

implied in the saying of `a man being his own master' and other traces of the same notion may be found in

There is something ridiculous in the expression `master of himself'; for the master is also the servant and the

servant the master; and in all these modes of speaking the same person is denoted.

The meaning is, I believe, that in the human soul there is a better and also a worse principle; and when the

better has the worse under control, then a man is said to be master of himself; and this is a term of praise: but

when, owing to evil education or association, the better principle, which is also the smaller, is overwhelmed

by the greater mass of the worsein this case he is blamed and is called the slave of self and unprincipled.

And now, I said, look at our newly created State, and there you will find one of these two conditions realised;

for the State, as you will acknowledge, may be justly called master of itself, if the words `temperance' and

Let me further note that the manifold and complex pleasures and desires and pains are generally found in

children and women and servants, and in the freemen so called who are of the lowest and more numerous

Whereas the simple and moderate desires which follow reason, and are under the guidance of mind and true

opinion, are to be found only in a few, and those the best born and best educated.

Very true. These two, as you may perceive, have a place in our State; and the meaner desires of the are held

Then if there be any city which may be described as master of its own pleasures and desires, and master of

And if there be any State in which rulers and subjects will be agreed as to the question who are to rule, that

And the citizens being thus agreed among themselves, in which class will temperance be foundin the rulers

Do you observe that we were not far wrong in our guess that temperance was a sort of harmony?

Why, because temperance is unlike courage and wisdom, each of which resides in a part only, the one making

the State wise and the other valiant; not so temperance, which extends to the whole, and runs through all the

notes of the scale, and produces a harmony of the weaker and the stronger and the middle class, whether you

suppose them to be stronger or weaker in wisdom or power or numbers or wealth, or anything else. Most

truly then may we deem temperance to be the agreement of the naturally superior and inferior, as to the right

And so, I said, we may consider three out of the four virtues to have been discovered in our State. The last of

those qualities which make a state virtuous must be justice, if we only knew what that was.

The time then has arrived, Glaucon, when, like huntsmen, we should surround the cover, and look sharp that

justice does not steal away, and pass out of sight and escape us; for beyond a doubt she is somewhere in this

country: watch therefore and strive to catch a sight of her, and if you see her first, let me know.

Would that I could! but you should regard me rather as a follower who has just eyes enough to, see what you

Here is no path, I said, and the wood is dark and perplexing; still we must push on.

Here I saw something: Halloo! I said, I begin to perceive a track, and I believe that the quarry will not escape.

Why, my good sir, at the beginning of our enquiry, ages ago, there was justice tumbling out at our feet, and

we never saw her; nothing could be more ridiculous. Like people who go about looking for what they have in

their handsthat was the way with uswe looked not at what we were seeking, but at what was far off in

I mean to say that in reality for a long time past we have been talking of justice, and have failed to recognise

Well then, tell me, I said, whether I am right or not: You remember the original principle which we were

always laying down at the foundation of the State, that one man should practise one thing only, the thing to

which his nature was best adapted; now justice is this principle or a part of it.

Further, we affirmed that justice was doing one's own business, and not being a busybody; we said so again

Then to do one's own business in a certain way may be assumed to be justice. Can you tell me whence I

Because I think that this is the only virtue which remains in the State when the other virtues of temperance

and courage and wisdom are abstracted; and, that this is the ultimate cause and condition of the existence of

all of them, and while remaining in them is also their preservative; and we were saying that if the three were

If we are asked to determine which of these four qualities by its presence contributes most to the excellence

of the State, whether the agreement of rulers and subjects, or the preservation in the soldiers of the opinion

which the law ordains about the true nature of dangers, or wisdom and watchfulness in the rulers, or whether

this other which I am mentioning, and which is found in children and women, slave and freeman, artisan,

ruler, subject,the quality, I mean, of every one doing his own work, and not being a busybody, would

Then the power of each individual in the State to do his own work appears to compete with the other political

Let us look at the question from another point of view: Are not the rulers in a State those to whom you would

And are suits decided on any other ground but that a man may neither take what is another's, nor be deprived

Then on this view also justice will be admitted to be the having and doing what is a man's own, and belongs

Think, now, and say whether you agree with me or not. Suppose a carpenter to be doing the business of a

cobbler, or a cobbler of a carpenter; and suppose them to exchange their implements or their duties, or the

same person to be doing the work of both, or whatever be the change; do you think that any great harm would

But when the cobbler or any other man whom nature designed to be a trader, having his heart lifted up by

wealth or strength or the number of his followers, or any like advantage, attempts to force his way into the

class of warriors, or a warrior into that of legislators and guardians, for which he is unfitted, and either to take

the implements or the duties of the other; or when one man is trader, legislator, and warrior all in one, then I

think you will agree with me in saying that this interchange and this meddling of one with another is the ruin

Seeing then, I said, that there are three distinct classes, any meddling of one with another, or the change of

one into another, is the greatest harm to the State, and may be most justly termed evildoing?

And the greatest degree of evildoing to one's own city would be termed by you injustice?

This then is injustice; and on the other hand when the trader, the auxiliary, and the guardian each do their

We will not, I said, be overpositive as yet; but if, on trial, this conception of justice be verified in the

individual as well as in the State, there will be no longer any room for doubt; if it be not verified, we must

have a fresh enquiry. First let us complete the old investigation, which we began, as you remember, under the

impression that, if we could previously examine justice on the larger scale, there would be less difficulty in

discerning her in the individual. That larger example appeared to be the State, and accordingly we

constructed as good a one as we could, knowing well that in the good State justice would be found. Let the

discovery which we made be now applied to the individualif they agree, we shall be satisfied; or, if there

be a difference in the individual, we will come back to the State and have another trial of the theory. The

friction of the two when rubbed together may possibly strike a light in which justice will shine forth, and the

I proceeded to ask: When two things, a greater and less, are called by the same name, are they like or unlike

The just man then, if we regard the idea of justice only, will be like the just State?

And a State was thought by us to be just when the three classes in the State severally did their own business;

and also thought to be temperate and valiant and wise by reason of certain other affections and qualities of

And so of the individual; we may assume that he has the same three principles in his own soul which are

found in the State; and he may be rightly described in the same terms, because he is affected in the same

Once more then, O my friend, we have alighted upon an easy question whether the soul has these three

An easy question! Nay, rather, Socrates, the proverb holds that hard is the good.

Very true, I said; and I do not think that the method which we are employing is at all adequate to the accurate

solution of this question; the true method is another and a longer one. Still we may arrive at a solution not

May we not be satisfied with that? he said;under the circumstances, I am quite content.

Must we not acknowledge, I said, that in each of us there are the same principles and habits which there are in

the State; and that from the individual they pass into the State?how else can they come there? Take the

quality of passion or spirit;it would be ridiculous to imagine that this quality, when found in States, is not

derived from the individuals who are supposed to possess it, e.g. the Thracians, Scythians, and in general the

northern nations; and the same may be said of the love of knowledge, which is the special characteristic of

our part of the world, or of the love of money, which may, with equal truth, be attributed to the Phoenicians

But the question is not quite so easy when we proceed to ask whether these principles are three or one;

whether, that is to say, we learn with one part of our nature, are angry with another, and with a third part

desire the satisfaction of our natural appetites; or whether the whole soul comes into play in each sort of

I replied as follows: The same thing clearly cannot act or be acted upon in the same part or in relation to the

same thing at the same time, in contrary ways; and therefore whenever this contradiction occurs in things

For example, I said, can the same thing be at rest and in motion at the same time in the same part?

Still, I said, let us have a more precise statement of terms, lest we should hereafter fall out by the way.

Imagine the case of a man who is standing and also moving his hands and his head, and suppose a person to

say that one and the same person is in motion and at rest at the same momentto such a mode of speech we

should object, and should rather say that one part of him is in motion while another is at rest.

And suppose the objector to refine still further, and to draw the nice distinction that not only parts of tops, but

whole tops, when they spin round with their pegs fixed on the spot, are at rest and in motion at the same time

(and he may say the same of anything which revolves in the same spot), his objection would not be admitted

by us, because in such cases things are not at rest and in motion in the same parts of themselves; we should

rather say that they have both an axis and a circumference, and that the axis stands still, for there is no

deviation from the perpendicular; and that the circumference goes round. But if, while revolving, the axis

inclines either to the right or left, forwards or backwards, then in no point of view can they be at rest.

Then none of these objections will confuse us, or incline us to believe that the same thing at the same time, in

the same part or in relation to the same thing, can act or be acted upon in contrary ways.

Yet, I said, that we may not be compelled to examine all such objections, and prove at length that they are

untrue, let us assume their absurdity, and go forward on the understanding that hereafter, if this assumption

Well, I said, would you not allow that assent and dissent, desire and aversion, attraction and repulsion, are all

of them opposites, whether they are regarded as active or passive (for that makes no difference in the fact of

Well, I said, and hunger and thirst, and the desires in general, and again willing and wishing,all these you

would refer to the classes already mentioned. You would saywould you not?that the soul of him who

desires is seeking after the object of his desires; or that he is drawing to himself the thing which he wishes to

possess: or again, when a person wants anything to be given him, his mind, longing for the realisation of his

desires, intimates his wish to have it by a nod of assent, as if he had been asked a question?

And what would you say of unwillingness and dislike and the absence of desire; should not these be referred

Admitting this to be true of desire generally, let us suppose a particular class of desires, and out of these we

will select hunger and thirst, as they are termed, which are the most obvious of them?

And here comes the point: is not thirst the desire which the soul has of drink, and of drink only; not of drink

qualified by anything else; for example, warm or cold, or much or little, or, in a word, drink of any particular

sort: but if the thirst be accompanied by heat, then the desire is of cold drink; or, if accompanied by cold, then

of warm drink; or, if the thirst be excessive, then the drink which is desired will be excessive; or, if not great,

the quantity of drink will also be small: but thirst pure and simple will desire drink pure and simple, which is

Yes, he said; the simple desire is, as you say, in every case of the simple object, and the qualified desire of

But here a confusion may arise; and I should wish to guard against an opponent starting up and saying that no

man desires drink only, but good drink, or food only, but good food; for good is the universal object of desire,

and thirst being a desire, will necessarily be thirst after good drink; and the same is true of every other desire.

Nevertheless I should still maintain, that of relatives some have a quality attached to either term of the

And the sometime greater to the sometime less, and the greater that is to be to the less that is to be?

And so of more and less, and of other correlative terms, such as the double and the half, or again, the heavier

and the lighter, the swifter and the slower; and of hot and cold, and of any other relatives;is not this true of

And does not the same principle hold in the sciences? The object of science is knowledge (assuming that to

be the true definition), but the object of a particular science is a particular kind of knowledge; I mean, for

example, that the science of housebuilding is a kind of knowledge which is defined and distinguished from

And it has this particular quality because it has an object of a particular kind; and this is true of the other arts

Now, then, if I have made myself clear, you will understand my original meaning in what I said about

relatives. My meaning was, that if one term of a relation is taken alone, the other is taken alone; if one term is

qualified, the other is also qualified. I do not mean to say that relatives may not be disparate, or that the

science of health is healthy, or of disease necessarily diseased, or that the sciences of good and evil are

therefore good and evil; but only that, when the term science is no longer used absolutely, but has a qualified

object which in this case is the nature of health and disease, it becomes defined, and is hence called not

Would you not say that thirst is one of these essentially relative terms, having clearly a relation

And a certain kind of thirst is relative to a certain kind of drink; but thirst taken alone is neither of much nor

little, nor of good nor bad, nor of any particular kind of drink, but of drink only?

Then the soul of the thirsty one, in so far as he is thirsty, desires only drink; for this he yearns and tries to

And if you suppose something which pulls a thirsty soul away from drink, that must be different from the

thirsty principle which draws him like a beast to drink; for, as we were saying, the same thing cannot at the

No more than you can say that the hands of the archer push and pull the bow at the same time, but what you

And in such a case what is one to say? Would you not say that there was something in the soul bidding a man

to drink, and something else forbidding him, which is other and stronger than the principle which bids him?

And the forbidding principle is derived from reason, and that which bids and attracts proceeds from passion

Then we may fairly assume that they are two, and that they differ from one another; the one with which man

reasons, we may call the rational principle of the soul, the other, with which he loves and hungers and thirsts

and feels the flutterings of any other desire, may be termed the irrational or appetitive, the ally of sundry

Then let us finally determine that there are two principles existing in the soul. And what of passion, or spirit?

Well, I said, there is a story which I remember to have heard, and in which I put faith. The story is, that

Leontius, the son of Aglaion, coming up one day from the Piraeus, under the north wall on the outside,

observed some dead bodies lying on the ground at the place of execution. He felt a desire to see them, and

also a dread and abhorrence of them; for a time he struggled and covered his eyes, but at length the desire got

the better of him; and forcing them open, he ran up to the dead bodies, saying, Look, ye wretches, take your

The moral of the tale is, that anger at times goes to war with desire, as though they were two distinct things.

And are there not many other cases in which we observe that when a man's desires violently prevail over his

reason, he reviles himself, and is angry at the violence within him, and that in this struggle, which is like the

struggle of factions in a State, his spirit is on the side of his reason;but for the passionate or spirited

element to take part with the desires when reason that she should not be opposed, is a sort of thing which

thing which I believe that you never observed occurring in yourself, nor, as I should imagine, in any one else?

Suppose that a man thinks he has done a wrong to another, the nobler he is the less able is he to feel indignant

at any suffering, such as hunger, or cold, or any other pain which the injured person may inflict upon

himthese he deems to be just, and, as I say, his anger refuses to be excited by them.

But when he thinks that he is the sufferer of the wrong, then he boils and chafes, and is on the side of what he

believes to be justice; and because he suffers hunger or cold or other pain he is only the more determined to

persevere and conquer. His noble spirit will not be quelled until he either slays or is slain; or until he hears

The illustration is perfect, he replied; and in our State, as we were saying, the auxiliaries were to be dogs, and

I perceive, I said, that you quite understand me; there is, however, a further point which I wish you to

You remember that passion or spirit appeared at first sight to be a kind of desire, but now we should say quite

the contrary; for in the conflict of the soul spirit is arrayed on the side of the rational principle.

But a further question arises: Is passion different from reason also, or only a kind of reason; in which latter

case, instead of three principles in the soul, there will only be two, the rational and the concupiscent; or

rather, as the State was composed of three classes, traders, auxiliaries, counsellors, so may there not be in the

individual soul a third element which is passion or spirit, and when not corrupted by bad education is the

Yes, I replied, if passion, which has already been shown to be different from desire, turn out also to be

But that is easily proved:We may observe even in young children that they are full of spirit almost as soon

as they are born, whereas some of them never seem to attain to the use of reason, and most of them late

Excellent, I said, and you may see passion equally in brute animals, which is a further proof of the truth of

what you are saying. And we may once more appeal to the words of Homer, which have been already quoted

for in this verse Homer has clearly supposed the power which reasons about the better and worse to be

And so, after much tossing, we have reached land, and are fairly agreed that the same principles which exist

Must we not then infer that the individual is wise in the same way, and in virtue of the same quality which

Also that the same quality which constitutes courage in the State constitutes courage in the individual, and

that both the State and the individual bear the same relation to all the other virtues?

And the individual will be acknowledged by us to be just in the same way in which the State is just?

We cannot but remember that the justice of the State consisted in each of the three classes doing the work of

We must recollect that the individual in whom the several qualities of his nature do their own work will be

And ought not the rational principle, which is wise, and has the care of the whole soul, to rule, and the

And, as we were saying, the united influence of music and gymnastic will bring them into accord, nerving

and sustaining the reason with noble words and lessons, and moderating and soothing and civilizing the

And these two, thus nurtured and educated, and having learned truly to know their own functions, will rule

over the concupiscent, which in each of us is the largest part of the soul and by nature most insatiable of gain;

over this they will keep guard, lest, waxing great and strong with the fulness of bodily pleasures, as they are

termed, the concupiscent soul, no longer confined to her own sphere, should attempt to enslave and rule those

Both together will they not be the best defenders of the whole soul and the whole body against attacks from

without; the one counselling, and the other fighting under his leader, and courageously executing his

And he is to be deemed courageous whose spirit retains in pleasure and in pain the commands of reason about

And him we call wise who has in him that little part which rules, and which proclaims these commands; that

part too being supposed to have a knowledge of what is for the interest of each of the three parts and of the

And would you not say that he is temperate who has these same elements in friendly harmony, in whom the

one ruling principle of reason, and the two subject ones of spirit and desire are equally agreed that reason

Certainly, he said, that is the true account of temperance whether in the State or individual.

And surely, I said, we have explained again and again how and by virtue of what quality a man will be just.

And is justice dimmer in the individual, and is her form different, or is she the same which we found her to be

Because, if any doubt is still lingering in our minds, a few commonplace instances will satisfy us of the truth

If the case is put to us, must we not admit that the just State, or the man who is trained in the principles of

such a State, will be less likely than the unjust to make away with a deposit of gold or silver? Would any one

Will the just man or citizen ever be guilty of sacrilege or theft, or treachery either to his friends or to his

No one will be less likely to commit adultery, or to dishonour his father and mother, or to fall in his religious

And the reason is that each part of him is doing its own business, whether in ruling or being ruled?

Are you satisfied then that the quality which makes such men and such states is justice, or do you hope to

Then our dream has been realised; and the suspicion which we entertained at the beginning of our work of

construction, that some divine power must have conducted us to a primary form of justice, has now been

And the division of labour which required the carpenter and the shoemaker and the rest of the citizens to be

doing each his own business, and not another's, was a shadow of justice, and for that reason it was of use?

But in reality justice was such as we were describing, being concerned however, not with the outward man,

but with the inward, which is the true self and concernment of man: for the just man does not permit the

several elements within him to interfere with one another, or any of them to do the work of others,he sets

in order his own inner life, and is his own master and his own law, and at peace with himself; and when he

has bound together the three principles within him, which may be compared to the higher, lower, and middle

notes of the scale, and the intermediate intervals when he has bound all these together, and is no longer

many, but has become one entirely temperate and perfectly adjusted nature, then he proceeds to act, if he has

to act, whether in a matter of property, or in the treatment of the body, or in some affair of politics or private

business; always thinking and calling that which preserves and cooperates with this harmonious condition,

just and good action, and the knowledge which presides over it, wisdom, and that which at any time impairs

this condition, he will call unjust action, and the opinion which presides over it ignorance.

Very good; and if we were to affirm that we had discovered the just man and the just State, and the nature of

Must not injustice be a strife which arises among the three principles a meddlesomeness, and interference,

and rising up of a part of the soul against the whole, an assertion of unlawful authority, which is made by a

rebellious subject against a true prince, of whom he is the natural vassal,what is all this confusion and

delusion but injustice, and intemperance and cowardice and ignorance, and every form of vice?

And if the nature of justice and injustice be known, then the meaning of acting unjustly and being unjust, or,

Why, I said, they are like disease and health; being in the soul just what disease and health are in the body.

Why, I said, that which is healthy causes health, and that which is unhealthy causes disease.

And the creation of health is the institution of a natural order and government of one by another in the parts

of the body; and the creation of disease is the production of a state of things at variance with this natural

And is not the creation of justice the institution of a natural order and government of one by another in the

parts of the soul, and the creation of injustice the production of a state of things at variance with the natural

Then virtue is the health and beauty and wellbeing of the soul, and vice the disease and weakness and

Still our old question of the comparative advantage of justice and injustice has not been answered: Which is

the more profitable, to be just and act justly and practise virtue, whether seen or unseen of gods and men, or

In my judgment, Socrates, the question has now become ridiculous. We know that, when the bodily

constitution is gone, life is no longer endurable, though pampered with all kinds of meats and drinks, and

having all wealth and all power; and shall we be told that when the very essence of the vital principle is

undermined and corrupted, life is still worth having to a man, if only he be allowed to do whatever he likes

with the single exception that he is not to acquire justice and virtue, or to escape from injustice and vice;

Yes, I said, the question is, as you say, ridiculous. Still, as we are near the spot at which we may see the truth

Come up hither, I said, and behold the various forms of vice, those of them, I mean, which are worth looking

I said, The argument seems to have reached a height from which, as from some tower of speculation, a man

may look down and see that virtue is one, but that the forms of vice are innumerable; there being four special

I mean, I replied, that there appear to be as many forms of the soul as there are distinct forms of the State.

The first, I said, is that which we have been describing, and which may be said to have two names, monarchy

and aristocracy, accordingly as rule is exercised by one distinguished man or by many.

But I regard the two names as describing one form only; for whether the government is in the hands of one or

many, if the governors have been trained in the manner which we have supposed, the fundamental laws of the

SUCH is the good and true City or State, and the good and man is of the same pattern; and if this is right

every other is wrong; and the evil is one which affects not only the ordering of the State, but also the

I was proceeding to tell the order in which the four evil forms appeared to me to succeed one another, when

Pole marchus, who was sitting a little way off, just beyond Adeimantus, began to whisper to him: stretching

forth his hand, he took hold of the upper part of his coat by the shoulder, and drew him towards him, leaning

forward himself so as to be quite close and saying something in his ear, of which I only caught the words,

Why, he said, we think that you are lazy, and mean to cheat us out of a whole chapter which is a very

important part of the story; and you fancy that we shall not notice your airy way of proceeding; as if it were

selfevident to everybody, that in the matter of women and children `friends have all things in common.'

Yes, he said; but what is right in this particular case, like everything else, requires to be explained; for

community may be of many kinds. Please, therefore, to say what sort of community you mean. We have been

long expecting that you would tell us something about the family life of your citizenshow they will bring

children into the world, and rear them when they have arrived, and, in general, what is the nature of this

community of women and childrenfor we are of opinion that the right or wrong management of such

matters will have a great and paramount influence on the State for good or for evil. And now, since the

question is still undetermined, and you are taking in hand another State, we have resolved, as you heard, not

And without more ado, said Thrasymachus, you may consider us all to be equally agreed.

I said, You know not what you are doing in thus assailing me: What an argument are you raising about the

State! Just as I thought that I had finished, and was only too glad that I had laid this question to sleep, and

was reflecting how fortunate I was in your acceptance of what I then said, you ask me to begin again at the

very foundation, ignorant of what a hornet's nest of words you are stirring. Now I foresaw this gathering

For what purpose do you conceive that we have come here, said Thrasymachus,to look for gold, or to hear

Yes, Socrates, said Glaucon, and the whole of life is the only limit which wise men assign to the hearing of

such discourses. But never mind about us; take heart yourself and answer the question in your own way:

What sort of community of women and children is this which is to prevail among our guardians? and how

shall we manage the period between birth and education, which seems to require the greatest care? Tell us

Yes, my simple friend, but the answer is the reverse of easy; many more doubts arise about this than about

our previous conclusions. For the practicability of what is said may be doubted; and looked at in another

point of view, whether the scheme, if ever so practicable, would be for the best, is also doubtful. Hence I feel

a reluctance to approach the subject, lest our aspiration, my dear friend, should turn out to be a dream only.

Fear not, he replied, for your audience will not be hard upon you; they are not sceptical or hostile.

Then let me tell you that you are doing just the reverse; the encouragement which you offer would have been

all very well had I myself believed that I knew what I was talking about: to declare the truth about matters of

high interest which a man honours and loves among wise men who love him need occasion no fear or

faltering in his mind; but to carry on an argument when you are yourself only a hesitating enquirer, which is

my condition, is a dangerous and slippery thing; and the danger is not that I shall be laughed at (of which the

fear would be childish), but that I shall miss the truth where I have most need to be sure of my footing, and

drag my friends after me in my fall. And I pray Nemesis not to visit upon me the words which I am going to

utter. For I do indeed believe that to be an involuntary homicide is a less crime than to be a deceiver about

beauty or goodness or justice in the matter of laws. And that is a risk which I would rather run among

Glaucon laughed and said: Well then, Socrates, in case you and your argument do us any serious injury you

shall be acquitted beforehand of the and shall not be held to be a deceiver; take courage then and speak.

Well, I said, the law says that when a man is acquitted he is free from guilt, and what holds at law may hold

Well, I replied, I suppose that I must retrace my steps and say what I perhaps ought to have said before in the

proper place. The part of the men has been played out, and now properly enough comes the turn of the

women. Of them I will proceed to speak, and the more readily since I am invited by you.

For men born and educated like our citizens, the only way, in my opinion, of arriving at a right conclusion

about the possession and use of women and children is to follow the path on which we originally started,

Let us further suppose the birth and education of our women to be subject to similar or nearly similar

What I mean may be put into the form of a question, I said: Are dogs divided into hes and shes, or do they

both share equally in hunting and in keeping watch and in the other duties of dogs? or do we entrust to the

males the entire and exclusive care of the flocks, while we leave the females at home, under the idea that the

No, he said, they share alike; the only difference between them is that the males are stronger and the females

But can you use different animals for the same purpose, unless they are bred and fed in the same way?

Then, if women are to have the same duties as men, they must have the same nurture and education?

Then women must be taught music and gymnastic and also the art of war, which they must practise like the

I should rather expect, I said, that several of our proposals, if they are carried out, being unusual, may appear

Yes, and the most ridiculous thing of all will be the sight of women naked in the palaestra, exercising with

the men, especially when they are no longer young; they certainly will not be a vision of beauty, any more

than the enthusiastic old men who in spite of wrinkles and ugliness continue to frequent the gymnasia.

Yes, indeed, he said: according to present notions the proposal would be thought ridiculous.

But then, I said, as we have determined to speak our minds, we must not fear the jests of the wits which will

be directed against this sort of innovation; how they will talk of women's attainments both in music and

Yet having begun we must go forward to the rough places of the law; at the same time begging of these

gentlemen for once in their life to be serious. Not long ago, as we shall remind them, the Hellenes were of the

opinion, which is still generally received among the barbarians, that the sight of a naked man was ridiculous

and improper; and when first the Cretans and then the Lacedaemonians introduced the custom, the wits of

But when experience showed that to let all things be uncovered was far better than to cover them up, and the

ludicrous effect to the outward eye vanished before the better principle which reason asserted, then the man

was perceived to be a fool who directs the shafts of his ridicule at any other sight but that of folly and vice, or

seriously inclines to weigh the beautiful by any other standard but that of the good.

First, then, whether the question is to be put in jest or in earnest, let us come to an understanding about the

nature of woman: Is she capable of sharing either wholly or partially in the actions of men, or not at all? And

is the art of war one of those arts in which she can or can not share? That will be the best way of commencing

Shall we take the other side first and begin by arguing against ourselves; in this manner the adversary's

Then let us put a speech into the mouths of our opponents. They will say: `Socrates and Glaucon, no

adversary need convict you, for you yourselves, at the first foundation of the State, admitted the principle that

everybody was to do the one work suited to his own nature.' And certainly, if I am not mistaken, such an

admission was made by us. `And do not the natures of men and women differ very much indeed?' And we

shall reply: Of course they do. Then we shall be asked, `Whether the tasks assigned to men and to women

should not be different, and such as are agreeable to their different natures?' Certainly they should. `But if so,

have you not fallen into a serious inconsistency in saying that men and women, whose natures are so entirely

different, ought to perform the same actions?' What defence will you make for us, my good Sir, against

That is not an easy question to answer when asked suddenly; and I shall and I do beg of you to draw out the

These are the objections, Glaucon, and there are many others of a like kind, which I foresaw long ago; they

made me afraid and reluctant to take in hand any law about the possession and nurture of women and

Why yes, I said, but the fact is that when a man is out of his depth, whether he has fallen into a little

And must not we swim and try to reach the shore: we will hope that Arion's dolphin or some other miraculous

Well then, let us see if any way of escape can be found. We acknowledgeddid we not? that different

natures ought to have different pursuits, and that men's and women's natures are different. And now what are

we saying?that different natures ought to have the same pursuits,this is the inconsistency which is

Because I think that many a man falls into the practice against his will. When he thinks that he is reasoning

he is really disputing, just because he cannot define and divide, and so know that of which he is speaking; and

he will pursue a merely verbal opposition in the spirit of contention and not of fair discussion.

Yes, he replied, such is very often the case; but what has that to do with us and our argument?

A great deal; for there is certainly a danger of our getting unintentionally into a verbal opposition.

Why, we valiantly and pugnaciously insist upon the verbal truth, that different natures ought to have different

pursuits, but we never considered at all what was the meaning of sameness or difference of nature, or why we

distinguished them when we assigned different pursuits to different natures and the same to the same natures.

I said: Suppose that by way of illustration we were to ask the question whether there is not an opposition in

nature between bald men and hairy men; and if this is admitted by us, then, if bald men are cobblers, we

Yes, I said, a jest; and why? because we never meant when we constructed the State, that the opposition of

natures should extend to every difference, but only to those differences which affected the pursuit in which

the individual is engaged; we should have argued, for example, that a physician and one who is in mind a

And if, I said, the male and female sex appear to differ in their fitness for any art or pursuit, we should say

that such pursuit or art ought to be assigned to one or the other of them; but if the difference consists only in

women bearing and men begetting children, this does not amount to a proof that a woman differs from a man

in respect of the sort of education she should receive; and we shall therefore continue to maintain that our

Next, we shall ask our opponent how, in reference to any of the pursuits or arts of civic life, the nature of a

And perhaps he, like yourself, will reply that to give a sufficient answer on the instant is not easy; but after a

Suppose then that we invite him to accompany us in the argument, and then we may hope to show him that

there is nothing peculiar in the constitution of women which would affect them in the administration of the

Let us say to him: Come now, and we will ask you a question: when you spoke of a nature gifted or not

gifted in any respect, did you mean to say that one man will acquire a thing easily, another with difficulty; a

little learning will lead the one to discover a great deal; whereas the other, after much study and application,

no sooner learns than he forgets; or again, did you mean, that the one has a body which is a good servant to

his mind, while the body of the other is a hindrance to him?would not these be the sort of differences which

And can you mention any pursuit of mankind in which the male sex has not all these gifts and qualities in a

higher degree than the female? Need I waste time in speaking of the art of weaving, and the management of

pancakes and preserves, in which womankind does really appear to be great, and in which for her to be beaten

You are quite right, he replied, in maintaining the general inferiority of the female sex: although many

women are in many things superior to many men, yet on the whole what you say is true.

And if so, my friend, I said, there is no special faculty of administration in a state which a woman has

because she is a woman, or which a man has by virtue of his sex, but the gifts of nature are alike diffused in

both; all the pursuits of men are the pursuits of women also, but in all of them a woman is inferior to a man.

One woman has a gift of healing, another not; one is a musician, and another has no music in her nature?

And one woman has a turn for gymnastic and military exercises, and another is unwarlike and hates

And one woman is a philosopher, and another is an enemy of philosophy; one has spirit, and another is

Then one woman will have the temper of a guardian, and another not. Was not the selection of the male

Men and women alike possess the qualities which make a guardian; they differ only in their comparative

And those women who have such qualities are to be selected as the companions and colleagues of men who

Then, as we were saying before, there is nothing unnatural in assigning music and gymnastic to the wives of

The law which we then enacted was agreeable to nature, and therefore not an impossibility or mere

aspiration; and the contrary practice, which prevails at present, is in reality a violation of nature.

We had to consider, first, whether our proposals were possible, and secondly whether they were the most

You will admit that the same education which makes a man a good guardian will make a woman a good

Would you say that all men are equal in excellence, or is one man better than another?

And in the commonwealth which we were founding do you conceive the guardians who have been brought

up on our model system to be more perfect men, or the cobblers whose education has been cobbling?

You have answered me, I replied: Well, and may we not further say that our guardians are the best of our

And can there be anything better for the interests of the State than that the men and women of a State should

And this is what the arts of music and gymnastic, when present in such manner as we have described, will

Then we have made an enactment not only possible but in the highest degree beneficial to the State?

Then let the wives of our guardians strip, for their virtue will be their robe, and let them share in the toils of

war and the defence of their country; only in the distribution of labours the lighter are to be assigned to the

women, who are the weaker natures, but in other respects their duties are to be the same. And as for the man

who laughs at naked women exercising their bodies from the best of motives, in his laughter he is plucking

and he himself is ignorant of what he is laughing at, or what he is about;for that is, and ever will be, the

Here, then, is one difficulty in our law about women, which we may say that we have now escaped; the wave

has not swallowed us up alive for enacting that the guardians of either sex should have all their pursuits in

common; to the utility and also to the possibility of this arrangement the consistency of the argument with

The law, I said, which is the sequel of this and of all that has preceded, is to the following effect,'that the

wives of our guardians are to be common, and their children are to be common, and no parent is to know his

Yes, he said, that is a much greater wave than the other; and the possibility as well as the utility of such a law

I do not think, I said, that there can be any dispute about the very great utility of having wives and children in

common; the possibility is quite another matter, and will be very much disputed.

You imply that the two questions must be combined, I replied. Now I meant that you should admit the utility;

and in this way, as I thought; I should escape from one of them, and then there would remain only the

But that little attempt is detected, and therefore you will please to give a defence of both.

Well, I said, I submit to my fate. Yet grant me a little favour: let me feast my mind with the dream as day

dreamers are in the habit of feasting themselves when they are walking alone; for before they have discovered

any means of effecting their wishes that is a matter which never troubles themthey would rather not tire

themselves by thinking about possibilities; but assuming that what they desire is already granted to them,

they proceed with their plan, and delight in detailing what they mean to do when their wish has come

truethat is a way which they have of not doing much good to a capacity which was never good for much.

Now I myself am beginning to lose heart, and I should like, with your permission, to pass over the question

of possibility at present. Assuming therefore the possibility of the proposal, I shall now proceed to enquire

how the rulers will carry out these arrangements, and I shall demonstrate that our plan, if executed, will be of

the greatest benefit to the State and to the guardians. First of all, then, if you have no objection, I will

endeavour with your help to consider the advantages of the measure; and hereafter the question of possibility.

First, I think that if our rulers and their auxiliaries are to be worthy of the name which they bear, there must

be willingness to obey in the one and the power of command in the other; the guardians must themselves

obey the laws, and they must also imitate the spirit of them in any details which are entrusted to their care.

You, I said, who are their legislator, having selected the men, will now select the women and give them to

them;they must be as far as possible of like natures with them; and they must live in common houses and

meet at common meals, None of them will have anything specially his or her own; they will be together, and

will be brought up together, and will associate at gymnastic exercises. And so they will be drawn by a

necessity of their natures to have intercourse with each othernecessity is not too strong a word, I think?

Yes, he said;necessity, not geometrical, but another sort of necessity which lovers know, and which is far

True, I said; and this, Glaucon, like all the rest, must proceed after an orderly fashion; in a city of the blessed,

Then clearly the next thing will be to make matrimony sacred in the highest degree, and what is most

And how can marriages be made most beneficial?that is a question which I put to you, because I see in

your house dogs for hunting, and of the nobler sort of birds not a few. Now, I beseech you, do tell me, have

Why, in the first place, although they are all of a good sort, are not some better than others?

And do you breed from them all indifferently, or do you take care to breed from the best only?

And if care was not taken in the breeding, your dogs and birds would greatly deteriorate?

Good heavens! my dear friend, I said, what consummate skill will our rulers need if the same principle holds

Certainly, the same principle holds; but why does this involve any particular skill?

Because, I said, our rulers will often have to practise upon the body corporate with medicines. Now you know

that when patients do not require medicines, but have only to be put under a regimen, the inferior sort of

practitioner is deemed to be good enough; but when medicine has to be given, then the doctor should be more

I mean, I replied, that our rulers will find a considerable dose of falsehood and deceit necessary for the good

of their subjects: we were saying that the use of all these things regarded as medicines might be of advantage.

And this lawful use of them seems likely to be often needed in the regulations of marriages and births.

Why, I said, the principle has been already laid down that the best of either sex should be united with the best

as often, and the inferior with the inferior, as seldom as possible; and that they should rear the offspring of the

one sort of union, but not of the other, if the flock is to be maintained in firstrate condition. Now these

goings on must be a secret which the rulers only know, or there will be a further danger of our herd, as the

Had we not better appoint certain festivals at which we will bring together the brides and bridegrooms, and

sacrifices will be offered and suitable hymeneal songs composed by our poets: the number of weddings is a

matter which must be left to the discretion of the rulers, whose aim will be to preserve the average of

population? There are many other things which they will have to consider, such as the effects of wars and

diseases and any similar agencies, in order as far as this is possible to prevent the State from becoming either

We shall have to invent some ingenious kind of lots which the less worthy may draw on each occasion of our

bringing them together, and then they will accuse their own illluck and not the rulers.

And I think that our braver and better youth, besides their other honours and rewards, might have greater

facilities of intercourse with women given them; their bravery will be a reason, and such fathers ought to

And the proper officers, whether male or female or both, for offices are to be held by women as well as by

The proper officers will take the offspring of the good parents to the pen or fold, and there they will deposit

them with certain nurses who dwell in a separate quarter; but the offspring of the inferior, or of the better

when they chance to be deformed, will be put away in some mysterious, unknown place, as they should be.

Yes, he said, that must be done if the breed of the guardians is to be kept pure.

They will provide for their nurture, and will bring the mothers to the fold when they are full of milk, taking

the greatest possible care that no mother recognizes her own child; and other wetnurses may be engaged if

more are required. Care will also be taken that the process of suckling shall not be protracted too long; and

the mothers will have no getting up at night or other trouble, but will hand over all this sort of thing to the

You suppose the wives of our guardians to have a fine easy time of it when they are having children.

Why, said I, and so they ought. Let us, however, proceed with our scheme. We were saying that the parents

And what is the prime of life? May it not be defined as a period of about twenty years in a woman's life, and

A woman, I said, at twenty years of age may begin to bear children to the State, and continue to bear them

until forty; a man may begin at fiveandtwenty, when he has passed the point at which the pulse of life

Certainly, he said, both in men and women those years are the prime of physical as well as of intellectual

Any one above or below the prescribed ages who takes part in the public hymeneals shall be said to have

done an unholy and unrighteous thing; the child of which he is the father, if it steals into life, will have been

conceived under auspices very unlike the sacrifices and prayers, which at each hymeneal priestesses and

priest and the whole city will offer, that the new generation may be better and more useful than their good

and useful parents, whereas his child will be the offspring of darkness and strange lust.

And the same law will apply to any one of those within the prescribed age who forms a connection with any

woman in the prime of life without the sanction of the rulers; for we shall say that he is raising up a bastard to

This applies, however, only to those who are within the specified age: after that we allow them to range at

will, except that a man may not marry his daughter or his daughter's daughter, or his mother or his mother's

mother; and women, on the other hand, are prohibited from marrying their sons or fathers, or son's son or

father's father, and so on in either direction. And we grant all this, accompanying the permission with strict

orders to prevent any embryo which may come into being from seeing the light; and if any force a way to the

birth, the parents must understand that the offspring of such an union cannot be maintained, and arrange

That also, he said, is a reasonable proposition. But how will they know who are fathers and daughters, and so

They will never know. The way will be this:dating from the day of the hymeneal, the bridegroom who was

then married will call all the male children who are born in the seventh and tenth month afterwards his sons,

and the female children his daughters, and they will call him father, and he will call their children his

grandchildren, and they will call the elder generation grandfathers and grandmothers. All who were begotten

at the time when their fathers and mothers came together will be called their brothers and sisters, and these, as

I was saying, will be forbidden to intermarry. This, however, is not to be understood as an absolute

prohibition of the marriage of brothers and sisters; if the lot favours them, and they receive the sanction of the

Such is the scheme, Glaucon, according to which the guardians of our State are to have their wives and

families in common. And now you would have the argument show that this community is consistent with the

Shall we try to find a common basis by asking of ourselves what ought to be the chief aim of the legislator in

making laws and in the organization of a State,what is the greatest I good, and what is the greatest evil,

and then consider whether our previous description has the stamp of the good or of the evil?

Can there be any greater evil than discord and distraction and plurality where unity ought to reign? or any

And there is unity where there is community of pleasures and pains where all the citizens are glad or

Yes; and where there is no common but only private feeling a State is disorganizedwhen you have one half

of the world triumphing and the other plunged in grief at the same events happening to the city or the

Such differences commonly originate in a disagreement about the use of the terms `mine' and `not mine,' `his'

And is not that the bestordered State in which the greatest number of persons apply the terms `mine' and

Or that again which most nearly approaches to the condition of the individualas in the body, when but a

finger of one of us is hurt, the whole frame, drawn towards the soul as a center and forming one kingdom

under the ruling power therein, feels the hurt and sympathizes all together with the part affected, and we say

that the man has a pain in his finger; and the same expression is used about any other part of the body, which

has a sensation of pain at suffering or of pleasure at the alleviation of suffering.

Very true, he replied; and I agree with you that in the bestordered State there is the nearest approach to this

Then when any one of the citizens experiences any good or evil, the whole State will make his case their

It will now be time, I said, for us to return to our State and see whether this or some other form is most in

But is there not another name which people give to their rulers in other States?

Generally they call them masters, but in democratic States they simply call them rulers.

And in our State what other name besides that of citizens do the people give the rulers?

Did you ever know an example in any other State of a ruler who would speak of one of his colleagues as his

And the friend he regards and describes as one in whom he has an interest, and the other as a stranger in

But would any of your guardians think or speak of any other guardian as a stranger?

Certainly he would not; for every one whom they meet will be regarded by them either as a brother or sister,

or father or mother, or son or daughter, or as the child or parent of those who are thus connected with him.

Capital, I said; but let me ask you once more: Shall they be a family in name only; or shall they in all their

actions be true to the name? For example, in the use of the word `father,' would the care of a father be implied

and the filial reverence and duty and obedience to him which the law commands; and is the violator of these

duties to be regarded as an impious and unrighteous person who is not likely to receive much good either at

the hands of God or of man? Are these to be or not to be the strains which the children will hear repeated in

their ears by all the citizens about those who are intimated to them to be their parents and the rest of their

These, he said, and none other; for what can be more ridiculous than for them to utter the names of family ties

Then in our city the language of harmony and concord will be more often beard than in any other. As I was

describing before, when any one is well or ill, the universal word will be with me `it is well' or `it is ill.'

And agreeably to this mode of thinking and speaking, were we not saying that they will have their pleasures

And they will have a common interest in the same thing which they will alike call `my own,' and having this

And the reason of this, over and above the general constitution of the State, will be that the guardians will

And this unity of feeling we admitted to be the greatest good, as was implied in our own comparison of a

wellordered State to the relation of the body and the members, when affected by pleasure or pain?

Then the community of wives and children among our citizens is clearly the source of the greatest good to the

And this agrees with the other principle which we were affirming, that the guardians were not to have

houses or lands or any other property; their pay was to be their food, which they were to receive from the

other citizens, and they were to have no private expenses; for we intended them to preserve their true

Both the community of property and the community of families, as I am saying, tend to make them more

truly guardians; they will not tear the city in pieces by differing about `mine' and `not mine;' each man

dragging any acquisition which he has made into a separate house of his own, where he has a separate wife

and children and private pleasures and pains; but all will be affected as far as may be by the same pleasures

and pains because they are all of one opinion about what is near and dear to them, and therefore they all tend

And as they have nothing but their persons which they can call their own, suits and complaints will have no

existence among them; they will be delivered from all those quarrels of which money or children or relations

Neither will trials for assault or insult ever be likely to occur among them. For that equals should defend

themselves against equals we shall maintain to be honourable and right; we shall make the protection of the

Yes; and there is a further good in the law; viz. that if a man has a quarrel with another he will satisfy his

Nor can there be a doubt that the younger will not strike or do any other violence to an elder, unless the

magistrates command him; nor will he slight him in any way. For there are two guardians, shame and fear,

mighty to prevent him: shame, which makes men refrain from laying hands on those who are to them in the

relation of parents; fear, that the injured one will be succoured by the others who are his brothers, sons, one

Then in every way the laws will help the citizens to keep the peace with one another?

And as the guardians will never quarrel among themselves there will be no danger of the rest of the city being

I hardly like even to mention the little meannesses of which they will be rid, for they are beneath notice: such,

for example, as the flattery of the rich by the poor, and all the pains and pangs which men experience in

bringing up a family, and in finding money to buy necessaries for their household, borrowing and then

repudiating, getting how they can, and giving the money into the hands of women and slaves to keepthe

many evils of so many kinds which people suffer in this way are mean enough and obvious enough, and not

And from all these evils they will be delivered, and their life will be blessed as the life of Olympic victors and

The Olympic victor, I said, is deemed happy in receiving a part only of the blessedness which is secured to

our citizens, who have won a more glorious victory and have a more complete maintenance at the public cost.

For the victory which they have won is the salvation of the whole State; and the crown with which they and

their children are crowned is the fulness of all that life needs; they receive rewards from the hands of their

Do you remember, I said, how in the course of the previous discussion some one who shall be nameless

accused us of making our guardians unhappy they had nothing and might have possessed all thingsto

whom we replied that, if an occasion offered, we might perhaps hereafter consider this question, but that, as

at present advised, we would make our guardians truly guardians, and that we were fashioning the State with

a view to the greatest happiness, not of any particular class, but of the whole?

And what do you say, now that the life of our protectors is made out to be far better and nobler than that of

Olympic victors is the life of shoemakers, or any other artisans, or of husbandmen, to be compared with it?

At the same time I ought here to repeat what I have said elsewhere, that if any of our guardians shall try to be

happy in such a manner that he will cease to be a guardian, and is not content with this safe and harmonious

life, which, in our judgment, is of all lives the best, but infatuated by some youthful conceit of happiness

which gets up into his head shall seek to appropriate the whole State to himself, then he will have to learn

If he were to consult me, I should say to him: Stay where you are, when you have the offer of such a life.

You agree then, I said, that men and women are to have a common way of life such as we have

describedcommon education, common children; and they are to watch over the citizens in common

whether abiding in the city or going out to war; they are to keep watch together, and to hunt together like

dogs; and always and in all things, as far as they are able, women are to share with the men? And in so doing

they will do what is best, and will not violate, but preserve the natural relation of the sexes.

The enquiry, I said, has yet to be made, whether such a community be found possibleas among other

Why, of course they will go on expeditions together; and will take with them any of their children who are

strong enough, that, after the manner of the artisan's child, they may look on at the work which they will have

to do when they are grown up; and besides looking on they will have to help and be of use in war, and to wait

upon their fathers and mothers. Did you never observe in the arts how the potters' boys look on and help, long

And shall potters be more careful in educating their children and in giving them the opportunity of seeing and

There is also the effect on the parents, with whom, as with other animals, the presence of their young ones

That is quite true, Socrates; and yet if they are defeated, which may often happen in war, how great the

danger is! the children will be lost as well as their parents, and the State will never recover.

Well, but if they are ever to run a risk should they not do so on some occasion when, if they escape disaster,

Whether the future soldiers do or do not see war in the days of their youth is a very important matter, for the

This then must be our first step,to make our children spectators of war; but we must also contrive that they

Their parents may be supposed not to be blind to the risks of war, but to know, as far as human foresight can,

And they will take them on the safe expeditions and be cautious about the dangerous ones?

And they will place them under the command of experienced veterans who will be their leaders and teachers?

Still, the dangers of war cannot be always foreseen; there is a good deal of chance about them?

Then against such chances the children must be at once furnished with wings, in order that in the hour of need

I mean that we must mount them on horses in their earliest youth, and when they have learnt to ride, take

them on horseback to see war: the horses must be spirited and warlike, but the most tractable and yet the

swiftest that can be had. In this way they will get an excellent view of what is hereafter to be their own

business; and if there is danger they have only to follow their elder leaders and escape.

Next, as to war; what are to be the relations of your soldiers to one another and to their enemies? I should be

inclined to propose that the soldier who leaves his rank or throws away his arms, or is guilty of any other act

of cowardice, should be degraded into the rank of a husbandman or artisan. What do you think?

And he who allows himself to be taken prisoner may as well be made a present of to his enemies; he is their

But the hero who has distinguished himself, what shall be done to him? In the first place, he shall receive

honour in the army from his youthful comrades; every one of them in succession shall crown him. What do

Most certainly, and I should be disposed to go further, and say: Let no one whom he has a mind to kiss refuse

to be kissed by him while the expedition lasts. So that if there be a lover in the army, whether his love be

Capital, I said. That the brave man is to have more wives than others has been already determined: and he is

to have first choices in such matters more than others, in order that he may have as many children as

Again, there is another manner in which, according to Homer, brave youths should be honoured; for he tells

how Ajax, after he had distinguished himself in battle, was rewarded with long chines, which seems to be a

compliment appropriate to a hero in the flower of his age, being not only a tribute of honour but also a very

Then in this, I said, Homer shall be our teacher; and we too, at sacrifices and on the like occasions, will

honour the brave according to the measure of their valour, whether men or women, with hymns and those

Yes, I said; and when a man dies gloriously in war shall we not say, in the first place, that he is of the golden

They are holy angels upon the earth, authors of good, averters of evil, the guardians of speechgifted men?

We must learn of the god how we are to order the sepulture of divine and heroic personages, and what is to be

And in ages to come we will reverence them and knee. before their sepulchres as at the graves of heroes. And

not only they but any who are deemed preeminently good, whether they die from age, or in any other way,

First of all, in regard to slavery? Do you think it right that Hellenes should enslave Hellenic States, or allow

others to enslave them, if they can help? Should not their custom be to spare them, considering the danger

which there is that the whole race may one day fall under the yoke of the barbarians?

Then no Hellene should be owned by them as a slave; that is a rule which they will observe and advise the

Certainly, he said; they will in this way be united against the barbarians and will keep their hands off one

Next as to the slain; ought the conquerors, I said, to take anything but their armour? Does not the practice of

despoiling an enemy afford an excuse for not facing the battle? Cowards skulk about the dead, pretending

that they are fulfilling a duty, and many an army before now has been lost from this love of plunder.

And is there not illiberality and avarice in robbing a corpse, and also a degree of meanness and womanishness

in making an enemy of the dead body when the real enemy has flown away and left only his fighting gear

behind him,is not this rather like a dog who cannot get at his assailant, quarrelling with the stones which

Neither shall we offer up arms at the temples of the gods, least of all the arms of Hellenes, if we care to

maintain good feeling with other Hellenes; and, indeed, we have reason to fear that the offering of spoils

Again, as to the devastation of Hellenic territory or the burning of houses, what is to be the practice?

Both should be forbidden, in my judgment; I would take the annual produce and no more. Shall I tell you

Why, you see, there is a difference in the names `discord' and `war,' and I imagine that there is also a

difference in their natures; the one is expressive of what is internal and domestic, the other of what is external

and foreign; and the first of the two is termed discord, and only the second, war.

And may I not observe with equal propriety that the Hellenic race is all united together by ties of blood and

And therefore when Hellenes fight with barbarians and barbarians with Hellenes, they will be described by us

as being at war when they fight, and by nature enemies, and this kind of antagonism should be called war; but

when Hellenes fight with one another we shall say that Hellas is then in a state of disorder and discord, they

Consider then, I said, when that which we have acknowledged to be discord occurs, and a city is divided, if

both parties destroy the lands and burn the houses of one another, how wicked does the strife appear! No true

lover of his country would bring himself to tear in pieces his own nurse and mother: There might be reason in

the conqueror depriving the conquered of their harvest, but still they would have the idea of peace in their

And will they not be lovers of Hellas, and think of Hellas as their own land, and share in the common

And any difference which arises among them will be regarded by them as discord onlya quarrel among

Then they will quarrel as those who intend some day to be reconciled? Certainly.

They will use friendly correction, but will not enslave or destroy their opponents; they will be correctors, not

And as they are Hellenes themselves they will not devastate Hellas, nor will they burn houses, not even

suppose that the whole population of a citymen, women, and childrenare equally their enemies, for they

know that the guilt of war is always confined to a few persons and that the many are their friends. And for all

these reasons they will be unwilling to waste their lands and raze their houses; their enmity to them will only

last until the many innocent sufferers have compelled the guilty few to give satisfaction?

I agree, he said, that our citizens should thus deal with their Hellenic enemies; and with barbarians as the

Then let us enact this law also for our guardians:that they are neither to devastate the lands of Hellenes nor

Agreed; and we may agree also in thinking that these, all our previous enactments, are very good.

But still I must say, Socrates, that if you are allowed to go on in this way you will entirely forget the other

question which at the commencement of this discussion you thrust aside: Is such an order of things

possible, and how, if at all? For I am quite ready to acknowledge that the plan which you propose, if only

feasible, would do all sorts of good to the State. I will add, what you have omitted, that your citizens will be

the bravest of warriors, and will never leave their ranks, for they will all know one another, and each will call

the other father, brother, son; and if you suppose the women to join their armies, whether in the same rank or

in the rear, either as a terror to the enemy, or as auxiliaries in case of need, I know that they will then be

absolutely invincible; and there are many domestic tic advantages which might also be mentioned and which

I also fully acknowledge: but, as I admit all these advantages and as many more as you please, if only this

State of yours were to come into existence, we need say no more about them; assuming then the existence of

the State, let us now turn to the question of possibility and ways and means the rest may be left.

If I loiter for a moment, you instantly make a raid upon me, I said, and have no mercy; I have hardly escaped

the first and second waves, and you seem not to be aware that you are now bringing upon me the third, which

is the greatest and heaviest. When you have seen and heard the third wave, I think you be more considerate

and will acknowledge that some fear and hesitation was natural respecting a proposal so extraordinary as that

The more appeals of this sort which you make, he said, the more determined are we that you shall tell us how

Let me begin by reminding you that we found our way hither in the search after justice and injustice.

I was only going to ask whether, if we have discovered them, we are to require that the just man should in

nothing fail of absolute justice; or may we be satisfied with an approximation, and the attainment in him of a

We are enquiring into the nature of absolute justice and into the character of the perfectly just, and into

injustice and the perfectly unjust, that we might have an ideal. We were to look at these in order that we

might judge of our own happiness and unhappiness according to the standard which they exhibited and the

degree in which we resembled them, but not with any view of showing that they could exist in fact.

Would a painter be any the worse because, after having delineated with consummate art an ideal of a

perfectly beautiful man, he was unable to show that any such man could ever have existed?

And is our theory a worse theory because we are unable to prove the possibility of a city being ordered in the

That is the truth, I said. But if, at your request, I am to try and show how and under what conditions the

possibility is highest, I must ask you, having this in view, to repeat your former admissions.

I want to know whether ideals are ever fully realised in language? Does not the word express more than the

fact, and must not the actual, whatever a man may think, always, in the nature of things, fall short of the

Then you must not insist on my proving that the actual State will in every respect coincide with the ideal: if

we are only able to discover how a city may be governed nearly as we proposed, you will admit that we have

discovered the possibility which you demand; and will be contented. I am sure that I should be contented

Let me next endeavour to show what is that fault in States which is the cause of their present

maladministration, and what is the least change which will enable a State to pass into the truer form; and let

the change, if possible, be of one thing only, or if not, of two; at any rate, let the changes be as few and slight

I think, I said, that there might be a reform of the State if only one change were made, which is not a slight or

Now then, I said, I go to meet that which I liken to the greatest of the waves; yet shall the word be spoken,

even though the wave break and drown me in laughter and dishonour; and do you mark my words.

I said: Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of

philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either

to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils, nor

the human race, as I believe,and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light

of day. Such was the thought, my dear Glaucon, which I would fain have uttered if it had not seemed too

extravagant; for to be convinced that in no other State can there be happiness private or public is indeed a

Socrates, what do you mean? I would have you consider that the word which you have uttered is one at which

numerous persons, and very respectable persons too, in a figure pulling off their coats all in a moment, and

seizing any weapon that comes to hand, will run at you might and main, before you know where you are,

intending to do heaven knows what; and if you don't prepare an answer, and put yourself in motion, you will

And I was quite right; however, I will do all I can to get you out of it; but I can only give you goodwill and

good advice, and, perhaps, I may be able to fit answers to your questions better than another that is all.

And now, having such an auxiliary, you must do your best to show the unbelievers that you are right.

I ought to try, I said, since you offer me such invaluable assistance. And I think that, if there is to be a chance

of our escaping, we must explain to them whom we mean when we say that philosophers are to rule in the

State; then we shall be able to defend ourselves: There will be discovered to be some natures who ought to

study philosophy and to be leaders in the State; and others who are not born to be philosophers, and are meant

Follow me, I said, and I hope that I may in some way or other be able to give you a satisfactory explanation.

I dare say that you remember, and therefore I need not remind you, that a lover, if lie is worthy of the name,

ought to show his love, not to some one part of that which he loves, but to the whole.

Another person, I said, might fairly reply as you do; but a man of pleasure like yourself ought to know that all

who are in the flower of youth do somehow or other raise a pang or emotion in a lover's breast, and are

thought by him to be worthy of his affectionate regards. Is not this a way which you have with the fair: one

has a snub nose, and you praise his charming face; the hooknose of another has, you say, a royal look; while

he who is neither snub nor hooked has the grace of regularity: the dark visage is manly, the fair are children

of the gods; and as to the sweet `honey pale,' as they are called, what is the very name but the invention of a

lover who talks in diminutives, and is not adverse to paleness if appearing on the cheek of youth? In a word,

there is no excuse which you will not make, and nothing which you will not say, in order not to lose a single

If you make me an authority in matters of love, for the sake of the argument, I assent.

And what do you say of lovers of wine? Do you not see them doing the same? They are glad of any pretext of

And the same is true of ambitious men; if they cannot command an army, they are willing to command a file;

and if they cannot be honoured by really great and important persons, they are glad to be honoured by lesser

Once more let me ask: Does he who desires any class of goods, desire the whole class or a part only?

And may we not say of the philosopher that he is a lover, not of a part of wisdom only, but of the whole?

And he who dislikes learnings, especially in youth, when he has no power of judging what is good and what

is not, such an one we maintain not to be a philosopher or a lover of knowledge, just as he who refuses his

Whereas he who has a taste for every sort of knowledge and who is curious to learn and is never satisfied,

Glaucon said: If curiosity makes a philosopher, you will find many a strange being will have a title to the

name. All the lovers of sights have a delight in learning, and must therefore be included. Musical amateurs,

too, are a folk strangely out of place among philosophers, for they are the last persons in the world who

would come to anything like a philosophical discussion, if they could help, while they run about at the

Dionysiac festivals as if they had let out their ears to hear every chorus; whether the performance is in town

or countrythat makes no differencethey are there. Now are we to maintain that all these and any who

have similar tastes, as well as the professors of quite minor arts, are philosophers?

To another, I replied, I might have a difficulty in explaining; but I am sure that you will admit a proposition

And of just and unjust, good and evil, and of every other class, the same remark holds: taken singly, each of

them one; but from the various combinations of them with actions and things and with one another, they are

And this is the distinction which I draw between the sightloving, artloving, practical class and those of

The lovers of sounds and sights, I replied, are, as I conceive, fond of fine tones and colours and forms and all

the artificial products that are made out of them, but their mind is incapable of seeing or loving absolute

And he who, having a sense of beautiful things has no sense of absolute beauty, or who, if another lead him

to a knowledge of that beauty is unable to followof such an one I ask, Is he awake or in a dream only?

Reflect: is not the dreamer, sleeping or waking, one who likens dissimilar things, who puts the copy in the

But take the case of the other, who recognises the existence of absolute beauty and is able to distinguish the

idea from the objects which participate in the idea, neither putting the objects in the place of the idea nor the

And may we not say that the mind of the one who knows has knowledge, and that the mind of the other, who

But suppose that the latter should quarrel with us and dispute our statement, can we administer any soothing

cordial or advice to him, without revealing to him that there is sad disorder in his wits?

Come, then, and let us think of something to say to him. Shall we begin by assuring him that he is welcome

to any knowledge which he may have, and that we are rejoiced at his having it? But we should like to ask him

a question: Does he who has knowledge know something or nothing? (You must answer for him.)

And are we assured, after looking at the matter from many points of view, that absolute being is or may be

Good. But if there be anything which is of such a nature as to be and not to be, that will have a place

And, as knowledge corresponded to being and ignorance of necessity to notbeing, for that intermediate

between being and notbeing there has to be discovered a corresponding intermediate between ignorance and

Then opinion and knowledge have to do with different kinds of matter corresponding to this difference of

And knowledge is relative to being and knows being. But before I proceed further I will make a division.

I will begin by placing faculties in a class by themselves: they are powers in us, and in all other things, by

which we do as we do. Sight and hearing, for example, I should call faculties. Have I clearly explained the

Then let me tell you my view about them. I do not see them, and therefore the distinctions of fire, colour, and

the like, which enable me to discern the differences of some things, do not apply to them. In speaking of a

faculty I think only of its sphere and its result; and that which has the same sphere and the same result I call

the same faculty, but that which has another sphere and another result I call different. Would that be your way

And will you be so very good as to answer one more question? Would you say that knowledge is a faculty, or

Certainly, he said; for opinion is that with which we are able to form an opinion.

And yet you were acknowledging a little while ago that knowledge is not the same as opinion?

Why, yes, he said: how can any reasonable being ever identify that which is infallible with that which errs?

An excellent answer, proving, I said, that we are quite conscious of a distinction between them.

Then knowledge and opinion having distinct powers have also distinct spheres or subjectmatters?

Being is the sphere or subjectmatter of knowledge, and knowledge is to know the nature of being?

And do we know what we opine? or is the subjectmatter of opinion the same as the subjectmatter of

Nay, he replied, that has been already disproven; if difference in faculty implies difference in the sphere or

subject matter, and if, as we were saying, opinion and knowledge are distinct faculties, then the sphere of

Then if being is the subjectmatter of knowledge, something else must be the subjectmatter of opinion?

Well then, is notbeing the subjectmatter of opinion? or, rather, how can there be an opinion at all about

notbeing? Reflect: when a man has an opinion, has he not an opinion about something? Can he have an

Of notbeing, ignorance was assumed to be the necessary correlative; of being, knowledge?

But is opinion to be sought without and beyond either of them, in a greater clearness than knowledge, or in a

Then I suppose that opinion appears to you to be darker than knowledge, but lighter than ignorance?

But were we not saying before, that if anything appeared to be of a sort which is and is not at the same time,

that sort of thing would appear also to lie in the interval between pure being and absolute notbeing; and that

the corresponding faculty is neither knowledge nor ignorance, but will be found in the interval between them?

And in that interval there has now been discovered something which we call opinion?

Then what remains to be discovered is the object which partakes equally of the nature of being and

notbeing, and cannot rightly be termed either, pure and simple; this unknown term, when discovered, we

may truly call the subject of opinion, and assign each to its proper faculty, the extremes to the faculties of

This being premised, I would ask the gentleman who is of opinion that there is no absolute or unchangeable

idea of beauty in whose opinion the beautiful is the manifoldhe, I say, your lover of beautiful sights,

who cannot bear to be told that the beautiful is one, and the just is one, or that anything is one to him I

would appeal, saying, Will you be so very kind, sir, as to tell us whether, of all these beautiful things, there is

one which will not be found ugly; or of the just, which will not be found unjust; or of the holy, which will not

No, he replied; the beautiful will in some point of view be found ugly; and the same is true of the rest.

And may not the many which are doubles be also halves?doubles, that is, of one thing, and halves of

And things great and small, heavy and light, as they are termed, will not be denoted by these any more than

And can any one of those many things which are called by particular names be said to be this rather than not

He replied: They are like the punning riddles which are asked at feasts or the children's puzzle about the

eunuch aiming at the bat, with what he hit him, as they say in the puzzle, and upon what the bat was sitting.

The individual objects of which I am speaking are also a riddle, and have a double sense: nor can you fix

Then what will you do with them? I said. Can they have a better place than between being and notbeing?

For they are clearly not in greater darkness or negation than notbeing, or more full of light and existence

Thus then we seem to have discovered that the many ideas which the multitude entertain about the beautiful

and about all other things are tossing about in some region which is halfway between pure being and pure

Yes; and we had before agreed that anything of this kind which we might find was to be described as matter

of opinion, and not as matter of knowledge; being the intermediate flux which is caught and detained by the

Then those who see the many beautiful, and who yet neither see absolute beauty, nor can follow any guide

who points the way thither; who see the many just, and not absolute justice, and the like, such persons may

But those who see the absolute and eternal and immutable may be said to know, and not to have opinion

The one loves and embraces the subjects of knowledge, the other those of opinion? The latter are the same, as

I dare say will remember, who listened to sweet sounds and gazed upon fair colours, but would not tolerate

Shall we then be guilty of any impropriety in calling them lovers of opinion rather than lovers of wisdom, and

But those who love the truth in each thing are to be called lovers of wisdom and not lovers of opinion.

AND thus, Glaucon, after the argument has gone a weary way, the true and the false philosophers have at

I suppose not, I said; and yet I believe that we might have had a better view of both of them if the discussion

could have been confined to this one subject and if there were not many other questions awaiting us, which

he who desires to see in what respect the life of the just differs from that of the unjust must consider.

Surely, I said, the one which follows next in order. Inasmuch as philosophers only are able to grasp the

eternal and unchangeable, and those who wander in the region of the many and variable are not philosophers,

Whichever of the two are best able to guard the laws and institutions of our Statelet them be our guardians.

Neither, I said, can there be any question that the guardian who is to keep anything should have eyes rather

And are not those who are verily and indeed wanting in the knowledge of the true being of each thing, and

who have in their souls no clear pattern, and are unable as with a painter's eye to look at the absolute truth

and to that original to repair, and having perfect vision of the other world to order the laws about beauty,

goodness, justice in this, if not already ordered, and to guard and preserve the order of themare not such

And shall they be our guardians when there are others who, besides being their equals in experience and

falling short of them in no particular of virtue, also know the very truth of each thing?

There can be no reason, he said, for rejecting those who have this greatest of all great qualities; they must

Suppose then, I said, that we determine how far they can unite this and the other excellences.

In the first place, as we began by observing, the nature of the philosopher has to be ascertained. We must

come to an understanding about him, and, when we have done so, then, if I am not mistaken, we shall also

acknowledge that such an union of qualities is possible, and that those in whom they are united, and those

Let us suppose that philosophical minds always love knowledge of a sort which shows them the eternal

And further, I said, let us agree that they are lovers of all true being; there is no part whether greater or less,

or more or less honourable, which they are willing to renounce; as we said before of the lover and the man of

And if they are to be what we were describing, is there not another quality which they should also possess?

Truthfulness: they will never intentionally receive into their mind falsehood, which is their detestation, and

`May be,' my friend, I replied, is not the word; say rather `must be affirmed:' for he whose nature is amorous

of anything cannot help loving all that belongs or is akin to the object of his affections.

The true lover of learning then must from his earliest youth, as far as in him lies, desire all truth?

But then again, as we know by experience, he whose desires are strong in one direction will have them

weaker in others; they will be like a stream which has been drawn off into another channel.

He whose desires are drawn towards knowledge in every form will be absorbed in the pleasures of the soul,

and will hardly feel bodily pleasure I mean, if he be a true philosopher and not a sham one.

Such an one is sure to be temperate and the reverse of covetous; for the motives which make another man

There should be no secret corner of illiberality; nothing can more antagonistic than meanness to a soul which

Then how can he who has magnificence of mind and is the spectator of all time and all existence, think much

Or again: can he who is harmoniously constituted, who is not covetous or mean, or a boaster, or a

Then you will soon observe whether a man is just and gentle, or rude and unsociable; these are the signs

which distinguish even in youth the philosophical nature from the unphilosophical.

Whether he has or has not a pleasure in learning; for no one will love that which gives him pain, and in which

And again, if he is forgetful and retains nothing of what he learns, will he not be an empty vessel?

Labouring in vain, he must end in hating himself and his fruitless occupation? Yes.

Then a soul which forgets cannot be ranked among genuine philosophic natures; we must insist that the

And once more, the inharmonious and unseemly nature can only tend to disproportion?

Then, besides other qualities, we must try to find a naturally wellproportioned and gracious mind, which

Well, and do not all these qualities, which we have been enumerating, go together, and are they not, in a

manner, necessary to a soul, which is to have a full and perfect participation of being?

And must not that be a blameless study which he only can pursue who has the gift of a good memory, and is

quick to learn,noble, gracious, the friend of truth, justice, courage, temperance, who are his kindred?

And to men like him, I said, when perfected by years and education, and to these only you will entrust the

Here Adeimantus interposed and said: To these statements, Socrates, no one can offer a reply; but when you

talk in this way, a strange feeling passes over the minds of your hearers: They fancy that they are led astray a

little at each step in the argument, owing to their own want of skill in asking and answering questions; these

littles accumulate, and at the end of the discussion they are found to have sustained a mighty overthrow and

all their former notions appear to be turned upside down. And as unskilful players of draughts are at last shut

up by their more skilful adversaries and have no piece to move, so they too find themselves shut up at last;

for they have nothing to say in this new game of which words are the counters; and yet all the time they are in

the right. The observation is suggested to me by what is now occurring. For any one of us might say, that

although in words he is not able to meet you at each step of the argument, he sees as a fact that the votaries of

philosophy, when they carry on the study, not only in youth as a part of education, but as the pursuit of their

maturer years, most of them become strange monsters, not to say utter rogues, and that those who may be

considered the best of them are made useless to the world by the very study which you extol.

Then how can you be justified in saying that cities will not cease from evil until philosophers rule in them,

Yes, Socrates; and that is a way of speaking to which you are not at all accustomed, I suppose.

I perceive, I said, that you are vastly amused at having plunged me into such a hopeless discussion; but now

hear the parable, and then you will be still more amused at the meagreness of my imagination: for the manner

in which the best men are treated in their own States is so grievous that no single thing on earth is comparable

to it; and therefore, if I am to plead their cause, I must have recourse to fiction, and put together a figure made

up of many things, like the fabulous unions of goats and stags which are found in pictures. Imagine then a

fleet or a ship in which there is a captain who is taller and stronger than any of the crew, but he is a little deaf

and has a similar infirmity in sight, and his knowledge of navigation is not much better. The sailors are

quarrelling with one another about the steering every one is of opinion that he has a right to steer, though

he has never learned the art of navigation and cannot tell who taught him or when he learned, and will further

assert that it cannot be taught, and they are ready to cut in pieces any one who says the contrary. They throng

about the captain, begging and praying him to commit the helm to them; and if at any time they do not

prevail, but others are preferred to them, they kill the others or throw them overboard, and having first

chained up the noble captain's senses with drink or some narcotic drug, they mutiny and take possession of

the ship and make free with the stores; thus, eating and drinking, they proceed on their voyage in such a

manner as might be expected of them. Him who is their partisan and cleverly aids them in their plot for

getting the ship out of the captain's hands into their own whether by force or persuasion, they compliment

with the name of sailor, pilot, able seaman, and abuse the other sort of man, whom they call a

goodfornothing; but that the true pilot must pay attention to the year and seasons and sky and stars and

winds, and whatever else belongs to his art, if he intends to be really qualified for the command of a ship, and

that he must and will be the steerer, whether other people like or notthe possibility of this union of authority

with the steerer's art has never seriously entered into their thoughts or been made part of their calling. Now in

vessels which are in a state of mutiny and by sailors who are mutineers, how will the true pilot be regarded?

Then you will hardly need, I said, to hear the interpretation of the figure, which describes the true philosopher

Then suppose you now take this parable to the gentleman who is surprised at finding that philosophers have

no honour in their cities; explain it to him and try to convince him that their having honour would be far more

Say to him, that, in deeming the best votaries of philosophy to be useless to the rest of the world, he is right;

but also tell him to attribute their uselessness to the fault of those who will not use them, and not to

themselves. The pilot should not humbly beg the sailors to be commanded by himthat is not the order of

nature; neither are `the wise to go to the doors of the rich'the ingenious author of this saying told a

liebut the truth is, that, when a man is ill, whether he be rich or poor, to the physician he must go, and he

who wants to be governed, to him who is able to govern. The ruler who is good for anything ought not to beg

his subjects to be ruled by him; although the present governors of mankind are of a different stamp; they may

be justly compared to the mutinous sailors, and the true helmsmen to those who are called by them

For these reasons, and among men like these, philosophy, the noblest pursuit of all, is not likely to be much

esteemed by those of the opposite faction; not that the greatest and most lasting injury is done to her by her

opponents, but by her own professing followers, the same of whom you suppose the accuser to say, that the

greater number of them are arrant rogues, and the best are useless; in which opinion I agreed.

Then shall we proceed to show that the corruption of the majority is also unavoidable, and that this is not to

And let us ask and answer in turn, first going back to the description of the gentle and noble nature. Truth, as

you will remember, was his leader, whom he followed always and in all things; failing in this, he was an

Well, and is not this one quality, to mention no others, greatly at variance with present notions of him?

And have we not a right to say in his defence, that the true lover of knowledge is always striving after

beingthat is his nature; he will not rest in the multiplicity of individuals which is an appearance only, but

will go onthe keen edge will not be blunted, nor the force of his desire abate until he have attained the

knowledge of the true nature of every essence by a sympathetic and kindred power in the soul, and by that

power drawing near and mingling and becoming incorporate with very being, having begotten mind and

truth, he will have knowledge and will live and grow truly, and then, and not till then, will he cease from his

And will the love of a lie be any part of a philosopher's nature? Will he not utterly hate a lie?

And when truth is the captain, we cannot suspect any evil of the band which he leads?

Justice and health of mind will be of the company, and temperance will follow after?

Neither is there any reason why I should again set in array the philosopher's virtues, as you will doubtless

remember that courage, magnificence, apprehension, memory, were his natural gifts. And you objected that,

although no one could deny what I then said, still, if you leave words and look at facts, the persons who are

thus described are some of them manifestly useless, and the greater number utterly depraved; we were then

led to enquire into the grounds of these accusations, and have now arrived at the point of asking why are the

majority bad, which question of necessity brought us back to the examination and definition of the true

And we have next to consider the corruptions of the philosophic nature, why so many are spoiled and so few

escape spoilingI am speaking of those who were said to be useless but not wickedand, when we have

done with them, we will speak of the imitators of philosophy, what manner of men are they who aspire after a

profession which is above them and of which they are unworthy, and then, by their manifold inconsistencies,

bring upon philosophy, and upon all philosophers, that universal reprobation of which we speak.

I will see if I can explain them to you. Every one will admit that a nature having in perfection all the qualities

which we required in a philosopher, is a rare plant which is seldom seen among men.

In the first place there are their own virtues, their courage, temperance, and the rest of them, every one of

which praise worthy qualities (and this is a most singular circumstance) destroys and distracts from

Then there are all the ordinary goods of lifebeauty, wealth, strength, rank, and great connections in the

Stateyou understand the sort of thingsthese also have a corrupting and distracting effect.

I understand; but I should like to know more precisely what you mean about them.

Grasp the truth as a whole, I said, and in the right way; you will then have no difficulty in apprehending the

Why, I said, we know that all germs or seeds, whether vegetable or animal, when they fail to meet with

proper nutriment or climate or soil, in proportion to their vigour, are all the more sensitive to the want of a

suitable environment, for evil is a greater enemy to what is good than what is not.

There is reason in supposing that the finest natures, when under alien conditions, receive more injury than the

And may we not say, Adeimantus, that the most gifted minds, when they are illeducated, become

preeminently bad? Do not great crimes and the spirit of pure evil spring out of a fulness of nature ruined by

education rather than from any inferiority, whereas weak natures are scarcely capable of any very great good

And our philosopher follows the same analogyhe is like a plant which, having proper nurture, must

necessarily grow and mature into all virtue, but, if sown and planted in an alien soil, becomes the most

noxious of all weeds, unless he be preserved by some divine power. Do you really think, as people so often

say, that our youth are corrupted by Sophists, or that private teachers of the art corrupt them in any degree

worth speaking of? Are not the public who say these things the greatest of all Sophists? And do they not

educate to perfection young and old, men and women alike, and fashion them after their own hearts?

When they meet together, and the world sits down at an assembly, or in a court of law, or a theatre, or a

camp, or in any other popular resort, and there is a great uproar, and they praise some things which are being

said or done, and blame other things, equally exaggerating both, shouting and clapping their hands, and the

echo of the rocks and the place in which they are assembled redoubles the sound of the praise or blameat

such a time will not a young man's heart, as they say, leap within him? Will any private training enable him

to stand firm against the overwhelming flood of popular opinion? or will he be carried away by the stream?

Will he not have the notions of good and evil which the public in general havehe will do as they do, and as

And yet, I said, there is a still greater necessity, which has not been mentioned.

The gentle force of attainder or confiscation or death which, as you are aware, these new Sophists and

Now what opinion of any other Sophist, or of any private person, can be expected to overcome in such an

No, indeed, I said, even to make the attempt is a great piece of folly; there neither is, nor has been, nor is ever

likely to be, any different type of character which has had no other training in virtue but that which is

supplied by public opinionI speak, my friend, of human virtue only; what is more than human, as the

proverb says, is not included: for I would not have you ignorant that, in the present evil state of governments,

whatever is saved and comes to good is saved by the power of God, as we may truly say.

Why, that all those mercenary individuals, whom the many call Sophists and whom they deem to be their

adversaries, do, in fact, teach nothing but the opinion of the many, that is to say, the opinions of their

assemblies; and this is their wisdom. I might compare them to a man who should study the tempers and

desires of a mighty strong beast who is fed by himhe would learn how to approach and handle him, also at

what times and from what causes he is dangerous or the reverse, and what is the meaning of his several cries,

and by what sounds, when another utters them, he is soothed or infuriated; and you may suppose further, that

when, by continually attending upon him, he has become perfect in all this, he calls his knowledge wisdom,

and makes of it a system or art, which he proceeds to teach, although he has no real notion of what he means

by the principles or passions of which he is speaking, but calls this honourable and that dishonourable, or

good or evil, or just or unjust, all in accordance with the tastes and tempers of the great brute. Good he

pronounces to be that in which the beast delights and evil to be that which he dislikes; and he can give no

other account of them except that the just and noble are the necessary, having never himself seen, and having

no power of explaining to others the nature of either, or the difference between them, which is immense. By

And in what way does he who thinks that wisdom is the discernment of the tempers and tastes of the motley

multitude, whether in painting or music, or, finally, in politics, differ from him whom I have been describing?

For when a man consorts with the many, and exhibits to them his poem or other work of art or the service

which he has done the State, making them his judges when he is not obliged, the socalled necessity of

Diomede will oblige him to produce whatever they praise. And yet the reasons are utterly ludicrous which

they give in confirmation of their own notions about the honourable and good. Did you ever hear any of them

You recognise the truth of what I have been saying? Then let me ask you to consider further whether the

world will ever be induced to believe in the existence of absolute beauty rather than of the many beautiful, or

Then, do you see any way in which the philosopher can be preserved in his calling to the end? and remember

what we were saying of him, that he was to have quickness and memory and courage and magnificence

Will not such an one from his early childhood be in all things first among all, especially if his bodily

And his friends and fellowcitizens will want to use him as he gets older for their own purposes?

Falling at his feet, they will make requests to him and do him honour and flatter him, because they want to

And what will a man such as he be likely to do under such circumstances, especially if he be a citizen of a

great city, rich and noble, and a tall proper youth? Will he not be full of boundless aspirations, and fancy

himself able to manage the affairs of Hellenes and of barbarians, and having got such notions into his head

will he not dilate and elevate himself in the fulness of vain pomp and senseless pride?

Now, when he is in this state of mind, if some one gently comes to him and tells him that he is a fool and

must get understanding, which can only be got by slaving for it, do you think that, under such adverse

And even if there be some one who through inherent goodness or natural reasonableness has had his eyes

opened a little and is humbled and taken captive by philosophy, how will his friends behave when they think

that they are likely to lose the advantage which they were hoping to reap from his companionship? Will they

not do and say anything to prevent him from yielding to his better nature and to render his teacher powerless,

Then were we not right in saying that even the very qualities which make a man a philosopher may, if he be

illeducated, divert him from philosophy, no less than riches and their accompaniments and the other

Thus, my excellent friend, is brought about all that ruin and failure which I have been describing of the

natures best adapted to the best of all pursuits; they are natures which we maintain to be rare at any time; this

being the class out of which come the men who are the authors of the greatest evil to States and individuals;

and also of the greatest good when the tide carries them in that direction; but a small man never was the doer

And so philosophy is left desolate, with her marriage rite incomplete: for her own have fallen away and

forsaken her, and while they are leading a false and unbecoming life, other unworthy persons, seeing that she

has no kinsmen to be her protectors, enter in and dishonour her; and fasten upon her the reproaches which, as

you say, her reprovers utter, who affirm of her votaries that some are good for nothing, and that the greater

Yes; and what else would you expect, I said, when you think of the puny creatures who, seeing this land open

to thema land well stocked with fair names and showy titleslike prisoners running out of prison into a

sanctuary, take a leap out of their trades into philosophy; those who do so being probably the cleverest hands

at their own miserable crafts? For, although philosophy be in this evil case, still there remains a dignity about

her which is not to be found in the arts. And many are thus attracted by her whose natures are imperfect and

whose souls are maimed and disfigured by their meannesses, as their bodies are by their trades and crafts. Is

Are they not exactly like a bald little tinker who has just got out of durance and come into a fortune; he takes

a bath and puts on a new coat, and is decked out as a bridegroom going to marry his master's daughter, who is

And when persons who are unworthy of education approach philosophy and make an alliance with her who is

a rank above them what sort of ideas and opinions are likely to be generated? Will they not be sophisms

captivating to the ear, having nothing in them genuine, or worthy of or akin to true wisdom?

Then, Adeimantus, I said, the worthy disciples of philosophy will be but a small remnant: perchance some

noble and welleducated person, detained by exile in her service, who in the absence of corrupting influences

remains devoted to her; or some lofty soul born in a mean city, the politics of which he contemns and

neglects; and there may be a gifted few who leave the arts, which they justly despise, and come to her;or

peradventure there are some who are restrained by our friend Theages' bridle; for everything in the life of

Theages conspired to divert him from philosophy; but illhealth kept him away from politics. My own case

of the internal sign is hardly worth mentioning, for rarely, if ever, has such a monitor been given to any other

man. Those who belong to this small class have tasted how sweet and blessed a possession philosophy is, and

have also seen enough of the madness of the multitude; and they know that no politician is honest, nor is

there any champion of justice at whose side they may fight and be saved. Such an one may be compared to a

man who has fallen among wild beasts he will not join in the wickedness of his fellows, but neither is he

able singly to resist all their fierce natures, and therefore seeing that he would be of no use to the State or to

his friends, and reflecting that he would have to throw away his life without doing any good either to himself

or others, he holds his peace, and goes his own way. He is like one who, in the storm of dust and sleet which

the driving wind hurries along, retires under the shelter of a wall; and seeing the rest of mankind full of

wickedness, he is content, if only he can live his own life and be pure from evil or unrighteousness, and

A great workyes; but not the greatest, unless he find a State suitable to him; for in a State which is suitable

to him, he will have a larger growth and be the saviour of his country, as well as of himself.

The causes why philosophy is in such an evil name have now been sufficiently explained: the injustice of the

Nothing more on that subject, he replied; but I should like to know which of the governments now existing is

Not any of them, I said; and that is precisely the accusation which I bring against themnot one of them is

worthy of the philosophic nature, and hence that nature is warped and estranged;as the exotic seed which is

sown in a foreign land becomes denaturalized, and is wont to be overpowered and to lose itself in the new

soil, even so this growth of philosophy, instead of persisting, degenerates and receives another character. But

if philosophy ever finds in the State that perfection which she herself is, then will be seen that she is in truth

divine, and that all other things, whether natures of men or institutions, are but human;and now, I know

No, he said; there you are wrong, for I was going to ask another question whether it is the State of which.

Yes, I replied, ours in most respects; but you may remember my saying before, that some living authority

would always be required in the State having the same idea of the constitution which guided you when as

Yes, but not in a satisfactory manner; you frightened us by interposing objections, which certainly showed

that the discussion would be long and difficult; and what still remains is the reverse of easy.

The question how the study of philosophy may be so ordered as not to be the ruin of the State: All great

Still, he said, let the point be cleared up, and the enquiry will then be complete.

I shall not be hindered, I said, by any want of will, but, if at all, by a want of power: my zeal you may see for

yourselves; and please to remark in what I am about to say how boldly and unhesitatingly I declare that States

At present, I said, the students of philosophy are quite young; beginning when they are hardly past childhood,

they devote only the time saved from moneymaking and housekeeping to such pursuits; and even those of

them who are reputed to have most of the philosophic spirit, when they come within sight of the great

difficulty of the subject, I mean dialectic, take themselves off. In after life when invited by some one else,

they may, perhaps, go and hear a lecture, and about this they make much ado, for philosophy is not

considered by them to be their proper business: at last, when they grow old, in most cases they are

extinguished more truly than Heracleitus' sun, inasmuch as they never light up again.

Just the opposite. In childhood and youth their study, and what philosophy they learn, should be suited to

their tender years: during this period while they are growing up towards manhood, the chief and special care

should be given to their bodies that they may have them to use in the service of philosophy; as life advances

and the intellect begins to mature, let them increase the gymnastics of the soul; but when the strength of our

citizens fails and is past civil and military duties, then let them range at will and engage in no serious labour,

as we intend them to live happily here, and to crown this life with a similar happiness in another.

How truly in earnest you are, Socrates! he said; I am sure of that; and yet most of your hearers, if I am not

mistaken, are likely to be still more earnest in their opposition to you, and will never be convinced;

Do not make a quarrel, I said, between Thrasymachus and me, who have recently become friends, although,

indeed, we were never enemies; for I shall go on striving to the utmost until I either convert him and other

men, or do something which may profit them against the day when they live again, and hold the like

Rather, I replied, of a time which is as nothing in comparison with eternity. Nevertheless, I do not wonder

that the many refuse to believe; for they have never seen that of which we are now speaking realised; they

have seen only a conventional imitation of philosophy, consisting of words artificially brought together, not

like these of ours having a natural unity. But a human being who in word and work is perfectly moulded, as

far as he can be, into the proportion and likeness of virtuesuch a man ruling in a city which bears the same

image, they have never yet seen, neither one nor many of themdo you think that they ever did?

No, my friend, and they have seldom, if ever, heard free and noble sentiments; such as men utter when they

are earnestly and by every means in their power seeking after truth for the sake of knowledge, while they

look coldly on the subtleties of controversy, of which the end is opinion and strife, whether they meet with

And this was what we foresaw, and this was the reason why truth forced us to admit, not without fear and

hesitation, that neither cities nor States nor individuals will ever attain perfection until the small class of

philosophers whom we termed useless but not corrupt are providentially compelled, whether they will or not,

to take care of the State, and until a like necessity be laid on the State to obey them; or until kings, or if not

kings, the sons of kings or princes, are divinely inspired with a true love of true philosophy. That either or

both of these alternatives are impossible, I see no reason to affirm: if they were so, we might indeed be justly

If then, in the countless ages of the past, or at the present hour in some foreign clime which is far away and

beyond our ken, the perfected philosopher is or has been or hereafter shall be compelled by a superior power

to have the charge of the State, we are ready to assert to the death, that this our constitution has been, and

isyea, and will be whenever the Muse of Philosophy is queen. There is no impossibility in all this; that

O my friend, I said, do not attack the multitude: they will change their minds, if, not in an aggressive spirit,

but gently and with the view of soothing them and removing their dislike of overeducation, you show them

your philosophers as they really are and describe as you were just now doing their character and profession,

and then mankind will see that he of whom you are speaking is not such as they supposedif they view him

in this new light, they will surely change their notion of him, and answer in another strain. Who can be at

enmity with one who loves them, who that is himself gentle and free from envy will be jealous of one in

whom there is no jealousy? Nay, let me answer for you, that in a few this harsh temper may be found but not

And do you not also think, as I do, that the harsh feeling which the many entertain towards philosophy

originates in the pretenders, who rush in uninvited, and are always abusing them, and finding fault with them,

who make persons instead of things the theme of their conversation? and nothing can be more unbecoming in

For he, Adeimantus, whose mind is fixed upon true being, has surely no time to look down upon the affairs of

earth, or to be filled with malice and envy, contending against men; his eye is ever directed towards things

fixed and immutable, which he sees neither injuring nor injured by one another, but all in order moving

according to reason; these he imitates, and to these he will, as far as he can, conform himself. Can a man help

And the philosopher holding converse with the divine order, becomes orderly and divine, as far as the nature

And if a necessity be laid upon him of fashioning, not only himself, but human nature generally, whether in

States or individuals, into that which he beholds elsewhere, will he, think you, be an unskilful artificer of

And if the world perceives that what we are saying about him is the truth, will they be angry with

philosophy? Will they disbelieve us, when we tell them that no State can be happy which is not designed by

They will not be angry if they understand, he said. But how will they draw out the plan of which you are

They will begin by taking the State and the manners of men, from which, as from a tablet, they will rub out

the picture, and leave a clean surface. This is no easy task. But whether easy or not, herein will lie the

difference between them and every other legislator, they will have nothing to do either with individual or

State, and will inscribe no laws, until they have either found, or themselves made, a clean surface.

Having effected this, they will proceed to trace an outline of the constitution?

And when they are filling in the work, as I conceive, they will often turn their eyes upwards and downwards:

I mean that they will first look at absolute justice and beauty and temperance, and again at the human copy;

and will mingle and temper the various elements of life into the image of a man; and thus they will conceive

according to that other image, which, when existing among men, Homer calls the form and likeness of God.

And one feature they will erase, and another they will put in, they have made the ways of men, as far as

And now, I said, are we beginning to persuade those whom you described as rushing at us with might and

main, that the painter of constitutions is such an one as we are praising; at whom they were so very indignant

because to his hands we committed the State; and are they growing a little calmer at what they have just

Why, where can they still find any ground for objection? Will they doubt that the philosopher is a lover of

Or that his nature, being such as we have delineated, is akin to the highest good?

But again, will they tell us that such a nature, placed under favourable circumstances, will not be perfectly

Then will they still be angry at our saying, that, until philosophers bear rule, States and individuals will have

Shall we assume that they are not only less angry but quite gentle, and that they have been converted and for

Then let us suppose that the reconciliation has been effected. Will any one deny the other point, that there

And when they have come into being will any one say that they must of necessity be destroyed; that they can

hardly be saved is not denied even by us; but that in the whole course of ages no single one of them can

But, said I, one is enough; let there be one man who has a city obedient to his will, and he might bring into

The ruler may impose the laws and institutions which we have been describing, and the citizens may possibly

And that others should approve of what we approve, is no miracle or impossibility?

But we have sufficiently shown, in what has preceded, that all this, if only possible, is assuredly for the best.

And now we say not only that our laws, if they could be enacted, would be for the best, but also that the

And so with pain and toil we have reached the end of one subject, but more remains to be discussed;how

and by what studies and pursuits will the saviours of the constitution be created, and at what ages are they to

I omitted the troublesome business of the possession of women, and the procreation of children, and the

appointment of the rulers, because I knew that the perfect State would be eyed with jealousy and was difficult

of attainment; but that piece of cleverness was not of much service to me, for I had to discuss them all the

same. The women and children are now disposed of, but the other question of the rulers must be investigated

from the very beginning. We were saying, as you will remember, that they were to be lovers of their country,

tried by the test of pleasures and pains, and neither in hardships, nor in dangers, nor at any other critical

moment were to lose their patriotismhe was to be rejected who failed, but he who always came forth pure,

like gold tried in the refiner's fire, was to be made a ruler, and to receive honours and rewards in life and after

death. This was the sort of thing which was being said, and then the argument turned aside and veiled her

Yes, my friend, I said, and I then shrank from hazarding the bold word; but now let me dare to saythat the

And do not suppose that there will be many of them; for the gifts which were deemed by us to be essential

You are aware, I replied, that quick intelligence, memory, sagacity, cleverness, and similar qualities, do not

often grow together, and that persons who possess them and are at the same time highspirited and

magnanimous are not so constituted by nature as to live orderly and in a peaceful and settled manner; they are

On the other hand, those steadfast natures which can better be depended upon, which in a battle are

impregnable to fear and immovable, are equally immovable when there is anything to be learned; they are

always in a torpid state, and are apt to yawn and go to sleep over any intellectual toil.

And yet we were saying that both qualities were necessary in those to whom the higher education is to be

Then the aspirant must not only be tested in those labours and dangers and pleasures which we mentioned

before, but there is another kind of probation which we did not mentionhe must be exercised also in many

kinds of knowledge, to see whether the soul will be able to endure the highest of all, will faint under them, as

Yes, he said, you are quite right in testing him. But what do you mean by the highest of all knowledge?

You may remember, I said, that we divided the soul into three parts; and distinguished the several natures of

We were saying, if I am not mistaken, that he who wanted to see them in their perfect beauty must take a

longer and more circuitous way, at the end of which they would appear; but that we could add on a popular

exposition of them on a level with the discussion which had preceded. And you replied that such an

exposition would be enough for you, and so the enquiry was continued in what to me seemed to be a very

Yes, he said, I thought and the others thought that you gave us a fair measure of truth.

But, my friend, I said, a measure of such things Which in any degree falls short of the whole truth is not fair

measure; for nothing imperfect is the measure of anything, although persons are too apt to be contented and

Yes, I said; and there cannot be any worse fault in a guardian of the State and of the laws.

The guardian then, I said, must be required to take the longer circuit, and toll at learning as well as at

gymnastics, or he will never reach the highest knowledge of all which, as we were just now saying, is his

What, he said, is there a knowledge still higher than this higher than justice and the other virtues?

Yes, I said, there is. And of the virtues too we must behold not the outline merely, as at presentnothing

short of the most finished picture should satisfy us. When little things are elaborated with an infinity of pains,

in order that they may appear in their full beauty and utmost clearness, how ridiculous that we should not

A right noble thought; but do you suppose that we shall refrain from asking you what is this highest

Nay, I said, ask if you will; but I am certain that you have heard the answer many times, and now you either

do not understand me or, as I rather think, you are disposed to be troublesome; for you have of been told that

the idea of good is the highest knowledge, and that all other things become useful and advantageous only by

their use of this. You can hardly be ignorant that of this I was about to speak, concerning which, as you have

often heard me say, we know so little; and, without which, any other knowledge or possession of any kind

will profit us nothing. Do you think that the possession of all other things is of any value if we do not possess

the good? or the knowledge of all other things if we have no knowledge of beauty and goodness?

You are further aware that most people affirm pleasure to be the good, but the finer sort of wits say it is

And you are aware too that the latter cannot explain what they mean by knowledge, but are obliged after all

Yes, I said, that they should begin by reproaching us with our ignorance of the good, and then presume our

knowledge of it for the good they define to be knowledge of the good, just as if we understood them when

And those who make pleasure their good are in equal perplexity; for they are compelled to admit that there

There can be no doubt about the numerous difficulties in which this question is involved.

Further, do we not see that many are willing to do or to have or to seem to be what is just and honourable

without the reality; but no one is satisfied with the appearance of goodthe reality is what they seek; in the

Of this then, which every soul of man pursues and makes the end of all his actions, having a presentiment that

there is such an end, and yet hesitating because neither knowing the nature nor having the same assurance of

this as of other things, and therefore losing whatever good there is in other things,of a principle such and

so great as this ought the best men in our State, to whom everything is entrusted, to be in the darkness of

I am sure, I said, that he who does not know now the beautiful and the just are likewise good will be but a

sorry guardian of them; and I suspect that no one who is ignorant of the good will have a true knowledge of

And if we only have a guardian who has this knowledge our State will be perfectly ordered?

Of course, he replied; but I wish that you would tell me whether you conceive this supreme principle of the

Aye, I said, I knew all along that a fastidious gentleman like you would not be contented with the thoughts of

True, Socrates; but I must say that one who like you has passed a lifetime in the study of philosophy should

Not, he said, with the assurance of positive certainty; he has no right to do that: but he may say what he

And do you not know, I said, that all mere opinions are bad, and the best of them blind? You would not deny

that those who have any true notion without intelligence are only like blind men who feel their way along the

And do you wish to behold what is blind and crooked and base, when others will tell you of brightness and

Still, I must implore you, Socrates, said Glaucon, not to turn away just as you are reaching the goal; if you

will only give such an explanation of the good as you have already given of justice and temperance and the

Yes, my friend, and I shall be at least equally satisfied, but I cannot help fearing that I shall fall, and that my

indiscreet zeal will bring ridicule upon me. No, sweet sirs, let us not at present ask what is the actual nature of

the good, for to reach what is now in my thoughts would be an effort too great for me. But of the child of the

good who is likest him, I would fain speak, if I could be sure that you wished to hearotherwise, not.

By all means, he said, tell us about the child, and you shall remain in our debt for the account of the parent.

I do indeed wish, I replied, that I could pay, and you receive, the account of the parent, and not, as now, of

the offspring only; take, however, this latter by way of interest, and at the same time have a care that i do not

Yes, I said, but I must first come to an understanding with you, and remind you of what I have mentioned in

The old story, that there is a many beautiful and a many good, and so of other things which we describe and

And there is an absolute beauty and an absolute good, and of other things to which the term `many' is applied

there is an absolute; for they may be brought under a single idea, which is called the essence of each.

The many, as we say, are seen but not known, and the ideas are known but not seen.

And with the hearing, I said, we hear, and with the other senses perceive the other objects of sense?

But have you remarked that sight is by far the most costly and complex piece of workmanship which the

Then reflect; has the ear or voice need of any third or additional nature in order that the one may be able to

No, indeed, I replied; and the same is true of most, if not all, the other sensesyou would not say that any of

But you see that without the addition of some other nature there is no seeing or being seen?

Sight being, as I conceive, in the eyes, and he who has eyes wanting to see; colour being also present in them,

still unless there be a third nature specially adapted to the purpose, the owner of the eyes will see nothing and

Noble, then, is the bond which links together sight and visibility, and great beyond other bonds by no small

And which, I said, of the gods in heaven would you say was the lord of this element? Whose is that light

And the power which the eye possesses is a sort of effluence which is dispensed from the sun?

And this is he whom I call the child of the good, whom the good begat in his own likeness, to be in the visible

world, in relation to sight and the things of sight, what the good is in the intellectual world in relation to mind

Why, you know, I said, that the eyes, when a person directs them towards objects on which the light of day is

no longer shining, but the moon and stars only, see dimly, and are nearly blind; they seem to have no

But when they are directed towards objects on which the sun shines, they see clearly and there is sight in

And the soul is like the eye: when resting upon that on which truth and being shine, the soul perceives and

understands and is radiant with intelligence; but when turned towards the twilight of becoming and perishing,

then she has opinion only, and goes blinking about, and is first of one opinion and then of another, and seems

Now, that which imparts truth to the known and the power of knowing to the knower is what I would have

you term the idea of good, and this you will deem to be the cause of science, and of truth in so far as the latter

becomes the subject of knowledge; beautiful too, as are both truth and knowledge, you will be right in

esteeming this other nature as more beautiful than either; and, as in the previous instance, light and sight may

be truly said to be like the sun, and yet not to be the sun, so in this other sphere, science and truth may be

deemed to be like the good, but not the good; the good has a place of honour yet higher.

What a wonder of beauty that must be, he said, which is the author of science and truth, and yet surpasses

God forbid, I replied; but may I ask you to consider the image in another point of view?

You would say, would you not, that the sun is only the author of visibility in all visible things, but of

In like manner the good may be said to be not only the author of knowledge to all things known, but of their

being and essence, and yet the good is not essence, but far exceeds essence in dignity and power.

Glaucon said, with a ludicrous earnestness: By the light of heaven, how amazing!

Yes, I said, and the exaggeration may be set down to you; for you made me utter my fancies.

And pray continue to utter them; at any rate let us hear if there is anything more to be said about the

I will do my best, I said; but I should think that a great deal will have to be omitted.

You have to imagine, then, that there are two ruling powers, and that one of them is set over the intellectual

world, the other over the visible. I do not say heaven, lest you should fancy that I am playing upon the name

('ourhanoz, orhatoz'). May I suppose that you have this distinction of the visible and intelligible fixed in your

Now take a line which has been cut into two unequal parts, and divide each of them again in the same

proportion, and suppose the two main divisions to answer, one to the visible and the other to the intelligible,

and then compare the subdivisions in respect of their clearness and want of clearness, and you will find that

the first section in the sphere of the visible consists of images. And by images I mean, in the first place,

shadows, and in the second place, reflections in water and in solid, smooth and polished bodies and the like:

Imagine, now, the other section, of which this is only the resemblance, to include the animals which we see,

Would you not admit that both the sections of this division have different degrees of truth, and that the copy

Next proceed to consider the manner in which the sphere of the intellectual is to be divided.

Thus:There are two subdivisions, in the lower or which the soul uses the figures given by the former

division as images; the enquiry can only be hypothetical, and instead of going upwards to a principle

descends to the other end; in the higher of the two, the soul passes out of hypotheses, and goes up to a

principle which is above hypotheses, making no use of images as in the former case, but proceeding only in

Then I will try again; you will understand me better when I have made some preliminary remarks. You are

aware that students of geometry, arithmetic, and the kindred sciences assume the odd and the even and the

figures and three kinds of angles and the like in their several branches of science; these are their hypotheses,

which they and everybody are supposed to know, and therefore they do not deign to give any account of them

either to themselves or others; but they begin with them, and go on until they arrive at last, and in a consistent

And do you not know also that although they make use of the visible forms and reason about them, they are

thinking not of these, but of the ideals which they resemble; not of the figures which they draw, but of the

absolute square and the absolute diameter, and so on the forms which they draw or make, and which have

shadows and reflections in water of their own, are converted by them into images, but they are really seeking

to behold the things themselves, which can only be seen with the eye of the mind?

And of this kind I spoke as the intelligible, although in the search after it the soul is compelled to use

hypotheses; not ascending to a first principle, because she is unable to rise above the region of hypothesis, but

employing the objects of which the shadows below are resemblances in their turn as images, they having in

relation to the shadows and reflections of them a greater distinctness, and therefore a higher value.

I understand, he said, that you are speaking of the province of geometry and the sister arts.

And when I speak of the other division of the intelligible, you will understand me to speak of that other sort

of knowledge which reason herself attains by the power of dialectic, using the hypotheses not as first

principles, but only as hypotheses that is to say, as steps and points of departure into a world which is

above hypotheses, in order that she may soar beyond them to the first principle of the whole; and clinging to

this and then to that which depends on this, by successive steps she descends again without the aid of any

I understand you, he replied; not perfectly, for you seem to me to be describing a task which is really

tremendous; but, at any rate, I understand you to say that knowledge and being, which the science of dialectic

contemplates, are clearer than the notions of the arts, as they are termed, which proceed from hypotheses

only: these are also contemplated by the understanding, and not by the senses: yet, because they start from

hypotheses and do not ascend to a principle, those who contemplate them appear to you not to exercise the

higher reason upon them, although when a first principle is added to them they are cognizable by the higher

reason. And the habit which is concerned with geometry and the cognate sciences I suppose that you would

term understanding and not reason, as being intermediate between opinion and reason.

You have quite conceived my meaning, I said; and now, corresponding to these four divisions, let there be

four faculties in the soulreason answering to the highest, understanding to the second, faith (or conviction)

to the third, and perception of shadows to the lastand let there be a scale of them, and let us suppose that the

several faculties have clearness in the same degree that their objects have truth.

AND now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:Behold!

human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along

the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot

move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above

and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way;

and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of

animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are

Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire

True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was

And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to

fancy when one of the passersby spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?

To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

And now look again, and see what will naturally follow it' the prisoners are released and disabused of their

error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and

walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable

to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying

to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his

eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, what will be his reply? And you may

further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them,

will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the

And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him

turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in

And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he's

forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches

the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called

He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best,

next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze

upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by

Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his

He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that

is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been

And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellowprisoners, do you not

And if they were in the habit of conferring honours among themselves on those who were quickest to observe

the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were

together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would

care for such honours and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,

and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?

Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this

Imagine once more, I said, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation;

And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had

never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the

time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be

ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better

not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them

This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prisonhouse

is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the

journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at

your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion

is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and,

when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of

the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that

this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye

Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to

human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire

And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine contemplations to the evil state of man,

misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become

accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about

the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavouring to meet the conceptions of those who

Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise

from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's

eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is

perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of

the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to

the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and

he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there

will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the

But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a

Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just

as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of

knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of

being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other

And must there not be some art which will effect conversion in the easiest and quickest manner; not

implanting the faculty of sight, for that exists already, but has been turned in the wrong direction, and is

And whereas the other socalled virtues of the soul seem to be akin to bodily qualities, for even when they

are not originally innate they can be implanted later by habit and exercise, the of wisdom more than anything

else contains a divine element which always remains, and by this conversion is rendered useful and

profitable; or, on the other hand, hurtful and useless. Did you never observe the narrow intelligence flashing

from the keen eye of a clever roguehow eager he is, how clearly his paltry soul sees the way to his end; he

is the reverse of blind, but his keen eyesight is forced into the service of evil, and he is mischievous in

But what if there had been a circumcision of such natures in the days of their youth; and they had been

severed from those sensual pleasures, such as eating and drinking, which, like leaden weights, were attached

to them at their birth, and which drag them down and turn the vision of their souls upon the things that are

belowif, I say, they had been released from these impediments and turned in the opposite direction, the

very same faculty in them would have seen the truth as keenly as they see what their eyes are turned to now.

Yes, I said; and there is another thing which is likely. or rather a necessary inference from what has preceded,

that neither the uneducated and uninformed of the truth, nor yet those who never make an end of their

education, will be able ministers of State; not the former, because they have no single aim of duty which is

the rule of all their actions, private as well as public; nor the latter, because they will not act at all except

upon compulsion, fancying that they are already dwelling apart in the islands of the blest.

Then, I said, the business of us who are the founders of the State will be to compel the best minds to attain

that knowledge which we have already shown to be the greatest of allthey must continue to ascend until

they arrive at the good; but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they

I mean that they remain in the upper world: but this must not be allowed; they must be made to descend again

among the prisoners in the den, and partake of their labours and honours, whether they are worth having or

But is not this unjust? he said; ought we to give them a worse life, when they might have a better?

You have again forgotten, my friend, I said, the intention of the legislator, who did not aim at making any one

class in the State happy above the rest; the happiness was to be in the whole State, and he held the citizens

together by persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State, and therefore benefactors of one

another; to this end he created them, not to please themselves, but to be his instruments in binding up the

Observe, Glaucon, that there will be no injustice in compelling our philosophers to have a care and

providence of others; we shall explain to them that in other States, men of their class are not obliged to share

in the toils of politics: and this is reasonable, for they grow up at their own sweet will, and the government

would rather not have them. Being selftaught, they cannot be expected to show any gratitude for a culture

which they have never received. But we have brought you into the world to be rulers of the hive, kings of

yourselves and of the other citizens, and have educated you far better and more perfectly than they have been

educated, and you are better able to share in the double duty. Wherefore each of you, when his turn comes,

must go down to the general underground abode, and get the habit of seeing in the dark. When you have

acquired the habit, you will see ten thousand times better than the inhabitants of the den, and you will know

what the several images are, and what they represent, because you have seen the beautiful and just and good

in their truth. And thus our State which is also yours will be a reality, and not a dream only, and will be

administered in a spirit unlike that of other States, in which men fight with one another about shadows only

and are distracted in the struggle for power, which in their eyes is a great good. Whereas the truth is that the

State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed, and the

And will our pupils, when they hear this, refuse to take their turn at the toils of State, when they are allowed

Impossible, he answered; for they are just men, and the commands which we impose upon them are just;

there can be no doubt that every one of them will take office as a stern necessity, and not after the fashion of

Yes, my friend, I said; and there lies the point. You must contrive for your future rulers another and a better

life than that of a ruler, and then you may have a wellordered State; for only in the State which offers this,

will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings

of life. Whereas if they go to the administration of public affairs, poor and hungering after the' own private

advantage, thinking that hence they are to snatch the chief good, order there can never be; for they will be

fighting about office, and the civil and domestic broils which thus arise will be the ruin of the rulers

And the only life which looks down upon the life of political ambition is that of true philosophy. Do you

And those who govern ought not to be lovers of the task? For, if they are, there will be rival lovers, and they

Who then are those whom we shall compel to be guardians? Surely they will be the men who are wisest about

affairs of State, and by whom the State is best administered, and who at the same time have other honours

And now shall we consider in what way such guardians will be produced, and how they are to be brought

from darkness to light,as some are said to have ascended from the world below to the gods?

The process, I said, is not the turning over of an oystershell, but the turning round of a soul passing from a

day which is little better than night to the true day of being, that is, the ascent from below, which we affirm to

And should we not enquire what sort of knowledge has the power of effecting such a change?

What sort of knowledge is there which would draw the soul from becoming to being? And another

consideration has just occurred to me: You will remember that our young men are to be warrior athletes

There was gymnastic which presided over the growth and decay of the body, and may therefore be regarded

But what do you say of music, which also entered to a certain extent into our former scheme?

Music, he said, as you will remember, was the counterpart of gymnastic, and trained the guardians by the

influences of habit, by harmony making them harmonious, by rhythm rhythmical, but not giving them

science; and the words, whether fabulous or possibly true, had kindred elements of rhythm and harmony in

them. But in music there was nothing which tended to that good which you are now seeking.

You are most accurate, I said, in your recollection; in music there certainly was nothing of the kind. But what

branch of knowledge is there, my dear Glaucon, which is of the desired nature; since all the useful arts were

Undoubtedly; and yet if music and gymnastic are excluded, and the arts are also excluded, what remains?

Well, I said, there may be nothing left of our special subjects; and then we shall have to take something

A something which all arts and sciences and intelligences use in common, and which every one first has to

The little matter of distinguishing one, two, and threein a word, number and calculation:do not all arts

Then Palamedes, whenever he appears in tragedy, proves Agamemnon ridiculously unfit to be a general. Did

you never remark how he declares that he had invented number, and had numbered the ships and set in array

the ranks of the army at Troy; which implies that they had never been numbered before, and Agamemnon

must be supposed literally to have been incapable of counting his own feet how could he if he was

ignorant of number? And if that is true, what sort of general must he have been?

Certainly he should, if he is to have the smallest understanding of military tactics, or indeed, I should rather

I should like to know whether you have the same notion which I have of this study?

It appears to me to be a study of the kind which we are seeking, and which leads naturally to reflection, but

never to have been rightly used; for the true use of it is simply to draw the soul towards being.

I will try, I said; and I wish you would share the enquiry with me, and say `yes' or `no' when I attempt to

distinguish in my own mind what branches of knowledge have this attracting power, in order that we may

I mean to say that objects of sense are of two kinds; some of them do not invite thought because the sense is

an adequate judge of them; while in the case of other objects sense is so untrustworthy that further enquiry is

You are clearly referring, he said, to the manner in which the senses are imposed upon by distance, and by

When speaking of uninviting objects, I mean those which do not pass from one sensation to the opposite;

inviting objects are those which do; in this latter case the sense coming upon the object, whether at a distance

or near, gives no more vivid idea of anything in particular than of its opposite. An illustration will make my

meaning clearer: here are three fingersa little finger, a second finger, and a middle finger.

Each of them equally appears a finger, whether seen in the middle or at the extremity, whether white or black,

or thick or thin it makes no difference; a finger is a finger all the same. In these cases a man is not

compelled to ask of thought the question, what is a finger? for the sight never intimates to the mind that a

And therefore, I said, as we might expect, there is nothing here which invites or excites intelligence.

But is this equally true of the greatness and smallness of the fingers? Can sight adequately perceive them?

and is no difference made by the circumstance that one of the fingers is in the middle and another at the

extremity? And in like manner does the touch adequately perceive the qualities of thickness or thinness, or

softness or hardness? And so of the other senses; do they give perfect intimations of such matters? Is not their

mode of operation on this wise the sense which is concerned with the quality of hardness is necessarily

concerned also with the quality of softness, and only intimates to the soul that the same thing is felt to be both

And must not the soul be perplexed at this intimation which the sense gives of a hard which is also soft?

What, again, is the meaning of light and heavy, if that which is light is also heavy, and that which is heavy,

Yes, he said, these intimations which the soul receives are very curious and require to be explained.

Yes, I said, and in these perplexities the soul naturally summons to her aid calculation and intelligence, that

And if each is one, and both are two, she will conceive the two as in a state of division, for if there were

The eye certainly did see both small and great, but only in a confused manner; they were not distinguished.

Whereas the thinking mind, intending to light up the chaos, was compelled to reverse the process, and look at

This was what I meant when I spoke of impressions which invited the intellect, or the reversethose which

are simultaneous with opposite impressions, invite thought; those which are not simultaneous do not.

Think a little and you will see that what has preceded will supply the answer; for if simple unity could be

adequately perceived by the sight or by any other sense, then, as we were saying in the case of the finger,

there would be nothing to attract towards being; but when there is some contradiction always present, and one

is the reverse of one and involves the conception of plurality, then thought begins to be aroused within us,

and the soul perplexed and wanting to arrive at a decision asks `What is absolute unity?' This is the way in

which the study of the one has a power of drawing and converting the mind to the contemplation of true

And surely, he said, this occurs notably in the case of one; for we see the same thing to be both one and

Then this is knowledge of the kind for which we are seeking, having a double use, military and philosophical;

for the man of war must learn the art of number or he will not know how to array his troops, and the

philosopher also, because he has to rise out of the sea of change and lay hold of true being, and therefore he

Then this is a kind of knowledge which legislation may fitly prescribe; and we must endeavour to persuade

those who are prescribe to be the principal men of our State to go and learn arithmetic, not as amateurs, but

they must carry on the study until they see the nature of numbers with the mind only; nor again, like

merchants or retailtraders, with a view to buying or selling, but for the sake of their military use, and of the

soul herself; and because this will be the easiest way for her to pass from becoming to truth and being.

Yes, I said, and now having spoken of it, I must add how charming the science is! and in how many ways it

conduces to our desired end, if pursued in the spirit of a philosopher, and not of a shopkeeper!

I mean, as I was saying, that arithmetic has a very great and elevating effect, compelling the soul to reason

about abstract number, and rebelling against the introduction of visible or tangible objects into the argument.

You know how steadily the masters of the art repel and ridicule any one who attempts to divide absolute

unity when he is calculating, and if you divide, they multiply, taking care that one shall continue one and not

Now, suppose a person were to say to them: O my friends, what are these wonderful numbers about which

you are reasoning, in which, as you say, there is a unity such as you demand, and each unit is equal,

They would answer, as I should conceive, that they were speaking of those numbers which can only be

Then you see that this knowledge may be truly called necessary, necessitating as it clearly does the use of the

And have you further observed, that those who have a natural talent for calculation are generally quick at

every other kind of knowledge; and even the dull if they have had an arithmetical training, although they may

derive no other advantage from it, always become much quicker than they would otherwise have been.

And indeed, you will not easily find a more difficult study, and not many as difficult.

And, for all these reasons, arithmetic is a kind of knowledge in which the best natures should be trained, and

Let this then be made one of our subjects of education. And next, shall we enquire whether the kindred

Clearly, he said, we are concerned with that part of geometry which relates to war; for in pitching a camp, or

taking up a position, or closing or extending the lines of an army, or any other military manoeuvre, whether

in actual battle or on a march, it will make all the difference whether a general is or is not a geometrician.

Yes, I said, but for that purpose a very little of either geometry or calculation will be enough; the question

relates rather to the greater and more advanced part of geometrywhether that tends in any degree to make

more easy the vision of the idea of good; and thither, as I was saying, all things tend which compel the soul to

turn her gaze towards that place, where is the full perfection of being, which she ought, by all means, to

Then if geometry compels us to view being, it concerns us; if becoming only, it does not concern us?

Yet anybody who has the least acquaintance with geometry will not deny that such a conception of the

They have in view practice only, and are always speaking? in a narrow and ridiculous manner, of squaring

and extending and applying and the like they confuse the necessities of geometry with those of daily life;

That the knowledge at which geometry aims is knowledge of the eternal, and not of aught perishing and

Then, my noble friend, geometry will draw the soul towards truth, and create the spirit of philosophy, and

Then nothing should be more sternly laid down than that the inhabitants of your fair city should by all means

There are the military advantages of which you spoke, I said; and in all departments of knowledge, as

experience proves, any one who has studied geometry is infinitely quicker of apprehension than one who has

Then shall we propose this as a second branch of knowledge which our youth will study?

I am strongly inclined to it, he said; the observation of the seasons and of months and years is as essential to

I am amused, I said, at your fear of the world, which makes you guard against the appearance of insisting

upon useless studies; and I quite admit the difficulty of believing that in every man there is an eye of the soul

which, when by other pursuits lost and dimmed, is by these purified and reillumined; and is more precious

far than ten thousand bodily eyes, for by it alone is truth seen. Now there are two classes of persons: one class

of those who will agree with you and will take your words as a revelation; another class to whom they will be

utterly unmeaning, and who will naturally deem them to be idle tales, for they see no sort of profit which is to

be obtained from them. And therefore you had better decide at once with which of the two you are proposing

to argue. You will very likely say with neither, and that your chief aim in carrying on the argument is your

own improvement; at the same time you do not grudge to others any benefit which they may receive.

After plane geometry, I said, we proceeded at once to solids in revolution, instead of taking solids in

themselves; whereas after the second dimension the third, which is concerned with cubes and dimensions of

That is true, Socrates; but so little seems to be known as yet about these subjects.

Why, yes, I said, and for two reasons:in the first place, no government patronises them; this leads to a want

of energy in the pursuit of them, and they are difficult; in the second place, students cannot learn them unless

they have a director. But then a director can hardly be found, and even if he could, as matters now stand, the

students, who are very conceited, would not attend to him. That, however, would be otherwise if the whole

State became the director of these studies and gave honour to them; then disciples would want to come, and

there would be continuous and earnest search, and discoveries would be made; since even now, disregarded

as they are by the world, and maimed of their fair proportions, and although none of their votaries can tell the

use of them, still these studies force their way by their natural charm, and very likely, if they had the help of

Yes, he said, there is a remarkable charm in them. But I do not clearly understand the change in the order.

Yes, and I have delayed you by my hurry; the ludicrous state of solid geometry, which, in natural order,

should have followed, made me pass over this branch and go on to astronomy, or motion of solids.

Then assuming that the science now omitted would come into existence if encouraged by the State, let us go

The right order, he replied. And now, Socrates, as you rebuked the vulgar manner in which I praised

astronomy before, my praise shall be given in your own spirit. For every one, as I think, must see that

astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.

Every one but myself, I said; to every one else this may be clear, but not to me.

I should rather say that those who elevate astronomy into philosophy appear to me to make us look

You, I replied, have in your mind a truly sublime conception of our knowledge of the things above. And I

dare say that if a person were to throw his head back and study the fretted ceiling, you would still think that

his mind was the percipient, and not his eyes. And you are very likely right, and I may be a simpleton: but, in

my opinion, that knowledge only which is of being and of the unseen can make the soul look upwards, and

whether a man gapes at the heavens or blinks on the ground, seeking to learn some particular of sense, I

would deny that he can learn, for nothing of that sort is matter of science; his soul is looking downwards, not

upwards, whether his way to knowledge is by water or by land, whether he floats, or only lies on his back.

I acknowledge, he said, the justice of your rebuke. Still, I should like to ascertain how astronomy can be

learned in any manner more conducive to that knowledge of which we are speaking?

I will tell you, I said: The starry heaven which we behold is wrought upon a visible ground, and therefore,

although the fairest and most perfect of visible things, must necessarily be deemed inferior far to the true

motions of absolute swiftness and absolute slowness, which are relative to each other, and carry with them

that which is contained in them, in the true number and in every true figure. Now, these are to be

The spangled heavens should be used as a pattern and with a view to that higher knowledge; their beauty is

like the beauty of figures or pictures excellently wrought by the hand of Daedalus, or some other great artist,

which we may chance to behold; any geometrician who saw them would appreciate the exquisiteness of their

workmanship, but he would never dream of thinking that in them he could find the true equal or the true

And will not a true astronomer have the same feeling when he looks at the movements of the stars? Will he

not think that heaven and the things in heaven are framed by the Creator of them in the most perfect manner?

But he will never imagine that the proportions of night and day, or of both to the month, or of the month to

the year, or of the stars to these and to one another, and any other things that are material and visible can also

be eternal and subject to no deviation that would be absurd; and it is equally absurd to take so much pains

Then, I said, in astronomy, as in geometry, we should employ problems, and let the heavens alone if we

would approach the subject in the right way and so make the natural gift of reason to be of any real use.

Yes, I said; and there are many other things which must also have a similar extension given to them, if our

legislation is to be of any value. But can you tell me of any other suitable study?

Motion, I said, has many forms, and not one only; two of them are obvious enough even to wits no better than

The second, I said, would seem relatively to the ears to be what the first is to the eyes; for I conceive that as

the eyes are designed to look up at the stars, so are the ears to hear harmonious motions; and these are sister

But this, I said, is a laborious study, and therefore we had better go and learn of them; and they will tell us

whether there are any other applications of these sciences. At the same time, we must not lose sight of our

There is a perfection which all knowledge ought to reach, and which our pupils ought also to attain, and not

to fall short of, as I was saying that they did in astronomy. For in the science of harmony, as you probably

know, the same thing happens. The teachers of harmony compare the sounds and consonances which are

Yes, by heaven! he said; and 'tis as good as a play to hear them talking about their condensed notes, as they

call them; they put their ears close alongside of the strings like persons catching a sound from their

neighbour's wallone set of them declaring that they distinguish an intermediate note and have found the

least interval which should be the unit of measurement; the others insisting that the two sounds have passed

You mean, I said, those gentlemen who tease and torture the strings and rack them on the pegs of the

instrument: might carry on the metaphor and speak after their manner of the blows which the plectrum gives,

and make accusations against the strings, both of backwardness and forwardness to sound; but this would be

tedious, and therefore I will only say that these are not the men, and that I am referring to the Pythagoreans,

of whom I was just now proposing to enquire about harmony. For they too are in error, like the astronomers;

they investigate the numbers of the harmonies which are heard, but they never attain to problemsthat is to

say, they never reach the natural harmonies of number, or reflect why some numbers are harmonious and

A thing, I replied, which I would rather call useful; that is, if sought after with a view to the beautiful and

Now, when all these studies reach the point of intercommunion and connection with one another, and come

to be considered in their mutual affinities, then, I think, but not till then, will the pursuit of them have a value

What do you mean? I said; the prelude or what? Do you not know that all this is but the prelude to the actual

strain which we have to learn? For you surely would not regard the skilled mathematician as a dialectician?

Assuredly not, he said; I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.

But do you imagine that men who are unable to give and take a reason will have the knowledge which we

And so, Glaucon, I said, we have at last arrived at the hymn of dialectic. This is that strain which is of the

intellect only, but which the faculty of sight will nevertheless be found to imitate; for sight, as you may

remember, was imagined by us after a while to behold the real animals and stars, and last of all the sun

himself. And so with dialectic; when a person starts on the discovery of the absolute by the light of reason

only, and without any assistance of sense, and perseveres until by pure intelligence he arrives at the

perception of the absolute good, he at last finds himself at the end of the intellectual world, as in the case of

But the release of the prisoners from chains, and their translation from the shadows to the images and to the

light, and the ascent from the underground den to the sun, while in his presence they are vainly trying to look

on animals and plants and the light of the sun, but are able to perceive even with their weak eyes the images

in the water (which are divine), and are the shadows of true existence (not shadows of images cast by a light

of fire, which compared with the sun is only an image)this power of elevating the highest principle in the

soul to the contemplation of that which is best in existence, with which we may compare the raising of that

faculty which is the very light of the body to the sight of that which is brightest in the material and visible

worldthis power is given, as I was saying, by all that study and pursuit of the arts which has been

I agree in what you are saying, he replied, which may be hard to believe, yet, from another point of view, is

harder still to deny. This, however, is not a theme to be treated of in passing only, but will have to be

discussed again and again. And so, whether our conclusion be true or false, let us assume all this, and proceed

at once from the prelude or preamble to the chief strain, and describe that in like manner. Say, then, what is

the nature and what are the divisions of dialectic, and what are the paths which lead thither; for these paths

Dear Glaucon, I said, you will not be able to follow me here, though I would do my best, and you should

behold not an image only but the absolute truth, according to my notion. Whether what I told you would or

would not have been a reality I cannot venture to say; but you would have seen something like reality; of that

But I must also remind you, that the power of dialectic alone can reveal this, and only to one who is a disciple

And assuredly no one will argue that there is any other method of comprehending by any regular process all

true existence or of ascertaining what each thing is in its own nature; for the arts in general are concerned

with the desires or opinions of men, or are cultivated with a view to production and construction, or for the

preservation of such productions and constructions; and as to the mathematical sciences which, as we were

saying, have some apprehension of true beinggeometry and the like they only dream about being, but

never can they behold the waking reality so long as they leave the hypotheses which they use unexamined,

and are unable to give an account of them. For when a man knows not his own first principle, and when the

conclusion and intermediate steps are also constructed out of he knows not what, how can he imagine that

Then dialectic, and dialectic alone, goes directly to the first principle and is the only science which does away

with hypotheses in order to make her ground secure; the eye of the soul, which is literally buried in an

outlandish slough, is by her gentle aid lifted upwards; and she uses as handmaids and helpers in the work of

conversion, the sciences which we have been discussing. Custom terms them sciences, but they ought to have

some other name, implying greater clearness than opinion and less clearness than science: and this, in our

previous sketch, was called understanding. But why should we dispute about names when we have realities of

Why indeed, he said, when any name will do which expresses the thought of the mind with clearness?

At any rate, we are satisfied, as before, to have four divisions; two for intellect and two for opinion, and to

call the first division science, the second understanding, the third belief, and the fourth perception of

shadows, opinion being concerned with becoming, and intellect with being; and so to make a proportion:

As being is to becoming, so is pure intellect to opinion. And as intellect is to opinion, so is science to belief,

But let us defer the further correlation and subdivision of the subjects of opinion and of intellect, for it will be

And do you also agree, I said, in describing the dialectician as one who attains a conception of the essence of

each thing? And he who does not possess and is therefore unable to impart this conception, in whatever

degree he fails, may in that degree also be said to fail in intelligence? Will you admit so much?

Until the person is able to abstract and define rationally the 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

And surely you would not have the children of your ideal State, whom you are nurturing and educatingif

the ideal ever becomes a realityyou would not allow the future rulers to be like posts, having no reason in

Then you will make a law that they shall have such an education as will enable them to attain the greatest

Dialectic, then, as you will agree, is the copingstone of the sciences, and is set over them; no other science

But to whom we are to assign these studies, and in what way they are to be assigned, are questions which

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

Such gifts as keenness and ready powers of acquisition; for the mind more often faints from the severity of

study than from the severity of gymnastics: the toil is more entirely the mind's own, and is not shared with the

Further, he of whom we are in search should have a good 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

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.

In the first place, her votary should not have a lame or 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 listening or enquiring. Or the

occupation to which he devotes himself may be of an opposite kind, and he may have the other sort of

And as to truth, I said, is not a soul equally to be deemed 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?

And, again, in respect of temperance, courage, magnificence, 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

All these things, then, will have to be carefully considered by us; and if only those whom we introduce to this

vast system of education and training are sound in body and mind, justice herself will have nothing to say

against us, and we 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

Certainly not, I said; and yet perhaps, in thus turning jest into earnest I am equally ridiculous.

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

But I, who am the speaker, felt that I was. And now let 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 thingsfor he can no more learn much than he can run much; youth is the time

And, therefore, calculation and geometry and all the other elements of instruction, which are a preparation for

dialectic, should be presented to the mind in childhood; not, however, under any notion of forcing our system

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

Then, my good friend, I said, do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will

Do you remember that the children, too, were to be taken 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 taste of blood given them?

The same practice may be followed, I said, in all these things labours, lessons, dangersand he who is

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

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, I said; and the capacity for such knowledge is the great criterion of dialectical talent: the comprehensive

These, I said, are the points which you must consider; and those who have most of this comprehension, and

who are more steadfast in their learning, and in their military and other appointed duties, when they have

arrived at the age of thirty 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

Do you not remark, I said, how great is the evil which dialectic has introduced?

Do you think that there is anything so very unnatural or inexcusable in their case? or will you make

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?

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 willing to disobey them in any important matter.

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 live 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.

There are also opposite maxims and habits of pleasure which flatter and attract the soul, but do not influence

those of us who have any sense of right, and they continue to obey and honour the maxims of their fathers.

Now, when a man is in this state, and the questioning spirit asks what is fair or honourable, and he answers as

the legislator has taught him, and then arguments many and diverse refute his words, until he is driven into

believing that nothing is honourable any more than dishonourable, or just and good any more than the

reverse, and so of all the notions which he most valued, do you think that he will still honour and obey them

And when he ceases to think them honourable and natural as heretofore, and he fails to discover the true, can

Now all this is very natural in students of philosophy such as I have described, and also, as I was just now

Therefore, that your feelings may not be moved to pity about our citizens who are now thirty years of age,

There is a danger lest they should taste the dear delight too early; for youngsters, as you may have observed,

when they first get the taste in their mouths, argue for amusement, and are always contradicting and refuting

others in imitation of those who refute them; like puppydogs, they rejoice in pulling and tearing at all who

And when they have made many conquests and received defeats at the hands of many, they violently and

speedily get into a way of not believing anything which they believed before, and hence, not only they, but

philosophy and all that relates to it is apt to have a bad name with the rest of the world.

But when a man begins to get older, he will no longer be guilty of such insanity; he will imitate the

dialectician who is seeking for truth, and not the eristic, who is contradicting for the sake of amusement; and

the greater moderation of his character will increase instead of diminishing the honour of the pursuit.

And did we not make special provision for this, when we said that the disciples of philosophy were to be

Suppose, I said, the study of philosophy to take the place of gymnastics and to be continued diligently and

earnestly and exclusively for twice the number of years which were passed in bodily exercise will that be

Say five years, I replied; at the end of the time they must be sent down again into the den and compelled to

hold any military or other office which young men are qualified to hold: in this way they will get their

experience of life, and there will be an opportunity of trying whether, when they are drawn all manner of

Fifteen years, I answered; and when they have reached fifty years of age, then let those who still survive and

have distinguished themselves in every action of their lives and in every branch of knowledge come at last to

their consummation; the time has now arrived at which they must raise the eye of the soul to the universal

light which lightens all things, and behold the absolute good; for that is the, pattern according to which they

are to order the State and the lives of individuals, and the remainder of their own lives also; making

philosophy their chief pursuit, but, when their turn comes, toiling also at politics and ruling for the public

good, not as though they were performing some heroic action, but simply as a matter of duty; and when they

have brought up in each generation others like themselves and left them in their place to be governors of the

State, then they will depart to the Islands of the Blest and dwell there; and the city will give them public

memorials and sacrifices and honour them, if the Pythian oracle consent, as demigods, but if not, as in any

You are a sculptor, Socrates, and have made statues of our governors faultless in beauty.

Yes, I said, Glaucon, and of our governesses too; for you must not suppose that what I have been saying

There you are right, he said, since we have made them to share in all things like the men.

Well, I said, and you would agree (would you not?) that what has been said about the State and the

government is not a mere dream, and although difficult not impossible, but only possible in the way which

has been supposed; that is to say, when the true philosopher kings are born in a State, one or more of them,

despising the honours of this present world which they deem mean and worthless, esteeming above all things

right and the honour that springs from right, and regarding justice as the greatest and most necessary of all

things, whose ministers they are, and whose principles will be exalted by them when they set in order their

They will begin by sending out into the country all the inhabitants of the city who are more than ten years

old, and will take possession of their children, who will be unaffected by the habits of their parents; these

they will train in their own habits and laws, I mean in the laws which we have given them: and in this way the

State and constitution of which we were speaking will soonest and most easily attain happiness, and the

Yes, that will be the best way. And I think, Socrates, that you have very well described how, if ever, such a

Enough then of the perfect State, and of the man who bears its image there is no difficulty in seeing how

There is no difficulty, he replied; and I agree with you in thinking that nothing more need be said.

AND so, Glaucon, we have arrived at the conclusion that in the perfect State wives and children are to be in

common; and that all education and the pursuits of war and peace are also to be common, and the best

Yes, I said; and we have further acknowledged that the governors, when appointed themselves, will take their

soldiers and place them in houses such as we were describing, which are common to all, and contain nothing

Yes, I remember that no one was to have any of the ordinary possessions of mankind; they were to be warrior

athletes and guardians, receiving from the other citizens, in lieu of annual payment, only their maintenance,

True, I said; and now that this division of our task is concluded, let us find the point at which we digressed,

There is no difficulty in returning; you implied, then as now, that you had finished the description of the

State: you said that such a State was good, and that the man was good who answered to it, although, as now

appears, you had more excellent things to relate both of State and man. And you said further, that if this was

the true form, then the others were false; and of the false forms, you said, as I remember, that there were four

principal ones, and that their defects, and the defects of the individuals corresponding to them, were worth

examining. When we had seen all the individuals, and finally agreed as to who was the best and who was the

worst of them, we were to consider whether the best was not also the happiest, and the worst the most

miserable. I asked you what were the four forms of government of which you spoke, and then Polemarchus

and Adeimantus put in their word; and you began again, and have found your way to the point at which we

Then, like a wrestler, he replied, you must put yourself again in the same position; and let me ask the same

questions, and do you give me the same answer which you were about to give me then.

I shall particularly wish to hear what were the four constitutions of which you were speaking.

That question, I said, is easily answered: the four governments of which I spoke, so far as they have distinct

names, are, first, those of Crete and Sparta, which are generally applauded; what is termed oligarchy comes

next; this is not equally approved, and is a form of government which teems with evils: thirdly, democracy,

which naturally follows oligarchy, although very different: and lastly comes tyranny, great and famous,

which differs from them all, and is the fourth and worst disorder of a State. I do not know, do you? of any

other constitution which can be said to have a distinct character. There are lordships and principalities which

are bought and sold, and some other intermediate forms of government. But these are nondescripts and may

Yes, he replied, we certainly hear of many curious forms of government which exist among them.

Do you know, I said, that governments vary as the dispositions of men vary, and that there must be as many

of the one as there are of the other? For we cannot suppose that States are made of `oak and rock,' and not out

of the human natures which are in them, and which in a figure turn the scale and draw other things after

Then if the constitutions of States are five, the dispositions of individual minds will also be five?

Him who answers to aristocracy, and whom we rightly call just and good, we have already described.

Then let us now proceed to describe the inferior sort of natures, being the contentious and ambitious, who

answer to the Spartan polity; also the oligarchical, democratical, and tyrannical. Let us place the most just by

the side of the most unjust, and when we see them we shall be able to compare the relative happiness or

unhappiness of him who leads a life of pure justice or pure injustice. The enquiry will then be completed.

And we shall know whether we ought to pursue injustice, as Thrasymachus advises, or in accordance with the

Shall we follow our old plan, which we adopted with a view to clearness, of taking the State first and then

proceeding to the individual, and begin with the government of honour?I know of no name for such a

government other than timocracy, or perhaps timarchy. We will compare with this the like character in the

individual; and, after that, consider oligarchical man; and then again we will turn our attention to democracy

and the democratical man; and lastly, we will go and view the city of tyranny, and once more take a look into

First, then, I said, let us enquire how timocracy (the government of honour) arises out of aristocracy (the

government of the best). Clearly, all political changes originate in divisions of the actual governing power; a

In what way, then, will our city be moved, and in what manner the two classes of auxiliaries and rulers

disagree among themselves or with one another? Shall we, after the manner of Homer, pray the Muses to tell

us `how discord first arose'? Shall we imagine them in solemn mockery, to play and jest with us as if we were

children, and to address us in a lofty tragic vein, making believe to be in earnest?

After this manner:A city which is thus constituted can hardly be shaken; but, seeing that everything which

has a beginning has also an end, even a constitution such as yours will not last for ever, but will in time be

dissolved. And this is the dissolution: In plants that grow in the earth, as well as in animals that move on

the earth's surface, fertility and sterility of soul and body occur when the circumferences of the circles of each

are completed, which in shortlived existences pass over a short space, and in longlived ones over a long

space. But to the knowledge of human fecundity and sterility all the wisdom and education of your rulers will

not attain; the laws which regulate them will not be discovered by an intelligence which is alloyed with sense,

but will escape them, and they will bring children into the world when they ought not. Now that which is of

divine birth has a period which is contained in a perfect number, but the period of human birth is

comprehended in a number in which first increments by involution and evolution (or squared and cubed)

obtaining three intervals and four terms of like and unlike, waxing and waning numbers, make all the terms

commensurable and agreeable to one another. The base of these (3) with a third added (4) when combined

with five (20) and raised to the third power furnishes two harmonies; the first a square which is a hundred

times as great (400 = 4 X 100), and the other a figure having one side equal to the former, but oblong,

consisting of a hundred numbers squared upon rational diameters of a square (i. e. omitting fractions), the

side of which is five (7 X 7 = 49 X 100 = 4900), each of them being less by one (than the perfect square

which includes the fractions, sc. 50) or less by two perfect squares of irrational diameters (of a square the side

of which is five = 50 + 50 = 100); and a hundred cubes of three (27 X 100 = 2700 + 4900 + 400 = 8000).

Now this number represents a geometrical figure which has control over the good and evil of births. For when

your guardians are ignorant of the law of births, and unite bride and bridegroom out of season, the children

will not be goodly or fortunate. And though only the best of them will be appointed by their predecessors,

still they will be unworthy to hold their fathers' places, and when they come into power as guardians, they

will soon be found to fall in taking care of us, the Muses, first by undervaluing music; which neglect will

soon extend to gymnastic; and hence the young men of your State will be less cultivated. In the succeeding

generation rulers will be appointed who have lost the guardian power of testing the metal of your different

races, which, like Hesiod's, are of gold and silver and brass and iron. And so iron will be mingled with silver,

and brass with gold, and hence there will arise dissimilarity and inequality and irregularity, which always and

in all places are causes of hatred and war. This the Muses affirm to be the stock from which discord has

When discord arose, then the two races were drawn different ways: the iron and brass fell to acquiring money

and land and houses and gold and silver; but the gold and silver races, not wanting money but having the true

riches in their own nature, inclined towards virtue and the ancient order of things. There was a battle between

them, and at last they agreed to distribute their land and houses among individual owners; and they enslaved

their friends and maintainers, whom they had formerly protected in the condition of freemen, and made of

them subjects and servants; and they themselves were engaged in war and in keeping a watch against them.

And the new government which thus arises will be of a form intermediate between oligarchy and aristocracy?

Such will be the change, and after the change has been made, how will they proceed? Clearly, the new State,

being in a mean between oligarchy and the perfect State, will partly follow one and partly the other, and will

In the honour given to rulers, in the abstinence of the warrior class from agriculture, handicrafts, and trade in

general, in the institution of common meals, and in the attention paid to gymnastics and military trainingin

But in the fear of admitting philosophers to power, because they are no longer to be had simple and earnest,

but are made up of mixed elements; and in turning from them to passionate and less complex characters, who

are by nature fitted for war rather than peace; and in the value set by them upon military stratagems and

contrivances, and in the waging of everlasting warsthis State will be for the most part peculiar.

Yes, I said; and men of this stamp will be covetous of money, like those who live in oligarchies; they will

have, a fierce secret longing after gold and silver, which they will hoard in dark places, having magazines and

treasuries of their own for the deposit and concealment of them; also castles which are just nests for their

eggs, and in which they will spend large sums on their wives, or on any others whom they please.

And they are miserly because they have no means of openly acquiring the money which they prize; they will

spend that which is another man's on the gratification of their desires, stealing their pleasures and running

away like children from the law, their father: they have been schooled not by gentle influences but by force,

for they have neglected her who is the true Muse, the companion of reason and philosophy, and have

Undoubtedly, he said, the form of government which you describe is a mixture of good and evil.

Why, there is a mixture, I said; but one thing, and one thing only, is predominantly seen,the spirit of

contention and ambition; and these are due to the prevalence of the passionate or spirited element.

Such is the origin and such the character of this State, which has been described in outline only; the more

perfect execution was not required, for a sketch is enough to show the type of the most perfectly just and

most perfectly unjust; and to go through all the States and all the characters of men, omitting none of them,

Now what man answers to this form of governmenthow did he come into being, and what is he like?

I think, said Adeimantus, that in the spirit of contention which characterises him, he is not unlike our friend

Perhaps, I said, he may be like him in that one point; but there are other respects in which he is very different.

He should have more of selfassertion and be less cultivated, and yet a friend of culture; and he should be a

good listener, but no speaker. Such a person is apt to be rough with slaves, unlike the educated man, who is

too proud for that; and he will also be courteous to freemen, and remarkably obedient to authority; he is a

lover of power and a lover of honour; claiming to be a ruler, not because he is eloquent, or on any ground of

that sort, but because he is a soldier and has performed feats of arms; he is also a lover of gymnastic exercises

Such an one will despise riches only when he is young; but as he gets older he will be more and more

attracted to them, because he has a piece of the avaricious nature in him, and is not singleminded towards

Philosophy, I said, tempered with music, who comes and takes her abode in a man, and is the only saviour of

His origin is as follows:He is often the young son of a grave father, who dwells in an illgoverned city, of

which he declines the honours and offices, and will not go to law, or exert himself in any way, but is ready to

The character of the son begins to develop when he hears his mother complaining that her husband has no

place in the government, of which the consequence is that she has no precedence among other women.

Further, when she sees her husband not very eager about money, and instead of battling and railing in the law

courts or assembly, taking whatever happens to him quietly; and when she observes that his thoughts always

centre in himself, while he treats her with very considerable indifference, she is annoyed, and says to her son

that his father is only half a man and far too easygoing: adding all the other complaints about her own

Yes, said Adeimantus, they give us plenty of them, and their complaints are so like themselves.

And you know, I said, that the old servants also, who are supposed to be attached to the family, from time to

time talk privately in the same strain to the son; and if they see any one who owes money to his father, or is

wronging him in any way, and he falls to prosecute them, they tell the youth that when he grows up he must

retaliate upon people of this sort, and be more of a man than his father. He has only to walk abroad and he

hears and sees the same sort of thing: those who do their own business in the city are called simpletons, and

held in no esteem, while the busybodies are honoured and applauded. The result is that the young man,

hearing and seeing all these thing hearing too, the words of his father, and having a nearer view of his way

of life, and making comparisons of him and othersis drawn opposite ways: while his father is watering and

nourishing the rational principle in his soul, the others are encouraging the passionate and appetitive; and he

being not originally of a bad nature, but having kept bad company, is at last brought by their joint influence to

a middle point, and gives up the kingdom which is within him to the middle principle of contentiousness and

Then we have now, I said, the second form of government and the second type of character?

A government resting on a valuation of property, in which the rich have power and the poor man is deprived

Ought I not to begin by describing how the change from timocracy to oligarchy arises?

Well, I said, no eyes are required in order to see how the one passes into the other.

The accumulation of gold in the treasury of private individuals is ruin the of timocracy; they invent illegal

And then one, seeing another grow rich, seeks to rival him, and thus the great mass of the citizens become

And so they grow richer and richer, and the more they think of making a fortune the less they think of virtue;

for when riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other

And in proportion as riches and rich men are honoured in the State, virtue and the virtuous are dishonoured.

And so at last, instead of loving contention and glory, men become lovers of trade and money; they honour

and look up to the rich man, and make a ruler of him, and dishonour the poor man.

They next proceed to make a law which fixes a sum of money as the qualification of citizenship; the sum is

higher in one place and lower in another, as the oligarchy is more or less exclusive; and they allow no one

whose property falls below the amount fixed to have any share in the government. These changes in the

constitution they effect by force of arms, if intimidation has not already done their work.

Yes, he said; but what are the characteristics of this form of government, and what are the defects of which

First of all, I said, consider the nature of the qualification just think what would happen if pilots were to be

chosen according to their property, and a poor man were refused permission to steer, even though he were a

Nay, he said, the case of a city is the strongest of all, inasmuch as the rule of a city is the greatest and most

The inevitable division: such a State is not one, but two States, the one of poor, the other of rich men; and

Another discreditable feature is, that, for a like reason, they are incapable of carrying on any war. Either they

arm the multitude, and then they are more afraid of them than of the enemy; or, if they do not call them out in

the hour of battle, they are oligarchs indeed, few to fight as they are few to rule. And at the same time their

And, as we said before, under such a constitution the same persons have too many callingsthey are

There is another evil which is, perhaps, the greatest of all, and to which this State first begins to be liable.

A man may sell all that he has, and another may acquire his property; yet after the sale he may dwell in the

city of which he is no longer a part, being neither trader, nor artisan, nor horseman, nor hoplite, but only a

The evil is certainly not prevented there; for oligarchies have both the extremes of great wealth and utter

But think again: In his wealthy days, while he was spending his money, was a man of this sort a whit more

good to the State for the purposes of citizenship? Or did he only seem to be a member of the ruling body,

May we not say that this is the drone in the house who is like the drone in the honeycomb, and that the one is

And God has made the flying drones, Adeimantus, all without stings, whereas of the walking drones he has

made some without stings but others have dreadful stings; of the stingless class are those who in their old age

end as paupers; of the stingers come all the criminal class, as they are termed.

Clearly then, whenever you see paupers in a State, somewhere in that neighborhood there are hidden away

And may we be so bold as to affirm that there are also many criminals to be found in them, rogues who have

The existence of such persons is to be attributed to want of education, illtraining, and an evil constitution of

Such, then, is the form and such are the evils of oligarchy; and there may be many other evils.

Then oligarchy, or the form of government in which the rulers are elected for their wealth, may now be

dismissed. Let us next proceed to consider the nature and origin of the individual who answers to this State.

A time arrives when the representative of timocracy has a son: at first he begins by emulating his father and

walking in his footsteps, but presently he sees him of a sudden foundering against the State as upon a sunken

reef, and he and all that he has is lost; he may have been a general or some other high officer who is brought

to trial under a prejudice raised by informers, and either put to death, or exiled, or deprived of the privileges

And the son has seen and known all thishe is a ruined man, and his fear has taught him to knock ambition

and passion headforemost from his bosom's throne; humbled by poverty he takes to moneymaking and by

mean and miserly savings and hard work gets a fortune together. Is not such an one likely to seat the

concupiscent and covetous element on the vacant throne and to suffer it to play the great king within him, girt

And when he has made reason and spirit sit down on the ground obediently on either side of their sovereign,

and taught them to know their place, he compels the one to think only of how lesser sums may be turned into

larger ones, and will not allow the other to worship and admire anything but riches and rich men, or to be

ambitious of anything so much as the acquisition of wealth and the means of acquiring it.

Of all changes, he said, there is none so speedy or so sure as the conversion of the ambitious youth into the

Yes, he said; at any rate the individual out of whom he came is like the State out of which oligarchy came.

Also in their penurious, laborious character; the individual only satisfies his necessary appetites, and confines

his expenditure to them; his other desires he subdues, under the idea that they are unprofitable.

He is a shabby fellow, who saves something out of everything and makes a purse for himself; and this is the

sort of man whom the vulgar applaud. Is he not a true image of the State which he represents?

He appears to me to be so; at any rate money is highly valued by him as well as by the State.

I imagine not, he said; had he been educated he would never have made a blind god director of his chorus, or

Excellent! I said. Yet consider: Must we not further admit that owing to this want of cultivation there will be

found in him dronelike desires as of pauper and rogue, which are forcibly kept down by his general habit of

You should see him where he has some great opportunity of acting dishonestly, as in the guardianship of an

It will be clear enough then that in his ordinary dealings which give him a reputation for honesty he coerces

his bad passions by an enforced virtue; not making them see that they are wrong, or taming them by reason,

but by necessity and fear constraining them, and because he trembles for his possessions.

Yes, indeed, my dear friend, but you will find that the natural desires of the drone commonly exist in him all

The man, then, will be at war with himself; he will be two men, and not one; but, in general, his better desires

For these reasons such an one will be more respectable than most people; yet the true virtue of a unanimous

And surely, the miser individually will be an ignoble competitor in a State for any prize of victory, or other

object of honourable ambition; he will not spend his money in the contest for glory; so afraid is he of

awakening his expensive appetites and inviting them to help and join in the struggle; in true oligarchical

fashion he fights with a small part only of his resources, and the result commonly is that he loses the prize

Can we any longer doubt, then, that the miser and moneymaker answers to the oligarchical State?

Next comes democracy; of this the origin and nature have still to be considered by us; and then we will

Well, I said, and how does the change from oligarchy into democracy arise? Is it not on this wise?The

good at which such a State alms is to become as rich as possible, a desire which is insatiable?

The rulers, being aware that their power rests upon their wealth, refuse to curtail by law the extravagance of

the spendthrift youth because they gain by their ruin; they take interest from them and buy up their estates

There can be no doubt that the love of wealth and the spirit of moderation cannot exist together in citizens of

the same State to any considerable extent; one or the other will be disregarded.

And in oligarchical States, from the general spread of carelessness and extravagance, men of good family

And still they remain in the city; there they are, ready to sting and fully armed, and some of them owe money,

some have forfeited their citizenship; a third class are in both predicaments; and they hate and conspire

against those who have got their property, and against everybody else, and are eager for revolution.

On the other hand, the men of business, stooping as they walk, and pretending not even to see those whom

they have already ruined, insert their stingthat is, their moneyinto some one else who is not on his guard

against them, and recover the parent sum many times over multiplied into a family of children: and so they

The evil blazes up like a fire; and they will not extinguish it, either by restricting a man's use of his own

One which is the next best, and has the advantage of compelling the citizens to look to their characters:Let

there be a general rule that every one shall enter into voluntary contracts at his own risk, and there will be less

of this scandalous moneymaking, and the evils of which we were speaking will be greatly lessened in the

At present the governors, induced by the motives which I have named, treat their subjects badly; while they

and their adherents, especially the young men of the governing class, are habituated to lead a life of luxury

and idleness both of body and mind; they do nothing, and are incapable of resisting either pleasure or pain.

They themselves care only for making money, and are as indifferent as the pauper to the cultivation of virtue.

Such is the state of affairs which prevails among them. And often rulers and their subjects may come in one

another's way, whether on a pilgrimage or a march, as fellowsoldiers or fellowsailors; aye, and they may

observe the behaviour of each other in the very moment of dangerfor where danger is, there is no fear that

the poor will be despised by the rich and very likely the wiry sunburnt poor man may be placed in battle at

the side of a wealthy one who has never spoilt his complexion and has plenty of superfluous fleshwhen he

sees such an one puffing and at his wit's end, how can he avoid drawing the conclusion that men like him are

only rich because no one has the courage to despoil them? And when they meet in private will not people be

And, as in a body which is diseased the addition of a touch from without may bring on illness, and sometimes

even when there is no external provocation a commotion may arise withinin the same way wherever there is

weakness in the State there is also likely to be illness, of which the occasions may be very slight, the one

party introducing from without their oligarchical, the other their democratical allies, and then the State falls

sick, and is at war with herself; and may be at times distracted, even when there is no external cause.

And then democracy comes into being after the poor have conquered their opponents, slaughtering some and

banishing some, while to the remainder they give an equal share of freedom and power; and this is the form

Yes, he said, that is the nature of democracy, whether the revolution has been effected by arms, or whether

And now what is their manner of life, and what sort of a government have they? for as the government is,

In the first place, are they not free; and is not the city full of freedom and franknessa man may say and do

And where freedom is, the individual is clearly able to order for himself his own life as he pleases?

This, then, seems likely to be the fairest of States, being an embroidered robe which is spangled with every

sort of flower. And just as women and children think a variety of colours to be of all things most charming,

so there are many men to whom this State, which is spangled with the manners and characters of mankind,

Yes, my good Sir, and there will be no better in which to look for a government.

Because of the liberty which reigns therethey have a complete assortment of constitutions; and he who has

a mind to establish a State, as we have been doing, must go to a democracy as he would to a bazaar at which

they sell them, and pick out the one that suits him; then, when he has made his choice, he may found his

And there being no necessity, I said, for you to govern in this State, even if you have the capacity, or to be

governed, unless you like, or go to war when the rest go to war, or to be at peace when others are at peace,

unless you are so disposedthere being no necessity also, because some law forbids you to hold office or be

a dicast, that you should not hold office or be a dicast, if you have a fancy is not this a way of life which

And is not their humanity to the condemned in some cases quite charming? Have you not observed how, in a

democracy, many persons, although they have been sentenced to death or exile, just stay where they are and

walk about the worldthe gentleman parades like a hero, and nobody sees or cares?

See too, I said, the forgiving spirit of democracy, and the `don't care' about trifles, and the disregard which

she shows of all the fine principles which we solemnly laid down at the foundation of the city as when we

said that, except in the case of some rarely gifted nature, there never will be a good man who has not from his

childhood been used to play amid things of beauty and make of them a joy and a study how grandly does

she trample all these fine notions of ours under her feet, never giving a thought to the pursuits which make a

statesman, and promoting to honour any one who professes to be the people's friend.

These and other kindred characteristics are proper to democracy, which is a charming form of government,

full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

Consider now, I said, what manner of man the individual is, or rather consider, as in the case of the State,

Is not this the wayhe is the son of the miserly and oligarchical father who has trained him in his own

And, like his father, he keeps under by force the pleasures which are of the spending and not of the getting

Would you like, for the sake of clearness, to distinguish which are the necessary and which are the

Are not necessary pleasures those of which we cannot get rid, and of which the satisfaction is a benefit to us?

And they are rightly so, because we are framed by nature to desire both what is beneficial and what is

And the desires of which a man may get rid, if he takes pains from his youth upwardsof which the

presence, moreover, does no good, and in some cases the reverse of goodshall we not be right in saying

Suppose we select an example of either kind, in order that we may have a general notion of them?

Will not the desire of eating, that is, of simple food and condiments, in so far as they are required for health

The pleasure of eating is necessary in two ways; it does us good and it is essential to the continuance of life?

And the desire which goes beyond this, or more delicate food, or other luxuries, which might generally be got

rid of, if controlled and trained in youth, and is hurtful to the body, and hurtful to the soul in the pursuit of

May we not say that these desires spend, and that the others make money because they conduce to

And the drone of whom we spoke was he who was surfeited in pleasures and desires of this sort, and was the

slave of the unnecessary desires, whereas he who was subject o the necessary only was miserly and

Again, let us see how the democratical man grows out of the oligarchical: the following, as I suspect, is

When a young man who has been brought up as we were just now describing, in a vulgar and miserly way,

has tasted drones' honey and has come to associate with fierce and crafty natures who are able to provide for

him all sorts of refinements and varieties of pleasurethen, as you may imagine, the change will begin of the

And as in the city like was helping like, and the change was effected by an alliance from without assisting

one division of the citizens, so too the young man is changed by a class of desires coming from without to

assist the desires within him, that which is and alike again helping that which is akin and alike?

And if there be any ally which aids the oligarchical principle within him, whether the influence of a father or

of kindred, advising or rebuking him, then there arises in his soul a faction and an opposite faction, and he

And there are times when the democratical principle gives way to the oligarchical, and some of his desires

die, and others are banished; a spirit of reverence enters into the young man's soul and order is restored.

And then, again, after the old desires have been driven out, fresh ones spring up, which are akin to them, and

because he, their father, does not know how to educate them, wax fierce and numerous.

They draw him to his old associates, and holding secret intercourse with them, breed and multiply in him.

At length they seize upon the citadel of the young man's soul, which they perceive to be void of all

accomplishments and fair pursuits and true words, which make their abode in the minds of men who are dear

And so the young man returns into the country of the lotuseaters, and takes up his dwelling there in the face

of all men; and if any help be sent by his friends to the oligarchical part of him, the aforesaid vain conceits

shut the gate of the king's fastness; and they will neither allow the embassy itself to enter, private if private

advisers offer the fatherly counsel of the aged will they listen to them or receive them. There is a battle and

they gain the day, and then modesty, which they call silliness, is ignominiously thrust into exile by them, and

temperance, which they nickname unmanliness, is trampled in the mire and cast forth; they persuade men that

moderation and orderly expenditure are vulgarity and meanness, and so, by the help of a rabble of evil

And when they have emptied and swept clean the soul of him who is now in their power and who is being

initiated by them in great mysteries, the next thing is to bring back to their house insolence and anarchy and

waste and impudence in bright array having garlands on their heads, and a great company with them,

hymning their praises and calling them by sweet names; insolence they term breeding, and anarchy liberty,

and waste magnificence, and impudence courage. And so the young man passes out of his original nature,

which was trained in the school of necessity, into the freedom and libertinism of useless and unnecessary

After this he lives on, spending his money and labour and time on unnecessary pleasures quite as much as on

necessary ones; but if he be fortunate, and is not too much disordered in his wits, when years have elapsed,

and the heyday of passion is over supposing that he then readmits into the city some part of the exiled

virtues, and does not wholly give himself up to their successorsin that case he balances his pleasures and

lives in a sort of equilibrium, putting the government of himself into the hands of the one which comes first

and wins the turn; and when he has had enough of that, then into the hands of another; he despises none of

Neither does he receive or let pass into the fortress any true word of advice; if any one says to him that some

pleasures are the satisfactions of good and noble desires, and others of evil desires, and that he ought to use

and honour some and chastise and master the otherswhenever this is repeated to him he shakes his head

Yes, I said, he lives from day to day indulging the appetite of the hour; and sometimes he is lapped in drink

and strains of the flute; then he becomes a waterdrinker, and tries to get thin; then he takes a turn at

gymnastics; sometimes idling and neglecting everything, then once more living the life of a philosopher;

often heis busy with politics, and starts to his feet and says and does whatever comes into his head; and, if

he is emulous of any one who is a warrior, off he is in that direction, or of men of business, once more in that.

His life has neither law nor order; and this distracted existence he terms joy and bliss and freedom; and so he

Yes, I said; his life is motley and manifold and an epitome of the lives of many;he answers to the State

which we described as fair and spangled. And many a man and many a woman will take him for their pattern,

Let him then be set over against democracy; he may truly be called the democratic man.

Last of all comes the most beautiful of all, man and State alike, tyranny and the tyrant; these we have now to

Say then, my friend, in what manner does tyranny arise?that it has a democratic origin is evident.

And does not tyranny spring from democracy in the same manner as democracy from oligarchyI mean,

The good which oligarchy proposed to itself and the means by which it was maintained was excess of

And the insatiable desire of wealth and the neglect of all other things for the sake of moneygetting was also

And democracy has her own good, of which the insatiable desire brings her to dissolution?

Freedom, I replied; which, as they tell you in a democracy, is the glory of the Stateand that therefore in a

I was going to observe, that the insatiable desire of this and the neglect of other things introduces the change

When a democracy which is thirsting for freedom has evil cupbearers presiding over the feast, and has drunk

too deeply of the strong wine of freedom, then, unless her rulers are very amenable and give a plentiful

draught, she calls them to account and punishes them, and says that they are cursed oligarchs.

Yes, I said; and loyal citizens are insultingly termed by her slaves who hug their chains and men of naught;

she would have subjects who are like rulers, and rulers who are like subjects: these are men after her own

heart, whom she praises and honours both in private and public. Now, in such a State, can liberty have any

By degrees the anarchy finds a way into private houses, and ends by getting among the animals and infecting

I mean that the father grows accustomed to descend to the level of his sons and to fear them, and the son is on

a level with his father, he having no respect or reverence for either of his parents; and this is his freedom, and

metic is equal with the citizen and the citizen with the metic, and the stranger is quite as good as either.

And these are not the only evils, I saidthere are several lesser ones: In such a state of society the master

fears and flatters his scholars, and the scholars despise their masters and tutors; young and old are all alike;

and the young man is on a level with the old, and is ready to compete with him in word or deed; and old men

condescend to the young and are full of pleasantry and gaiety; they are loth to be thought morose and

The last extreme of popular liberty is when the slave bought with money, whether male or female, is just as

free as his or her purchaser; nor must I forget to tell of the liberty and equality of the two sexes in relation to

That is what I am doing, I replied; and I must add that no one who does not know would believe, how much

greater is the liberty which the animals who are under the dominion of man have in a democracy than in any

other State: for truly, the shedogs, as the proverb says, are as good as their shemistresses, and the horses

and asses have a way of marching along with all the rights and dignities of freemen; and they will run at

anybody who comes in their way if he does not leave the road clear for them: and all things are just ready to

When I take a country walk, he said, I often experience what you describe. You and I have dreamed the same

And above all, I said, and as the result of all, see how sensitive the citizens become; they chafe impatiently at

the least touch of authority and at length, as you know, they cease to care even for the laws, written or

Such, my friend, I said, is the fair and glorious beginning out of which springs tyranny.

The ruin of oligarchy is the ruin of democracy; the same disease magnified and intensified by liberty

overmasters democracy the truth being that the excessive increase of anything often causes a reaction in

the opposite direction; and this is the case not only in the seasons and in vegetable and animal life, but above

The excess of liberty, whether in States or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.

And so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of

That, however, was not, as I believe, your questionyou rather desired to know what is that disorder which is

Well, I said, I meant to refer to the class of idle spendthrifts, of whom the more courageous are theleaders

and the more timid the followers, the same whom we were comparing to drones, some stingless, and others

These two classes are the plagues of every city in which they are generated, being what phlegm and bile are

to the body. And the good physician and lawgiver of the State ought, like the wise beemaster, to keep them

at a distance and prevent, if possible, their ever coming in; and if they have anyhow found a way in, then he

Then, in order that we may see clearly what we are doing, let us imagine democracy to be divided, as indeed

it is, into three classes; for in the first place freedom creates rather more drones in the democratic than there

Because in the oligarchical State they are disqualified and driven from office, and therefore they cannot train

or gather strength; whereas in a democracy they are almost the entire ruling power, and while the keener sort

speak and act, the rest keep buzzing about the bema and do not suffer a word to be said on the other side;

They are the orderly class, which in a nation of traders sure to be the richest.

They are the most squeezable persons and yield the largest amount of honey to the drones.

The people are a third class, consisting of those who work with their own hands; they are not politicians, and

have not much to live upon. This, when assembled, is the largest and most powerful class in a democracy.

True, he said; but then the multitude is seldom willing to congregate unless they get a little honey.

And do they not share? I said. Do not their leaders deprive the rich of their estates and distribute them among

the people; at the same time taking care to reserve the larger part for themselves?

And the persons whose property is taken from them are compelled to defend themselves before the people as

And then, although they may have no desire of change, the others charge them with plotting against the

And the end is that when they see the people, not of their own accord, but through ignorance, and because

they are deceived by informers, seeking to do them wrong, then at last they are forced to become oligarchs in

reality; they do not wish to be, but the sting of the drones torments them and breeds revolution in them.

The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness.

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears above ground he is a

How then does a protector begin to change into a tyrant? Clearly when he does what the man is said to do in

The tale is that he who has tasted the entrails of a single human victim minced up with the entrails of other

And the protector of the people is like him; having a mob entirely at his disposal, he is not restrained from

shedding the blood of kinsmen; by the favourite method of false accusation he brings them into court and

murders them, making the life of man to disappear, and with unholy tongue and lips tasting the blood of his

fellow citizen; some he kills and others he banishes, at the same time hinting at the abolition of debts and

partition of lands: and after this, what will be his destiny? Must he not either perish at the hands of his

After a while he is driven out, but comes back, in spite of his enemies, a tyrant full grown.

And if they are unable to expel him, or to get him condemned to death by a public accusation, they conspire

Then comes the famous request for a bodyguard, which is the device of all those who have got thus far in

their tyrannical career`Let not the people's friend,' as they say, `be lost to them.'

The people readily assent; all their fears are for him they have none for themselves.

And when a man who is wealthy and is also accused of being an enemy of the people sees this, then, my

By pebbly Hermus' shore he flees and rests not and is not ashamed to be a coward.

And he, the protector of whom we spoke, is to be seen, not `larding the plain' with his bulk, but himself the

overthrower of many, standing up in the chariot of State with the reins in his hand, no longer protector, but

And now let us consider the happiness of the man, and also of the State in which a creature like him is

At first, in the early days of his power, he is full of smiles, and he salutes every one whom he meets;he to

be called a tyrant, who is making promises in public and also in private! liberating debtors, and distributing

land to the people and his followers, and wanting to be so kind and good to every one!

But when he has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them,

then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

Has he not also another object, which is that they may be impoverished by payment of taxes, and thus

compelled to devote themselves to their daily wants and therefore less likely to conspire against him? Clearly.

And if any of them are suspected by him of having notions of freedom, and of resistance to his authority, he

will have a good pretext for destroying them by placing them at the mercy of the enemy; and for all these

Then some of those who joined in setting him up, and who are in power, speak their minds to him and to one

And the tyrant, if he means to rule, must get rid of them; he cannot stop while he has a friend or an enemy

And therefore he must look about him and see who is valiant, who is highminded, who is wise, who is

wealthy; happy man, he is the enemy of them all, and must seek occasion against them whether he will or no,

Yes, I said, not the sort of purgation which the physicians make of the body; for they take away the worse and

What a blessed alternative, I said:to be compelled to dwell only with the many bad, and to be by them

And the more detestable his actions are to the citizens the more satellites and the greater devotion in them

He will rob the citizens of their slaves; he will then set them free and enrol them in his bodyguard.

What a blessed creature, I said, must this tyrant be; he has put to death the others and has these for his trusted

Yes, I said, and these are the new citizens whom he has called into existence, who admire him and are his

and he clearly meant to say that they are the wise whom the tyrant makes his companions.

Yes, he said, and he also praises tyranny as godlike; and many other things of the same kind are said by him

And therefore, I said, the tragic poets being wise men will forgive us and any others who live after our

manner if we do not receive them into our State, because they are the eulogists of tyranny.

But they will continue to go to other cities and attract mobs, and hire voices fair and loud and persuasive, and

Moreover, they are paid for this and receive honourthe greatest honour, as might be expected, from tyrants,

and the next greatest from democracies; but the higher they ascend our constitution hill, the more their

But we are wandering from the subject: Let us therefore return and enquire how the tyrant will maintain that

If, he said, there are sacred treasures in the city, he will confiscate and spend them; and in so far as the

fortunes of attainted persons may suffice, he will be able to diminish the taxes which he would otherwise

Why, clearly, he said, then he and his boon companions, whether male or female, will be maintained out of

You mean to say that the people, from whom he has derived his being, will maintain him and his

But what if the people fly into a passion, and aver that a grownup son ought not to be supported by his

father, but that the father should be supported by the son? The father did not bring him into being, or settle

him in life, in order that when his son became a man he should himself be the servant of his own servants and

should support him and his rabble of slaves and companions; but that his son should protect him, and that by

his help he might be emancipated from the government of the rich and aristocratic, as they 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

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?

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

Very well; and may we not rightly say that we have sufficiently discussed the nature of tyranny, and the

LAST of all comes the tyrannical man; about whom we have once more to ask, how is he formed out of the

I do not think that we have adequately determined the nature and number of the appetites, and until this is

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 themeither 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.

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 foodwhich at such a time, when he has parted company with all shame and

But when a man's pulse is healthy and temperate, and when before going to sleep he has awakened his

rational powers, and fed them on noble thoughts and enquiries, collecting himself in meditation; after having

first indulged his appetites neither too much nor too little, but just enough to lay them to sleep, and prevent

them and their enjoyments and pains from interfering with the higher principlewhich he leaves in the

solitude of pure abstraction, free to contemplate 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

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 wildbeast nature, which peers out in sleep. Pray, consider whether I am

And now remember the character which we attributed to 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

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

And now, I said, years will have passed away, and you must conceive this man, such as he is, to have a son,

Then you must further imagine the same thing to happen to the son which has already happened to the

father:he is drawn into a perfectly lawless life, which by his seducers is termed perfect liberty; and his

father and friends take part with his moderate desires, and the opposite party assist the opposite ones. As soon

as these dire magicians and tyrantmakers find that they are losing their hold on him, they contrive to implant

in him a master passion, to be lord over his idle and spendthrift lustsa sort of monstrous winged drone

And when his other lusts, amid clouds of incense and perfumes and garlands and wines, and all the pleasures

of a dissolute life, now let loose, come buzzing around him, nourishing to the utmost the sting of desire which

they implant in his dronelike nature, then at last this lord of the soul, having Madness for the captain of his

guard, breaks out into a frenzy: and if he finds in himself any good opinions or appetites in process of

formation, and there is in him any sense of shame remaining, to these better principles he puts an end, and

casts them forth until he has purged away temperance and brought in madness to the full.

And you know that a man who is deranged and not right in his mind, will fancy that he is able to rule, not

And the tyrannical man in the true sense of the word comes into being when, either under the influence of

nature, or habit, or both, he becomes drunken, lustful, passionate? O my friend, is not that so?

I imagine, I said, at the next step in his progress, that there will be feasts and carousals and revellings and

courtezans, and all that sort of thing; Love is the lord of the house within him, and orders all the concerns of

Yes; and every day and every night desires grow up many and formidable, and their demands are many.

When he has nothing left, must not his desires, crowding in the nest like young ravens, be crying aloud for

food; and he, goaded on by them, and especially by love himself, who is in a manner the captain of them, is

in a frenzy, and would fain discover whom he can defraud or despoil of his property, in order that he may

And as in himself there was a succession of pleasures, and the new got the better of the old and took away

their rights, so he being younger will claim to have more than his father and his mother, and if he has spent

And if his parents will not give way, then he will try first of all to cheat and deceive them.

And if the old man and woman fight for their own, what then, my friend? Will the creature feel any

But, O heavens! Adeimantus, on account of some newfangled love of a harlot, who is anything but a

necessary connection, can you believe that he would strike the mother who is his ancient friend and necessary

to his very existence, and would place her under the authority of the other, when she is brought under the

same roof with her; or that, under like circumstances, he would do the same to his withered old father, first

and most indispensable of friends, for the sake of some newly found blooming youth who is the reverse of

He first takes their property, and when that falls, and pleasures are beginning to swarm in the hive of his soul,

then he breaks into a house, or steals the garments of some nightly wayfarer; next he proceeds to clear a

temple. Meanwhile the old opinions which he had when a child, and which gave judgment about good and

evil, are overthrown by those others which have just been emancipated, and are now the bodyguard of love

and share his empire. These in his democratic days, when he was still subject to the laws and to his father,

were only let loose in the dreams of sleep. But now that he is under the dominion of love, he becomes always

and in waking reality what he was then very rarely and in a dream only; he will commit the foulest murder, or

eat forbidden food, or be guilty of any other horrid act. Love is his tyrant, and lives lordly in him and

lawlessly, and being himself a king, leads him on, as a tyrant leads a State, to the performance of any reckless

deed by which he can maintain himself and the rabble of his associates, whether those whom evil

communications have brought in from without, or those whom he himself has allowed to break loose within

him by reason of a similar evil nature in himself. Have we not here a picture of his way of life?

And if there are only a few of them in the State, the rest of the people are well disposed, they go away and

become the bodyguard or mercenary soldiers of some other tyrant who may probably want them for a war;

and if there is no war, they stay at home and do many little pieces of mischief in the city.

For example, they are the thieves, burglars, cutpurses, footpads, robbers of temples, manstealers of the

community; or if they are able to speak they turn informers, and bear false witness, and take bribes.

Yes, I said; but small and great are comparative terms, and all these things, in the misery and evil which they

inflict upon a State, do not come within a thousand miles of the tyrant; when this noxious class and their

followers grow numerous and become conscious of their strength, assisted by the infatuation of the people,

they choose from among themselves the one who has most of the tyrant in his own soul, and him they create

If the people yield, well and good; but if they resist him, as he began by beating his own father and mother, so

now, if he has the power, he beats them, and will keep his dear old fatherland or motherland, as the Cretans

say, in subjection to his young retainers whom he has introduced to be their rulers and masters. This is the

When such men are only private individuals and before they get power, this is their character; they associate

entirely with their own flatterers or ready tools; or if they want anything from anybody, they in their turn are

equally ready to bow down before them: they profess every sort of affection for them; but when they have

They are always either the masters or servants and never the friends of anybody; the tyrant never tastes of

Let us then sum up in a word, I said, the character of the worst man: he is the waking reality of what we

And this is he who being by nature most of a tyrant bears rule, and the longer he lives the more of a tyrant he

And will not he who has been shown to be the wickedest, be also the most miserable? and he who has

tyrannized longest and most, most continually and truly miserable; although this may not be the opinion of

And must not the tyrannical man be like the tyrannical, State, and the democratical man like the democratical

Then comparing our original city, which was under a king, and the city which is under a tyrant, how do they

They are the opposite extremes, he said, for one is the very best and the other is the very worst.

There can be no mistake, I said, as to which is which, and therefore I will at once enquire whether you would

arrive at a similar decision about their relative happiness and misery. And here we must not allow ourselves

to be panicstricken at the apparition of the tyrant, who is only a unit and may perhaps have a few retainers

about him; but let us go as we ought into every corner of the city and look all about, and then we will give

A fair invitation, he replied; and I see, as every one must, that a tyranny is the wretchedest form of

And in estimating the men too, may I not fairly make a like request, that I should have a judge whose mind

can enter into and see through human nature? He must not be like a child who looks at the outside and is

dazzled at the pompous aspect which the tyrannical nature assumes to the beholder, but let him be one who

has a clear insight. May I suppose that the judgment is given in the hearing of us all by one who is able to

judge, and has dwelt in the same place with him, and been present at his dally life and known him in his

family relations, where he may be seen stripped of his tragedy attire, and again in the hour of public

dangerhe shall tell us about the happiness and misery of the tyrant when compared with other men?

Shall I assume that we ourselves are able and experienced judges and have before now met with such a

Let me ask you not to forget the parallel of the individual and the State; bearing this in mind, and glancing in

turn from one to the other of them, will you tell me their respective conditions?

Beginning with the State, I replied, would you say that a city which is governed by a tyrant is free or

Yes, he said, I see that there area few; but the people, speaking generally, and the best of them, are

Then if the man is like the State, I said, must not the same rule prevail? his soul is full of meanness and

vulgaritythe best elements in him are enslaved; and there is a small ruling part, which is also the worst and

And would you say that the soul of such an one is the soul of a freeman, or of a slave?

And the State which is enslaved under a tyrant is utterly incapable of acting voluntarily?

And also the soul which is under a tyrant (I am speaking of the soul taken as a whole) is least capable of

doing what she desires; there is a gadfly which goads her, and she is full of trouble and remorse?

Is there any State in which you will find more of lamentation and sorrow and groaning and pain?

And is there any man in whom you will find more of this sort of misery than in the tyrannical man, who is in

Reflecting upon these and similar evils, you held the tyrannical State to be the most miserable of States?

Certainly, I said. And when you see the same evils in the tyrannical man, what do you say of him?

He who is of a tyrannical nature, and instead of leading a private life has been cursed with the further

Yes, I replied, but in this high argument you should be a little more certain, and should not conjecture only;

Let me then offer you an illustration, which may, I think, throw a light upon this subject.

The case of rich individuals in cities who possess many slaves: from them you may form an idea of the

tyrant's condition, for they both have slaves; the only difference is that he has more slaves.

You know that they live securely and have nothing to apprehend from their servants?

Yes; the reason is, that the whole city is leagued together for the protection of each individual.

Very true, I said. But imagine one of these owners, the master say of some fifty slaves, together with his

family and property and slaves, carried off by a god into the wilderness, where there are no freemen to help

himwill he not be in an agony of fear lest he and his wife and children should be put to death by his

The time has arrived when he will be compelled to flatter divers of his slaves, and make many promises to

them of freedom and other things, much against his willhe will have to cajole his own servants.

And suppose the same god, who carried him away, to surround him with neighbours who will not suffer one

man to be the master of another, and who, if they could catch the offender, would take his life?

His case will be still worse, if you suppose him to be everywhere surrounded and watched by enemies.

And is not this the sort of prison in which the tyrant will be bound he who being by nature such as we have

described, is full of all sorts of fears and lusts? His soul is dainty and greedy, and yet alone, of all men in the

city, he is never allowed to go on a journey, or to see the things which other freemen desire to see, but he

lives in his hole like a woman hidden in the house, and is jealous of any other citizen who goes into foreign

And amid evils such as these will not he who is illgoverned in his own personthe tyrannical man, I

meanwhom you just now decided to be the most miserable of allwill not he be yet more miserable

when, instead of leading a private life, he is constrained by fortune to be a public tyrant? He has to be master

of others when he is not master of himself: he is like a diseased or paralytic man who is compelled to pass his

Is not his case utterly miserable? and does not the actual tyrant lead a worse life than he whose life you

He who is the real tyrant, whatever men may think, is the real slave, and is obliged to practise the greatest

adulation and servility, and to be the flatterer of the vilest of mankind. He has desires which he is utterly

unable to satisfy, and has more wants than any one, and is truly poor, if you know how to inspect the whole

soul of him: all his life long he is beset with fear and is full of convulsions, and distractions, even as the State

Moreover, as we were saying before, he grows worse from having power: he becomes and is of necessity

more jealous, more faithless, more unjust, more friendless, more impious, than he was at first; he is the

purveyor and cherisher of every sort of vice, and the consequence is that he is supremely miserable, and that

Come then, I said, and as the general umpire in theatrical contests proclaims the result, do you also decide

who in your opinion is first in the scale of happiness, and who second, and in what order the others follow:

there are five of them in all they are the royal, timocratical, oligarchical, democratical, tyrannical.

The decision will be easily given, he replied; they shall be choruses coming on the stage, and I must judge

them in the order in which they enter, by the criterion of virtue and vice, happiness and misery.

Need we hire a herald, or shall I announce, that the son of Ariston (the best) has decided that the best and

justest is also the happiest, and that this is he who is the most royal man and king over himself; and that the

worst and most unjust man is also the most miserable, and that this is he who being the greatest tyrant of

Then this, I said, will be our first proof; and there is another, which may also have some weight.

The second proof is derived from the nature of the soul: seeing that the individual soul, like the State, has

been divided by us into three principles, the division may, I think, furnish a new demonstration.

It seems to me that to these three principles three pleasures correspond; also three desires and governing

There is one principle with which, as we were saying, a man learns, another with which he is angry; the third,

having many forms, has no special name, but is denoted by the general term appetitive, from the

extraordinary strength and vehemence of the desires of eating and drinking and the other sensual appetites

which are the main elements of it; also moneyloving, because such desires are generally satisfied by the

If we were to say that the loves and pleasures of this third part were concerned with gain, we should then be

able to fall back on a single notion; and might truly and intelligibly describe this part of the soul as loving

Again, is not the passionate element wholly set on ruling and conquering and getting fame?

On the other hand, every one sees that the principle of knowledge is wholly directed to the truth, and cares

`Lover of wisdom,' `lover of knowledge,' are titles which we may fitly apply to that part of the soul?

One principle prevails in the souls of one class of men, another in others, as may happen?

Then we may begin by assuming that there are three classes of men lovers of wisdom, lovers of honour,

Now, if you examine the three classes of men, and ask of them in turn which of their lives is pleasantest, each

will be found praising his own and depreciating that of others: the moneymaker will contrast the vanity of

honour or of learning if they bring no money with the solid advantages of gold and silver?

And the lover of honourwhat will be his opinion? Will he not think that the pleasure of riches is vulgar,

while the pleasure of learning, if it brings no distinction, is all smoke and nonsense to him?

And are we to suppose, I said, that the philosopher sets any value on other pleasures in comparison with the

pleasure of knowing the truth, and in that pursuit abiding, ever learning, not so far indeed from the heaven of

pleasure? Does he not call the other pleasures necessary, under the idea that if there were no necessity for

Since, then, the pleasures of each class and the life of each are in dispute, and the question is not which life is

more or less honourable, or better or worse, but which is the more pleasant or painless how shall we know

Well, but what ought to be the criterion? Is any better than experience and wisdom and reason?

Then, I said, reflect. Of the three individuals, which has the greatest experience of all the pleasures which we

enumerated? Has the lover of gain, in learning the nature of essential truth, greater experience of the pleasure

The philosopher, he replied, has greatly the advantage; for he has of necessity always known the taste of the

other pleasures from his childhood upwards: but the lover of gain in all his experience has not of necessity

tastedor, I should rather say, even had he desired, could hardly have tastedthe sweetness of learning and

Then the lover of wisdom has a great advantage over the lover of gain, for he has a double experience?

Again, has he greater experience of the pleasures of honour, or the lover of honour of the pleasures of

Nay, he said, all three are honoured in proportion as they attain their object; for the rich man and the brave

man and the wise man alike have their crowd of admirers, and as they all receive honour they all have

experience of the pleasures of honour; but the delight which is to be found in the knowledge of true being is

Further, the very faculty which is the instrument of judgment is not possessed by the covetous or ambitious

If wealth and gain were the criterion, then the praise or blame of the lover of gain would surely be the most

Or if honour or victory or courage, in that case the judgement of the ambitious or pugnacious would be the

The only inference possible, he replied, is that pleasures which are approved by the lover of wisdom and

And so we arrive at the result, that the pleasure of the intelligent part of the soul is the pleasantest of the

three, and that he of us in whom this is the ruling principle has the pleasantest life.

Unquestionably, he said, the wise man speaks with authority when he approves of his own life.

And what does the judge affirm to be the life which is next, and the pleasure which is next?

Clearly that of the soldier and lover of honour; who is nearer to himself than the moneymaker.

Twice in succession, then, has the just man overthrown the unjust in this conflict; and now comes the third

trial, which is dedicated to Olympian Zeus the saviour: a sage whispers in my ear that no pleasure except that

of the wise is quite true and pure all others are a shadow only; and surely this will prove the greatest and

A state which is intermediate, and a sort of repose of the soul about eitherthat is what you mean?

That after all nothing is pleasanter than health. But then they never knew this to be the greatest of pleasures

And when persons are suffering from acute pain, you must. have heard them say that there is nothing

And there are many other cases of suffering in which the mere rest and cessation of pain, and not any positive

But that which is neither was just now shown to be rest and not motion, and in a mean between them?

How, then, can we be right in supposing that the absence of pain is pleasure, or that the absence of pleasure is

This then is an appearance only and not a reality; that is tc say, the rest is pleasure at the moment and in

comparison of what is painful, and painful in comparison of what is pleasant; but all these representations,

Look at the other class of pleasures which have no antecedent pains and you will no longer suppose, as you

perhaps may at present, that pleasure is only the cessation of pain, or pain of pleasure.

There are many of them: take as an example the pleasures, of smell, which are very great and have no

antecedent pains; they come in a moment, and when they depart leave no pain behind them.

Let us not, then, be induced to believe that pure pleasure is the cessation of pain, or pain of pleasure.

Still, the more numerous and violent pleasures which reach the soul through the body are generally of this

You would allow, I said, that there is in nature an upper and lower and middle region?

And if a person were to go from the lower to the middle region, would he not imagine that he is going up; and

he who is standing in the middle and sees whence he has come, would imagine that he is already in the upper

But if he were taken back again he would imagine, and truly imagine, that he was descending?

All that would arise out of his ignorance of the true upper and middle and lower regions?

Then can you wonder that persons who are inexperienced in the truth, as they have wrong ideas about many

other things, should also have wrong ideas about pleasure and pain and the intermediate state; so that when

they are only being drawn towards the painful they feel pain and think the pain which they experience to be

real, and in like manner, when drawn away from pain to the neutral or intermediate state, they firmly believe

that they have reached the goal of satiety and pleasure; they, not knowing pleasure, err in contrasting pain

with the absence of pain. which is like contrasting black with grey instead of whitecan you wonder, I say,

Look at the matter thus:Hunger, thirst, and the like, are inanitions of the bodily state?

And is the satisfaction derived from that which has less or from that which has more existence the truer?

What classes of things have a greater share of pure existence in your judgmentthose of which food and

drink and condiments and all kinds of sustenance are examples, or the class which contains true opinion and

knowledge and mind and all the different kinds of virtue? Put the question in this way:Which has a more

pure being that which is concerned with the invariable, the immortal, and the true, and is of such a nature,

and is found in such natures; or that which is concerned with and found in the variable and mortal, and is

Far purer, he replied, is the being of that which is concerned with the invariable.

And does the essence of the invariable partake of knowledge in the same degree as of essence?

Then, in general, those kinds of things which are in the service of the body have less of truth and essence than

What is filled with more real existence, and actually has a more real existence, is more really filled than that

And if there be a pleasure in being filled with that which is according to nature, that which is more really

filled with more real being will more really and truly enjoy true pleasure; whereas that which participates in

less real being will be less truly and surely satisfied, and will participate in an illusory and less real pleasure?

Those then who know not wisdom and virtue, and are always busy with gluttony and sensuality, go down and

up again as far as the mean; and in this region they move at random throughout life, but they never pass into

the true upper world; thither they neither look, nor do they ever find their way, neither are they truly filled

with true being, nor do they taste of pure and abiding pleasure. Like cattle, with their eyes always looking

down and their heads stooping to the earth, that is, to the diningtable, they fatten and feed and breed, and, in

their excessive love of these delights, they kick and butt at one another with horns and hoofs which are made

of iron; and they kill one another by reason of their insatiable lust. For they fill themselves with that which is

not substantial, and the part of themselves which they fill is also unsubstantial and incontinent.

Verily, Socrates, said Glaucon, you describe the life of the many like an oracle.

Their pleasures are mixed with painshow can they be otherwise? For they are mere shadows and pictures

of the true, and are coloured by contrast, which exaggerates both light and shade, and so they implant in the

minds of fools insane desires of themselves; and they are fought about as Stesichorus says that the Greeks

And must not the like happen with the spirited or passionate element of the soul? Will not the passionate man

who carries his passion into action, be in the like case, whether he is envious and ambitious, or violent and

contentious, or angry and discontented, if he be seeking to attain honour and victory and the satisfaction of

Then may we not confidently assert that the lovers of money and honour, when they seek their pleasures

under the guidance and in the company of reason and knowledge, and pursue after and win the pleasures

which wisdom shows them, will also have the truest pleasures in the highest degree which is attainable to

them, inasmuch as they follow truth; and they will have the pleasures which are natural to them, if that which

And when the whole soul follows the philosophical principle, and there is no division, the several parts are

just, and do each of them their own business, and enjoy severally the best and truest pleasures of which they

But when either of the two other principles prevails, it fails in attaining its own pleasure, and compels the rest

And the greater the interval which separates them from philosophy and reason, the more strange and illusive

And is not that farthest from reason which is at the greatest distance from law and order?

And the lustful and tyrannical desires are, as we saw, at the greatest distance? Yes.

Then the tyrant will live at the greatest distance from true or natural pleasure, and the king at the least?

But if so, the tyrant will live most unpleasantly, and the king most pleasantly?

There appear to be three pleasures, one genuine and two spurious: now the transgression of the tyrant reaches

a point beyond the spurious; he has run away from the region of law and reason, and taken up his abode with

certain slave pleasures which are his satellites, and the measure of his inferiority can only be expressed in a

I assume, I said, that the tyrant is in the third place from the oligarch; the democrat was in the middle?

And if there is truth in what has preceded, he will be wedded to an image of pleasure which is thrice removed

And the oligarch is third from the royal; since we count as one royal and aristocratical?

Then the tyrant is removed from true pleasure by the space of a number which is three times three?

The shadow then of tyrannical pleasure determined by the number of length will be a plane figure.

And if you raise the power and make the plane a solid, there is no difficulty in seeing how vast is the interval

Or if some person begins at the other end and measures the interval by which the king is parted from the

tyrant in truth of pleasure, he will find him, when the multiplication is complete, living 729 times more

What a wonderful calculation! And how enormous is the distance which separates the just from the unjust in

Yet a true calculation, I said, and a number which nearly concerns human life, if human beings are concerned

Then if the good and just man be thus superior in pleasure to the evil and unjust, his superiority will be

Well, I said, and now having arrived at this stage of the argument, we may revert to the words which brought

us hither: Was not some one saying that injustice was a gain to the perfectly unjust who was reputed to be

Now then, having determined the power and quality of justice and injustice, let us have a little conversation

Let us make an image of the soul, that he may have his own words presented before his eyes.

An ideal image of the soul, like the composite creations of ancient mythology, such as the Chimera or Scylla

or Cerberus, and there are many others in which two or more different natures are said to grow into one.

Then do you now model the form of a multitudinous, manyheaded monster, having a ring of heads of all

manner of beasts, tame and wild, which he is able to generate and metamorphose at will.

You suppose marvellous powers in the artist; but, as language is more pliable than wax or any similar

Suppose now that you make a second form as of a lion, and a third of a man, the second smaller than the first,

Next fashion the outside of them into a single image, as of a man, so that he who is not able to look within,

and sees only the outer hull, may believe the beast to be a single human creature. I have done so, he said.

And now, to him who maintains that it is profitable for the human creature to be unjust, and unprofitable to

be just, let us reply that, if he be right, it is profitable for this creature to feast the multitudinous monster and

strengthen the lion and the lionlike qualities, but to starve and weaken the man, who is consequently liable

to be dragged about at the mercy of either of the other two; and he is not to attempt to familiarize or

harmonize them with one another he ought rather to suffer them to fight and bite and devour one another.

To him the supporter of justice makes answer that he should ever so speak and act as to give the man within

him in some way or other the most complete mastery over the entire human creature.

He should watch over the manyheaded monster like a good husbandman, fostering and cultivating the gentle

qualities, and preventing the wild ones from growing; he should be making the lionheart his ally, and in

common care of them all should be uniting the several parts with one another and with himself.

And so from every point of view, whether of pleasure, honour, or advantage, the approver of justice is right

Come, now, and let us gently reason with the unjust, who is not intentionally in error. `Sweet Sir,' we will say

to him, what think you of things esteemed noble and ignoble? Is not the noble that which subjects the beast to

the man, or rather to the god in man; and the ignoble that which subjects the man to the beast?' He can hardly

But, if he agree so far, we may ask him to answer another question: `Then how would a man profit if he

received gold and silver on the condition that he was to enslave the noblest part of him to the worst? Who can

imagine that a man who sold his son or daughter into slavery for money, especially if he sold them into the

hands of fierce and evil men, would be the gainer, however large might be the sum which he received? And

will any one say that he is not a miserable caitiff who remorselessly sells his own divine being to that which

is most godless and detestable? Eriphyle took the necklace as the price of her husband's life, but he is taking a

Has not the intemperate been censured of old, because in him the huge multiform monster is allowed to be

And men are blamed for pride and bad temper when the lion and serpent element in them disproportionately

And luxury and softness are blamed, because they relax and weaken this same creature, and make a coward

And is not a man reproached for flattery and meanness who subordinates the spirited animal to the unruly

monster, and, for the sake of money, of which he can never have enough, habituates him in the days of his

And why are mean employments and manual arts a reproach Only because they imply a natural weakness of

the higher principle; the individual is unable to control the creatures within him, but has to court them, and

And therefore, being desirous of placing him under a rule like that of the best, we say that he ought to be the

servant of the best, in whom the Divine rules; not, as Thrasymachus supposed, to the injury of the servant,

but because every one had better be ruled by divine wisdom dwelling within him; or, if this be impossible,

then by an external authority, in order that we may be all, as far as possible, under the same government,

And this is clearly seen to be the intention of the law, which is the ally of the whole city; and is seen also in

the authority which we exercise over children, and the refusal to let them be free until we have established in

them a principle analogous to the constitution of a state, and by cultivation of this higher element have set up

in their hearts a guardian and ruler like our own, and when this is done they may go their ways.

From what point of view, then, and on what ground can we say that a man is profited by injustice or

intemperance or other baseness, which will make him a worse man, even though he acquire money or power

What shall he profit, if his injustice be undetected and unpunished? He who is undetected only gets worse,

whereas he who is detected and punished has the brutal part of his nature silenced and humanized; the gentler

element in him is liberated, and his whole soul is perfected and ennobled by the acquirement of justice and

temperance and wisdom, more than the body ever is by receiving gifts of beauty, strength and health, in

To this nobler purpose the man of understanding will devote the energies of his life. And in the first place, he

will honour studies which impress these qualities on his soul and disregard others?

In the next place, he will regulate his bodily habit and training, and so far will he be from yielding to brutal

and irrational pleasures, that he will regard even health as quite a secondary matter; his first object will be not

that he may be fair or strong or well, unless he is likely thereby to gain temperance, but he will always desire

And in the acquisition of wealth there is a principle of order and harmony which he will also observe; he will

not allow himself to be dazzled by the foolish applause of the world, and heap up riches to his own infinite

He will look at the city which is within him, and take heed that no disorder occur in it, such as might arise

either from superfluity or from want; and upon this principle he will regulate his property and gain or spend

And, for the same reason, he will gladly accept and enjoy such honours as he deems likely to make him a

better man; but those, whether private or public, which are likely to disorder his life, he will avoid?

By the dog of Egypt, he will! in the city which is his own he certainly will, though in the land of his birth

I understand; you mean that he will be a ruler in the city of which we are the founders, and which exists in

In heaven, I replied, there is laid up a pattern of it, methinks, which he who desires may behold, and

beholding, may set his own house in order. But whether such an one exists, or ever will exist in fact, is no

matter; for he will live after the manner of that city, having nothing to do with any other.

OF THE many excellences which I perceive in the order of our State, there is none which upon reflection

To the rejection of imitative poetry, which certainly ought not to be received; as I see far more clearly now

Speaking in confidence, for I should not like to have my words repeated to the tragedians and the rest of the

imitative tribe but I do not mind saying to you, that all poetical imitations are ruinous to the understanding

of the hearers, and that the knowledge of their true nature is the only antidote to them.

Well, I will tell you, although I have always from my earliest youth had an awe and love of Homer, which

even now makes the words falter on my lips, for he is the great captain and teacher of the whole of that

charming tragic company; but a man is not to be reverenced more than the truth, and therefore I will speak

Very true, he said; but in your presence, even if I had any faint notion, I could not muster courage to utter it.

Well then, shall we begin the enquiry in our usual manner: Whenever a number of individuals have a

common name, we assume them to have also a corresponding idea or form. Do you understand me?

Let us take any common instance; there are beds and tables in the world plenty of them, are there not?

But there are only two ideas or forms of themone the idea of a bed, the other of a table.

And the maker of either of them makes a bed or he makes a table for our use, in accordance with the

ideathat is our way of speaking in this and similar instancesbut no artificer makes the ideas themselves:

Wait a little, and there will be more reason for your saying so. For this is he who is able to make not only

vessels of every kind, but plants and animals, himself and all other thingsthe earth and heaven, and the

Oh! you are incredulous, are you? Do you mean that there is no such maker or creator, or that in one sense

there might be a maker of all these things but in another not? Do you see that there is a way in which you

An easy way enough; or rather, there are many ways in which the feat might be quickly and easily

accomplished, none quicker than that of turning a mirror round and roundyou would soon enough make

the sun and the heavens, and the earth and yourself, and other animals and plants, and all the, other things of

Very good, I said, you are coming to the point now. And the painter too is, as I conceive, just such

But then I suppose you will say that what he creates is untrue. And yet there is a sense in which the painter

And what of the maker of the bed? Were you not saying that he too makes, not the idea which, according to

Then if he does not make that which exists he cannot make true existence, but only some semblance of

existence; and if any one were to say that the work of the maker of the bed, or of any other workman, has real

At any rate, he replied, philosophers would say that he was not speaking the truth.

Suppose now that by the light of the examples just offered we enquire who this imitator is?

Well then, here are three beds: one existing in nature, which is made by God, as I think that we may sayfor

Beds, then, are of three kinds, and there are three artists who superintend them: God, the maker of the bed,

God, whether from choice or from necessity, made one bed in nature and one only; two or more such ideal

Because even if He had made but two, a third would still appear behind them which both of them would have

God knew this, and He desired to be the real maker of a real bed, not a particular maker of a particular bed,

Yes, he replied; inasmuch as by the natural process of creation He is the author of this and of all other things.

I think, he said, that we may fairly designate him as the imitator of that which the others make.

Good, I said; then you call him who is third in the descent from nature an imitator?

And the tragic poet is an imitator, and therefore, like all other imitators, he is thrice removed from the king

Then about the imitator we are agreed. And what about the painter? I would like to know whether he may

be thought to imitate that which originally exists in nature, or only the creations of artists?

I mean, that you may look at a bed from different points of view, obliquely or directly or from any other point

of view, and the bed will appear different, but there is no difference in reality. And the same of all things.

Now let me ask you another question: Which is the art of painting designed to bean imitation of things as

Then the imitator, I said, is a long way off the truth, and can do all things because he lightly touches on a

small part of them, and that part an image. For example: A painter will paint a cobbler, carpenter, or any

other artist, though he knows nothing of their arts; and, if he is a good artist, he may deceive children or

simple persons, when he shows them his picture of a carpenter from a distance, and they will fancy that they

And whenever any one informs us that he has found a man knows all the arts, and all things else that anybody

knows, and every single thing with a higher degree of accuracy than any other man whoever tells us this, I

think that we can only imagine to be a simple creature who is likely to have been deceived by some wizard or

actor whom he met, and whom he thought allknowing, because he himself was unable to analyse the nature

And so, when we hear persons saying that the tragedians, and Homer, who is at their head, know all the arts

and all things human, virtue as well as vice, and divine things too, for that the good poet cannot compose well

unless he knows his subject, and that he who has not this knowledge can never be a poet, we ought to

consider whether here also there may not be a similar illusion. Perhaps they may have come across imitators

and been deceived by them; they may not have remembered when they saw their works that these were but

imitations thrice removed from the truth, and could easily be made without any knowledge of the truth,

because they are appearances only and not realities? Or, after all, they may be in the right, and poets do really

Now do you suppose that if a person were able to make the original as well as the image, he would seriously

devote himself to the imagemaking branch? Would he allow imitation to be the ruling principle of his life,

The real artist, who knew what he was imitating, would be interested in realities and not in imitations; and

would desire to leave as memorials of himself works many and fair; and, instead of being the author of

Then, I said, we must put a question to Homer; not about medicine, or any of the arts to which his poems

only incidentally refer: we are not going to ask him, or any other poet, whether he has cured patients like

Asclepius, or left behind him a school of medicine such as the Asclepiads were, or whether he only talks

about medicine and other arts at second hand; but we have a right to know respecting military tactics, politics,

education, which are the chiefest and noblest subjects of his poems, and we may fairly ask him about them.

`Friend Homer,' then we say to him, `if you are only in the second remove from truth in what you say of

virtue, and not in the third not an image maker or imitatorand if you are able to discern what pursuits

make men better or worse in private or public life, tell us what State was ever better governed by your help?

The good order of Lacedaemon is due to Lycurgus, and many other cities great and small have been similarly

benefited by others; but who says that you have been a good legislator to them and have done them any

good? Italy and Sicily boast of Charondas, and there is Solon who is renowned among us; but what city has

I think not, said Glaucon; not even the Homerids themselves pretend that he was a legislator.

Well, but is there any war on record which was carried on successfully by him, or aided by his counsels,

Or is there any invention of his, applicable to the arts or to human life, such as Thales the Milesian or

Anacharsis the Scythian, and other ingenious men have conceived, which is attributed to him?

But, if Homer never did any public service, was he privately a guide or teacher of any? Had he in his lifetime

friends who loved to associate with him, and who handed down to posterity an Homeric way of life, such as

was established by Pythagoras who was so greatly beloved for his wisdom, and whose followers are to this

Nothing of the kind is recorded of him. For surely, Socrates, Creophylus, the companion of Homer, that child

of flesh, whose name always makes us laugh, might be more justly ridiculed for his stupidity, if, as is said,

Yes, I replied, that is the tradition. But can you imagine, Glaucon, that if Homer had really been able to

educate and improve mankind if he had possessed knowledge and not been a mere imitatorcan you

imagine, I say, that he would not have had many followers, and been honoured and loved by them?

Protagoras of Abdera, and Prodicus of Ceos, and a host of others, have only to whisper to their

contemporaries: `You will never be able to manage either your own house or your own State until you

appoint us to be your ministers of education' and this ingenious device of theirs has such an effect in

making them love them that their companions all but carry them about on their shoulders. And is it

conceivable that the contemporaries of Homer, or again of Hesiod, would have allowed either of them to go

about as rhapsodists, if they had really been able to make mankind virtuous? Would they not have been as

unwilling to part with them as with gold, and have compelled them to stay at home with them? Or, if the

master would not stay, then the disciples would have followed him about everywhere, until they had got

Then must we not infer that all these poetical individuals, beginning with Homer, are only imitators; they

copy images of virtue and the like, but the truth they never reach? The poet is like a painter who, as we have

already observed, will make a likeness of a cobbler though he understands nothing of cobbling; and his

picture is good enough for those who know no more than he does, and judge only by colours and figures.

In like manner the poet with his words and phrases may be said to lay on the colours of the several arts,

himself understanding their nature only enough to imitate them; and other people, who are as ignorant as he

is, and judge only from his words, imagine that if he speaks of cobbling, or of military tactics, or of anything

else, in metre and harmony and rhythm, he speaks very well such is the sweet influence which melody and

rhythm by nature have. And I think that you must have observed again and again what a poor appearance the

tales of poets make when stripped of the colours which music puts upon them, and recited in simple prose.

They are like faces which were never really beautiful, but only blooming; and now the bloom of youth has

Here is another point: The imitator or maker of the image knows nothing of true existence; he knows

Then let us have a clear understanding, and not be satisfied with half an explanation.

But does the painter know the right form of the bit and reins? Nay, hardly even the workers in brass and

leather who make them; only the horseman who knows how to use themhe knows their right form.

That there are three arts which are concerned with all things: one which uses, another which makes, a third

And the excellence or beauty or truth of every structure, animate or inanimate, and of every action of man, is

Then the user of them must have the greatest experience of them, and he must indicate to the maker the good

or bad qualities which develop themselves in use; for example, the fluteplayer will tell the flutemaker

which of his flutes is satisfactory to the performer; he will tell him how he ought to make them, and the other

The one knows and therefore speaks with authority about the goodness and badness of flutes, while the other,

The instrument is the same, but about the excellence or badness of it the maker will only attain to a correct

belief; and this he will gain from him who knows, by talking to him and being compelled to hear what he has

But will the imitator have either? Will he know from use whether or no his drawing is correct or beautiful?

Or will he have right opinion from being compelled to associate with another who knows and gives him

Then he will no more have true opinion than he will have knowledge about the goodness or badness of his

The imitative artist will be in a brilliant state of intelligence about his own creations?

And still he will go on imitating without knowing what makes a thing good or bad, and may be expected

therefore to imitate only that which appears to be good to the ignorant multitude?

Thus far then we are pretty well agreed that the imitator has no knowledge worth mentioning of what he

imitates. Imitation is only a kind of play or sport, and the tragic poets, whether they write in iambic or in

And now tell me, I conjure you, has not imitation been shown by us to be concerned with that which is thrice

I will explain: The body which is large when seen near, appears small when seen at a distance?

And the same object appears straight when looked at out of the water, and crooked when in the water; and the

concave becomes convex, owing to the illusion about colours to which the sight is liable. Thus every sort of

confusion is revealed within us; and this is that weakness of the human mind on which the art of conjuring

and of deceiving by light and shadow and other ingenious devices imposes, having an effect upon us like

And the arts of measuring and numbering and weighing come to the rescue of the human

understandingthere is the beauty of them and the apparent greater or less, or more or heavier, no longer

have the mastery over us, but give way before calculation and measure and weight?

And this, surely, must be the work of the calculating and rational principle in the soul

And when this principle measures and certifies that some things are equal, or that some are greater or less

But were we not saying that such a contradiction is the same faculty cannot have contrary opinions at the

Then that part of the soul which has an opinion contrary to measure is not the same with that which has an

And the better part of the soul is likely to be that which trusts to measure and calculation?

And that which is opposed to them is one of the inferior principles of the soul?

This was the conclusion at which I was seeking to arrive when I said that painting or drawing, and imitation

in general, when doing their own proper work, are far removed from truth, and the companions and friends

and associates of a principle within us which is equally removed from reason, and that they have no true or

The imitative art is an inferior who marries an inferior, and has inferior offspring.

And is this confined to the sight only, or does it extend to the hearing also, relating in fact to what we term

Do not rely, I said, on a probability derived from the analogy of painting; but let us examine further and see

We may state the question thus:Imitation imitates the actions of men, whether voluntary or involuntary, on

which, as they imagine, a good or bad result has ensued, and they rejoice or sorrow accordingly. Is there

But in all this variety of circumstances is the man at unity with himselfor rather, as in the instance of sight

there was confusion and opposition in his opinions about the same things, so here also is there not strife and

inconsistency in his life? Though I need hardly raise the question again, for I remember that all this has been

already admitted; and the soul has been acknowledged by us to be full of these and ten thousand similar

Yes, I said, thus far we were right; but there was an omission which must now be supplied.

Were we not saying that a good man, who has the misfortune to lose his son or anything else which is most

But will he have no sorrow, or shall we say that although he cannot help sorrowing, he will moderate his

Tell me: will he be more likely to struggle and hold out against his sorrow when he is seen by his equals, or

When he is by himself he will not mind saying or doing many things which he would be ashamed of any one

There is a principle of law and reason in him which bids him resist, as well as a feeling of his misfortune

But when a man is drawn in two opposite directions, to and from the same object, this, as we affirm,

The law would say that to be patient under suffering is best, and that we should not give way to impatience,

as there is no knowing whether such things are good or evil; and nothing is gained by impatience; also,

because no human thing is of serious importance, and grief stands in the way of that which at the moment is

That we should take counsel about what has happened, and when the dice have been thrown order our affairs

in the way which reason deems best; not, like children who have had a fall, keeping hold of the part struck

and wasting time in setting up a howl, but always accustoming the soul forthwith to apply a remedy, raising

up that which is sickly and fallen, banishing the cry of sorrow by the healing art.

Yes, I said; and the higher principle is ready to follow this suggestion of reason?

And the other principle, which inclines us to recollection of our troubles and to lamentation, and can never

And does not the latterI mean the rebellious principle furnish a great variety of materials for imitation?

Whereas the wise and calm temperament, being always nearly equable, is not easy to imitate or to appreciate

when imitated, especially at a public festival when a promiscuous crowd is assembled in a theatre. For the

Then the imitative poet who aims at being popular is not by nature made, nor is his art intended, to please or

to affect the principle in the soul; but he will prefer the passionate and fitful temper, which is easily imitated?

And now we may fairly take him and place him by the side of the painter, for he is like him in two ways:

first, inasmuch as his creations have an inferior degree of truthin this, I say, he is like him; and he is also

like him in being concerned with an inferior part of the soul; and therefore we shall be right in refusing to

admit him into a wellordered State, because he awakens and nourishes and strengthens the feelings and

impairs the reason. As in a city when the evil are permitted to have authority and the good are put out of the

way, so in the soul of man, as we maintain, the imitative poet implants an evil constitution, for he indulges

the irrational nature which has no discernment of greater and less, but thinks the same thing at one time great

and at another smallhe is a manufacturer of images and is very far removed from the truth.

But we have not yet brought forward the heaviest count in our accusation: the power which poetry has of

harming even the good (and there are very few who are not harmed), is surely an awful thing?

Hear and judge: The best of us, as I conceive, when we listen to a passage of Homer, or one of the tragedians,

in which he represents some pitiful hero who is drawling out his sorrows in a long oration, or weeping, and

smiting his breastthe best of us, you know, delight in giving way to sympathy, and are in raptures at the

But when any sorrow of our own happens to us, then you may observe that we pride ourselves on the

opposite qualitywe would fain be quiet and patient; this is the manly part, and the other which delighted us

Now can we be right in praising and admiring another who is doing that which any one of us would

If you consider, I said, that when in misfortune we feel a natural hunger and desire to relieve our sorrow by

weeping and lamentation, and that this feeling which is kept under control in our own calamities is satisfied

and delighted by the poets;the better nature in each of us, not having been sufficiently trained by reason or

habit, allows the sympathetic element to break loose because the sorrow is another's; and the spectator fancies

that there can be no disgrace to himself in praising and pitying any one who comes telling him what a good

man he is, and making a fuss about his troubles; he thinks that the pleasure is a gain, and why should he be

supercilious and lose this and the poem too? Few persons ever reflect, as I should imagine, that from the evil

of other men something of evil is communicated to themselves. And so the feeling of sorrow which has

gathered strength at the sight of the misfortunes of others is with difficulty repressed in our own.

And does not the same hold also of the ridiculous? There are jests which you would be ashamed to make

yourself, and yet on the comic stage, or indeed in private, when you hear them, you are greatly amused by

them, and are not at all disgusted at their unseemliness; the case of pity is repeated;there is a principle in

human nature which is disposed to raise a laugh, and this which you once restrained by reason, because you

were afraid of being thought a buffoon, is now let out again; and having stimulated the risible faculty at the

theatre, you are betrayed unconsciously to yourself into playing the comic poet at home.

And the same may be said of lust and anger and all the other affections, of desire and pain and pleasure,

which are held to be inseparable from every actionin all of them poetry feeds and waters the passions

instead of drying them up; she lets them rule, although they ought to be controlled, if mankind are ever to

Therefore, Glaucon, I said, whenever you meet with any of the eulogists of Homer declaring that he has been

the educator of Hellas, and that he is profitable for education and for the ordering of human things, and that

you should take him up again and again and get to know him and regulate your whole life according to him,

we may love and honour those who say these thingsthey are excellent people, as far as their lights extend;

and we are ready to acknowledge that Homer is the greatest of poets and first of tragedy writers; but we must

remain firm in our conviction that hymns to the gods and praises of famous men are the only poetry which

ought to be admitted into our State. For if you go beyond this and allow the honeyed muse to enter, either in

epic or lyric verse, not law and the reason of mankind, which by common consent have ever been deemed

And now since we have reverted to the subject of poetry, let this our defence serve to show the

reasonableness of our former judgment in sending away out of our State an art having the tendencies which

we have described; for reason constrained us. But that she may impute to us any harshness or want of

politeness, let us tell her that there is an ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry; of which there are

many proofs, such as the saying of `the yelping hound howling at her lord,' or of one `mighty in the vain talk

of fools,' and `the mob of sages circumventing Zeus,' and the `subtle thinkers who are beggars after all'; and

there are innumerable other signs of ancient enmity between them. Notwithstanding this, let us assure our

sweet friend and the sister arts of imitation that if she will only prove her title to exist in a wellordered State

we shall be delighted to receive herwe are very conscious of her charms; but we may not on that account

betray the truth. I dare say, Glaucon, that you are as much charmed by her as I am, especially when she

Shall I propose, then, that she be allowed to return from exile, but upon this condition onlythat she make a

And we may further grant to those of her defenders who are lovers of poetry and yet not poets the permission

to speak in prose on her behalf: let them show not only that she is pleasant but also useful to States and to

human life, and we will listen in a kindly spirit; for if this can be proved we shall surely be the gainersI

If her defence fails, then, my dear friend, like other persons who are enamoured of something, but put a

restraint upon themselves when they think their desires are opposed to their interests, so too must we after the

manner of lovers give her up, though not without a struggle. We too are inspired by that love of poetry which

the education of noble States has implanted in us, and therefore we would have her appear at her best and

truest; but so long as she is unable to make good her defence, this argument of ours shall be a charm to us,

which we will repeat to ourselves while we listen to her strains; that we may not fall away into the childish

love of her which captivates the many. At all events we are well aware that poetry being such as we have

described is not to be regarded seriously as attaining to the truth; and he who listens to her, fearing for the

safety of the city which is within him, should be on his guard against her seductions and make our words his

Yes, I said, my dear Glaucon, for great is the issue at stake, greater than appears, whether a man is to be good

or bad. And what will any one be profited if under the influence of honour or money or power, aye, or under

Yes, he said; I have been convinced by the argument, as I believe that any one else would have been.

And yet no mention has been made of the greatest prizes and rewards which await virtue.

What, are there any greater still? If there are, they must be of an inconceivable greatness.

Why, I said, what was ever great in a short time? The whole period of threescore years and ten is surely but a

And should an immortal being seriously think of this little space rather than of the whole?

He looked at me in astonishment, and said: No, by heaven: And are you really prepared to maintain this?

I see a great difficulty; but I should like to hear you state this argument of which you make so light.

Would you agree with me in thinking that the corrupting and destroying element is the evil, and the saving

And you admit that every thing has a good and also an evil; as ophthalmia is the evil of the eyes and disease

of the whole body; as mildew is of corn, and rot of timber, or rust of copper and iron: in everything, or in

And anything which is infected by any of these evils is made evil, and at last wholly dissolves and dies?

The vice and evil which is inherent in each is the destruction of each; and if this does not destroy them there

is nothing else that will; for good certainly will not destroy them, nor again, that which is neither good nor

If, then, we find any nature which having this inherent corruption cannot be dissolved or destroyed, we may

Yes, he said, there are all the evils which we were just now passing in review: unrighteousness, intemperance,

But does any of these dissolve or destroy her?and here do not let us fall into the error of supposing that the

unjust and foolish man, when he is detected, perishes through his own injustice, which is an evil of the soul.

Take the analogy of the body: The evil of the body is a disease which wastes and reduces and annihilates the

body; and all the things of which we were just now speaking come to annihilation through their own

corruption attaching to them and inhering in them and so destroying them. Is not this true?

Consider the soul in like manner. Does the injustice or other evil which exists in the soul waste and consume

her? Do they by attaching to the soul and inhering in her at last bring her to death, and so separate her from

And yet, I said, it is unreasonable to suppose that anything can perish from without through affection of

external evil which could not be destroyed from within by a corruption of its own?

Consider, I said, Glaucon, that even the badness of food, whether staleness, decomposition, or any other bad

quality, when confined to the actual food, is not supposed to destroy the body; although, if the badness of

food communicates corruption to the body, then we should say that the body has been destroyed by a

corruption of itself, which is disease, brought on by this; but that the body, being one thing, can be destroyed

by the badness of food, which is another, and which does not engender any natural infection this we shall

And, on the same principle, unless some bodily evil can produce an evil of the soul, we must not suppose that

the soul, which is one thing, can be dissolved by any merely external evil which belongs to another?

Either then, let us refute this conclusion, or, while it remains unrefuted, let us never say that fever, or any

other disease, or the knife put to the throat, or even the cutting up of the whole body into the minutest pieces,

can destroy the soul, until she herself is proved to become more unholy or unrighteous in consequence of

these things being done to the body; but that the soul, or anything else if not destroyed by an internal evil, can

And surely, he replied, no one will ever prove that the souls of men become more unjust in consequence of

But if some one who would rather not admit the immortality of the soul boldly denies this, and says that the

dying do really become more evil and unrighteous, then, if the speaker is right, I suppose that injustice, like

disease, must be assumed to be fatal to the unjust, and that those who take this disorder die by the natural

inherent power of destruction which evil has, and which kills them sooner or later, but in quite another way

from that in which, at present, the wicked receive death at the hands of others as the penalty of their deeds?

Nay, he said, in that case injustice, if fatal to the unjust, will not be so very terrible to him, for he will be

delivered from evil. But I rather suspect the opposite to be the truth, and that injustice which, if it have the

power, will murder others, keeps the murderer aliveaye, and well awake too; so far removed is her

True, I said; if the inherent natural vice or evil of the soul is unable to kill or destroy her, hardly will that

which is appointed to be the destruction of some other body, destroy a soul or anything else except that of

But the soul which cannot be destroyed by an evil, whether inherent or external, must exist for ever, and if

That is the conclusion, I said; and, if a true conclusion, then the souls must always be the same, for if none be

destroyed they will not diminish in number. Neither will they increase, for the increase of the immortal

natures must come from something mortal, and all things would thus end in immortality.

But this we cannot believereason will not allow us any more than we can believe the soul, in her truest

The soul, I said, being, as is now proven, immortal, must be the fairest of compositions and cannot be

Her immortality is demonstrated by the previous argument, and there are many other proofs; but to see her as

she really is, not as we now behold her, marred by communion with the body and other miseries, you must

contemplate her with the eye of reason, in her original purity; and then her beauty will be revealed, and

justice and injustice and all the things which we have described will be manifested more clearly. Thus far, we

have spoken the truth concerning her as she appears at present, but we must remember also that we have seen

her only in a condition which may be compared to that of the seagod Glaucus, whose original image can

hardly be discerned because his natural members are broken off and crushed and damaged by the waves in all

sorts of ways, and incrustations have grown over them of seaweed and shells and stones, so that he is more

like some monster than he is to his own natural form. And the soul which we behold is in a similar condition,

disfigured by ten thousand ills. But not there, Glaucon, not there must we look.

At her love of wisdom. Let us see whom she affects, and what society and converse she seeks in virtue of her

near kindred with the immortal and eternal and divine; also how different she would become if wholly

following this superior principle, and borne by a divine impulse out of the ocean in which she now is, and

disengaged from the stones and shells and things of earth and rock which in wild variety spring up around her

because she feeds upon earth, and is overgrown by the good things of this life as they are termed: then you

would see her as she is, and know whether she has one shape only or many, or what her nature is. Of her

affections and of the forms which she takes in this present life I think that we have now said enough.

And thus, I said, we have fulfilled the conditions of the argument; we have not introduced the rewards and

glories of justice, which, as you were saying, are to be found in Homer and Hesiod; but justice in her own

nature has been shown to be best for the soul in her own nature. Let a man do what is just, whether he have

the ring of Gyges or not, and even if in addition to the ring of Gyges he put on the helmet of Hades.

And now, Glaucon, there will be no harm in further enumerating how many and how great are the rewards

which justice and the other virtues procure to the soul from gods and men, both in life and after death.

The assumption that the just man should appear unjust and the unjust just: for you were of opinion that even

if the true state of the case could not possibly escape the eyes of gods and men, still this admission ought to

be made for the sake of the argument, in order that pure justice might be weighed against pure injustice. Do

Then, as the cause is decided, I demand on behalf of justice that the estimation in which she is held by gods

and men and which we acknowledge to be her due should now be restored to her by us; since she has been

shown to confer reality, and not to deceive those who truly possess her, let what has been taken from her be

given back, that so she may win that palm of appearance which is hers also, and which she gives to her own.

In the first place, I saidand this is the first thing which you will have to give backthe nature both of the

And if they are both known to them, one must be the friend and the other the enemy of the gods, as we

And the friend of the gods may be supposed to receive from them all things at their best, excepting only such

Then this must be our notion of the just man, that even when he is in poverty or sickness, or any other

seeming misfortune, all things will in the end work together for good to him in life and death: for the gods

have a care of any one whose desire is to become just and to be like God, as far as man can attain the divine

And what do they receive of men? Look at things as they really are, and you will see that the clever unjust are

in the case of runners, who run well from the startingplace to the goal but not back again from the goal: they

go off at a great pace, but in the end only look foolish, slinking away with their ears draggling on their

shoulders, and without a crown; but the true runner comes to the finish and receives the prize and is crowned.

And this is the way with the just; he who endures to the end of every action and occasion of his entire life has

And now you must allow me to repeat of the just the blessings which you were attributing to the fortunate

unjust. I shall say of them, what you were saying of the others, that as they grow older, they become rulers in

their own city if they care to be; they marry whom they like and give in marriage to whom they will; all that

you said of the others I now say of these. And, on the other hand, of the unjust I say that the greater number,

even though they escape in their youth, are found out at last and look foolish at the end of their course, and

when they come to be old and miserable are flouted alike by stranger and citizen; they are beaten and then

come those things unfit for ears polite, as you truly term them; they will be racked and have their eyes burned

out, as you were saying. And you may suppose that I have repeated the remainder of your tale of horrors. But

These, then, are the prizes and rewards and gifts which are bestowed upon the just by gods and men in this

present life, in addition to the other good things which justice of herself provides.

And yet, I said, all these are as nothing, either in number or greatness in comparison with those other

recompenses which await both just and unjust after death. And you ought to hear them, and then both just and

unjust will have received from us a full payment of the debt which the argument owes to them.

Well, I said, I will tell you a tale; not one of the tales which Odysseus tells to the hero Alcinous, yet this too

is a tale of a hero, Er the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth. He was slain in battle, and ten days

afterwards, when the bodies of the dead were taken up already in a state of corruption, his body was found

unaffected by decay, and carried away home to be buried. And on the twelfth day, as he was lying on the

funeral pile, he returned to life and told them what he had seen in the other world. He said that when his soul

left the body he went on a journey with a great company, and that they came to a mysterious place at which

there were two openings in the earth; they were near together, and over against them were two other openings

in the heaven above. In the intermediate space there were judges seated, who commanded the just, after they

had given judgment on them and had bound their sentences in front of them, to ascend by the heavenly way

on the right hand; and in like manner the unjust were bidden by them to descend by the lower way on the left

hand; these also bore the symbols of their deeds, but fastened on their backs. He drew near, and they told him

that he was to be the messenger who would carry the report of the other world to men, and they bade him

hear and see all that was to be heard and seen in that place. Then he beheld and saw on one side the souls

departing at either opening of heaven and earth when sentence had been given on them; and at the two other

openings other souls, some ascending out of the earth dusty and worn with travel, some descending out of

heaven clean and bright. And arriving ever and anon they seemed to have come from a long journey, and they

went forth with gladness into the meadow, where they encamped as at a festival; and those who knew one

another embraced and conversed, the souls which came from earth curiously enquiring about the things

above, and the souls which came from heaven about the things beneath. And they told one another of what

had happened by the way, those from below weeping and sorrowing at the remembrance of the things which

they had endured and seen in their journey beneath the earth (now the journey lasted a thousand years), while

those from above were describing heavenly delights and visions of inconceivable beauty. The Story, Glaucon,

would take too long to tell; but the sum was this: He said that for every wrong which they had done to any

one they suffered tenfold; or once in a hundred yearssuch being reckoned to be the length of man's life,

and the penalty being thus paid ten times in a thousand years. If, for example, there were any who had been

the cause of many deaths, or had betrayed or enslaved cities or armies, or been guilty of any other evil

behaviour, for each and all of their offences they received punishment ten times over, and the rewards of

beneficence and justice and holiness were in the same proportion. I need hardly repeat what he said

concerning young children dying almost as soon as they were born. Of piety and impiety to gods and parents,

and of murderers, there were retributions other and greater far which he described. He mentioned that he was

present when one of the spirits asked another, `Where is Ardiaeus the Great?' (Now this Ardiaeus lived a

thousand years before the time of Er: he had been the tyrant of some city of Pamphylia, and had murdered his

aged father and his elder brother, and was said to have committed many other abominable crimes.) The

answer of the other spirit was: `He comes not hither and will never come. And this,' said he, `was one of the

dreadful sights which we ourselves witnessed. We were at the mouth of the cavern, and, having completed all

our experiences, were about to reascend, when of a sudden Ardiaeus appeared and several others, most of

whom were tyrants; and there were also besides the tyrants private individuals who had been great criminals:

they were just, as they fancied, about to return into the upper world, but the mouth, instead of admitting them,

gave a roar, whenever any of these incurable sinners or some one who had not been sufficiently punished

tried to ascend; and then wild men of fiery aspect, who were standing by and heard the sound, seized and

carried them off; and Ardiaeus and others they bound head and foot and hand, and threw them down and

flayed them with scourges, and dragged them along the road at the side, carding them on thorns like wool,

and declaring to the passersby what were their crimes, and that they were being taken away to be cast into

hell.' And of all the many terrors which they had endured, he said that there was none like the terror which

each of them felt at that moment, lest they should hear the voice; and when there was silence, one by one they

ascended with exceeding joy. These, said Er, were the penalties and retributions, and there were blessings as

Now when the spirits which were in the meadow had tarried seven days, on the eighth they were obliged to

proceed on their journey, and, on the fourth day after, he said that they came to a place where they could see

from above a line of light, straight as a column, extending right through the whole heaven and through the

earth, in colour resembling the rainbow, only brighter and purer; another day's journey brought them to the

place, and there, in the midst of the light, they saw the ends of the chains of heaven let down from above: for

this light is the belt of heaven, and holds together the circle of the universe, like the undergirders of a

trireme. From these ends is extended the spindle of Necessity, on which all the revolutions turn. The shaft and

hook of this spindle are made of steel, and the whorl is made partly of steel and also partly of other materials.

Now the whorl is in form like the whorl used on earth; and the description of it implied that there is one large

hollow whorl which is quite scooped out, and into this is fitted another lesser one, and another, and another,

and four others, making eight in all, like vessels which fit into one another; the whorls show their edges on

the upper side, and on their lower side all together form one continuous whorl. This is pierced by the spindle,

which is driven home through the centre of the eighth. The first and outermost whorl has the rim broadest,

and the seven inner whorls are narrower, in the following proportions the sixth is next to the first in size,

the fourth next to the sixth; then comes the eighth; the seventh is fifth, the fifth is sixth, the third is seventh,

last and eighth comes the second. The largest (of fixed stars) is spangled, and the seventh (or sun) is brightest;

the eighth (or moon) coloured by the reflected light of the seventh; the second and fifth (Saturn and Mercury)

are in colour like one another, and yellower than the preceding; the third (Venus) has the whitest light; the

fourth (Mars) is reddish; the sixth (Jupiter) is in whiteness second. Now the whole spindle has the same

motion; but, as the whole revolves in one direction, the seven inner circles move slowly in the other, and of

these the swiftest is the eighth; next in swiftness are the seventh, sixth, and fifth, which move together; third

in swiftness appeared to move according to the law of this reversed motion the fourth; the third appeared

fourth and the second fifth. The spindle turns on the knees of Necessity; and on the upper surface of each

circle is a siren, who goes round with them, hymning a single tone or note. The eight together form one

harmony; and round about, at equal intervals, there is another band, three in number, each sitting upon her

throne: these are the Fates, daughters of Necessity, who are clothed in white robes and have chaplets upon

their heads, Lachesis and Clotho and Atropos, who accompany with their voices the harmony of the sirens

Lachesis singing of the past, Clotho of the present, Atropos of the future; Clotho from time to time assisting

with a touch of her right hand the revolution of the outer circle of the whorl or spindle, and Atropos with her

left hand touching and guiding the inner ones, and Lachesis laying hold of either in turn, first with one hand

When Er and the spirits arrived, their duty was to go at once to Lachesis; but first of all there came a prophet

who arranged them in order; then he took from the knees of Lachesis lots and samples of lives, and having

mounted a high pulpit, spoke as follows: `Hear the word of Lachesis, the daughter of Necessity. Mortal souls,

behold a new cycle of life and mortality. Your genius will not be allotted to you, but you choose your genius;

and let him who draws the first lot have the first choice, and the life which he chooses shall be his destiny.

Virtue is free, and as a man honours or dishonours her he will have more or less of her; the responsibility is

with the chooserGod is justified.' When the Interpreter had thus spoken he scattered lots indifferently

among them all, and each of them took up the lot which fell near him, all but Er himself (he was not allowed),

and each as he took his lot perceived the number which he had obtained. Then the Interpreter placed on the

ground before them the samples of lives; and there were many more lives than the souls present, and they

were of all sorts. There were lives of every animal and of man in every condition. And there were tyrannies

among them, some lasting out the tyrant's life, others which broke off in the middle and came to an end in

poverty and exile and beggary; and there were lives of famous men, some who were famous for their form

and beauty as well as for their strength and success in games, or, again, for their birth and the qualities of

their ancestors; and some who were the reverse of famous for the opposite qualities. And of women likewise;

there was not, however, any definite character them, because the soul, when choosing a new life, must of

necessity become different. But there was every other quality, and the all mingled with one another, and also

with elements of wealth and poverty, and disease and health; and there were mean states also. And here, my

dear Glaucon, is the supreme peril of our human state; and therefore the utmost care should be taken. Let

each one of us leave every other kind of knowledge and seek and follow one thing only, if peradventure he

may be able to learn and may find some one who will make him able to learn and discern between good and

evil, and so to choose always and everywhere the better life as he has opportunity. He should consider the

bearing of all these things which have been mentioned severally and collectively upon virtue; he should know

what the effect of beauty is when combined with poverty or wealth in a particular soul, and what are the good

and evil consequences of noble and humble birth, of private and public station, of strength and weakness, of

cleverness and dullness, and of all the soul, and the operation of them when conjoined; he will then look at

the nature of the soul, and from the consideration of all these qualities he will be able to determine which is

the better and which is the worse; and so he will choose, giving the name of evil to the life which will make

his soul more unjust, and good to the life which will make his soul more just; all else he will disregard. For

we have seen and know that this is the best choice both in life and after death. A man must take with him into

the world below an adamantine faith in truth and right, that there too he may be undazzled by the desire of

wealth or the other allurements of evil, lest, coming upon tyrannies and similar villainies, he do irremediable

wrongs to others and suffer yet worse himself; but let him know how to choose the mean and avoid the

extremes on either side, as far as possible, not only in this life but in all that which is to come. For this is the

And according to the report of the messenger from the other world this was what the prophet said at the time:

`Even for the last comer, if he chooses wisely and will live diligently, there is appointed a happy and not

undesirable existence. Let not him who chooses first be careless, and let not the last despair.' And when he

had spoken, he who had the first choice came forward and in a moment chose the greatest tyranny; his mind

having been darkened by folly and sensuality, he had not thought out the whole matter before he chose, and

did not at first sight perceive that he was fated, among other evils, to devour his own children. But when he

had time to reflect, and saw what was in the lot, he began to beat his breast and lament over his choice,

forgetting the proclamation of the prophet; for, instead of throwing the blame of his misfortune on himself, he

accused chance and the gods, and everything rather than himself. Now he was one of those who came from

heaven, and in a former life had dwelt in a wellordered State, but his virtue was a matter of habit only, and

he had no philosophy. And it was true of others who were similarly overtaken, that the greater number of

them came from heaven and therefore they had never been schooled by trial, whereas the pilgrims who came

from earth, having themselves suffered and seen others suffer, were not in a hurry to choose. And owing to

this inexperience of theirs, and also because the lot was a chance, many of the souls exchanged a good

destiny for an evil or an evil for a good. For if a man had always on his arrival in this world dedicated himself

from the first to sound philosophy, and had been moderately fortunate in the number of the lot, he might, as

the messenger reported, be happy here, and also his journey to another life and return to this, instead of being

rough and underground, would be smooth and heavenly. Most curious, he said, was the spectaclesad and

laughable and strange; for the choice of the souls was in most cases based on their experience of a previous

life. There he saw the soul which had once been Orpheus choosing the life of a swan out of enmity to the race

of women, hating to be born of a woman because they had been his murderers; he beheld also the soul of

Thamyras choosing the life of a nightingale; birds, on the other hand, like the swan and other musicians,

wanting to be men. The soul which obtained the twentieth lot chose the life of a lion, and this was the soul of

Ajax the son of Telamon, who would not be a man, remembering the injustice which was done him the

judgment about the arms. The next was Agamemnon, who took the life of an eagle, because, like Ajax, he

hated human nature by reason of his sufferings. About the middle came the lot of Atalanta; she, seeing the

great fame of an athlete, was unable to resist the temptation: and after her there followed the soul of Epeus

the son of Panopeus passing into the nature of a woman cunning in the arts; and far away among the last who

chose, the soul of the jester Thersites was putting on the form of a monkey. There came also the soul of

Odysseus having yet to make a choice, and his lot happened to be the last of them all. Now the recollection of

former tolls had disenchanted him of ambition, and he went about for a considerable time in search of the life

of a private man who had no cares; he had some difficulty in finding this, which was lying about and had

been neglected by everybody else; and when he saw it, he said that he would have done the had his lot been

first instead of last, and that he was delighted to have it. And not only did men pass into animals, but I must

also mention that there were animals tame and wild who changed into one another and into corresponding

human natures the good into the gentle and the evil into the savage, in all sorts of combinations.

All the souls had now chosen their lives, and they went in the order of their choice to Lachesis, who sent with

them the genius whom they had severally chosen, to be the guardian of their lives and the fulfiller of the

choice: this genius led the souls first to Clotho, and drew them within the revolution of the spindle impelled

by her hand, thus ratifying the destiny of each; and then, when they were fastened to this, carried them to

Atropos, who spun the threads and made them irreversible, whence without turning round they passed

beneath the throne of Necessity; and when they had all passed, they marched on in a scorching heat to the

plain of Forgetfulness, which was a barren waste destitute of trees and verdure; and then towards evening

they encamped by the river of Unmindfulness, whose water no vessel can hold; of this they were all obliged

to drink a certain quantity, and those who were not saved by wisdom drank more than was necessary; and

each one as he drank forgot all things. Now after they had gone to rest, about the middle of the night there

was a thunderstorm and earthquake, and then in an instant they were driven upwards in all manner of ways to

their birth, like stars shooting. He himself was hindered from drinking the water. But in what manner or by

what means he returned to the body he could not say; only, in the morning, awaking suddenly, he found

And thus, Glaucon, the tale has been saved and has not perished, and will save us if we are obedient to the

word spoken; and we shall pass safely over the river of Forgetfulness and our soul will not be defiled.

Wherefore my counsel is that we hold fast ever to the heavenly way and follow after justice and virtue

always, considering that the soul is immortal and able to endure every sort of good and every sort of evil.

Thus shall we live dear to one another and to the gods, both while remaining here and when, like conquerors

in the games who go round to gather gifts, we receive our reward. And it shall be well with us both in this life