[345d]
as if he were a
money-maker and not a shepherd. But the art of the shepherd1 surely is
concerned with nothing else than how to provide what is best for that over
which is set, since its own affairs, its own best estate, are entirely
sufficiently provided for so long as it in nowise fails of being the
shepherd's art. And in like manner I supposed that we just now were
constrained to acknowledge that every form of rule2 in so far as it is rule considers
what is best for nothing else than that which is governed and cared for by
it,
1 The art=the ideal abstract artist. See on 342 A-C. Aristotle Eth. Nic. 1098 a 8 ff. says that the function of a harper and that of a good harper are generically the same. Cf. Crito 48 A.
2 Aristotle's despotic rule over slaves would seem to be an exception (Newman, Introduction Aristotle Politics p. 245.). But that too should be for the good of the slave;590 D.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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