[605b]
and not to the best part is another point of
resemblance. And so we may at last say that we should be justified in not
admitting him into a well-ordered state, because he stimulates and fosters
this element in the soul, and by strengthening it tends to destroy the
rational part, just as when in a state1 one puts bad men in power and turns the city over
to them and ruins the better sort. Precisely in the same manner we shall say
that the mimetic poet sets up in each individual soul a vicious constitution
by fashioning phantoms far removed from reality, and by currying favor with
the senseless element
1 Cf. p. 412, note 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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