[400c]
and he added the quantities
long and short. And in some of these, I believe, he censured and commended
the tempo of the foot no less than the rhythm itself, or else some
combination of the two; I can't say. But, as I said, let this matter be
postponed for Damon's
consideration. For to determine the truth of these would require no little
discourse. Do you think otherwise?” “No, by heaven, I do
not.” “But this you are able to determine—that
seemliness and unseemliness are attendant upon the good rhythm and the
bad.” “Of course.” “And,
further,1 that
1 Plato, as often, employs the forms of an argument proceeding by minute links to accumulate synonyms in illustration of a moral or aesthetic analogy. He is working up to the Wordsworthian thought that order, harmony, and beauty in nature and art are akin to these qualities in the soul.
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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