[402a]
The ugly he would rightly
disapprove of and hate while still young and yet unable to apprehend the
reason, but when reason came1 the man thus nurtured
would be the first to give her welcome, for by this affinity he would know
her.” “I certainly think,” he said,
“that such is the cause of education in music.”
“It is, then,” said I, “as it was when we
learned our letters and felt that we knew them sufficiently only when the
separate letters did not elude us, appearing as few elements in all the
combinations that convey them, and when we did not disregard them
1 Cf. Laws 653 B-C, where Plato defines education by this principle. Aristotle virtually accepts it (Ethics ii. 3. 2). The Stoics somewhat pedantically laid it down that reason entered into the youth at the age of fourteen.
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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