[484c]
these we should establish as
guardians.” “Right” he said. “Is
this, then,” said I, “clear, whether the guardian who is
to keep watch over anything ought to be blind or keen of sight?”
“Of course it is clear,” he said. “Do you
think, then, that there is any appreciable difference between the blind1 and those who are veritably deprived of the knowledge of the
veritable being of things, those who have no vivid pattern2
in their souls and so cannot, as painters look to their models, fix their
eyes3 on the absolute truth, and always with reference to that ideal
and in the exactest possible contemplation of it
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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