[484d]
establish in this world also the laws of the beautiful,
the just and the good, when that is needful, or guard and preserve those
that are established?” “No, by heaven,” he
said, “there is not much difference.” “Shall
we, then, appoint these blind souls as our guardians, rather than those who
have learned to know the ideal reality of things and who do not fall short
of the others in experience1 and are not second to them in
any part of virtue?” “It would be strange
indeed,” he said, “to choose others than the
philosophers, provided they were not deficient in those other respects, for
this very knowledge
1 Cf. 539 E, 521 B, Phileb. 62. Cf. Introd. p. xl; Apelt, Republic, p. 490.
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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