[558c]
if only he says that he loves the people!1” “It is a noble2 polity, indeed!” he
said. “These and qualities akin to these democracy would exhibit,
and it would, it seems, be a delightful3 form of government, anarchic and motley,
assigning a kind of equality indiscriminately to equals and unequals
alike!4”
“Yes,” he said, “everybody knows
that.”“Observe, then,
the corresponding private character. Or must we first, as in the case of the
polity, consider the origin of the type?”
“Yes,” he said. “Is not this, then, the way of
it? Our thrifty5
oligarchical man
1 Cf. Aristoph.Knights 732 f., 741 and passim. Andoc. iv. 16εὔνους τῷ δήμῳ. Emile Faguet, Moralistes, iii. p. 84, says of Tocqueville, “Il est bien je crois le premier qui ait dit que la démocratie abaisse le niveau intellectuel des gouvernements.” For the other side of the democratic shield see Thucyd. ii. 39.
2 For the ironical use of γενναία cf. 544 C, Soph. 231 B, Theaet. 209 E.
3 ἡδεῖα: cf. Isoc. vii. 70 of good government,τοῖς χρωμένοις ἡδίους.
4 Cf. What Plato Said, p. 634, on Laws 744 B-C, and ibid. p. 508 on Gorg. 508 A, Aristot.Eth. Nic. 1131 a 23-24, Newman, i. p. 248, Xen.Cyr. ii. 2. 18.
5 Cf. 572 C, Theogn. 915 f., Anth. Pal. x. 41, Democr. fr. 227 and 228, DieIs ii.3 p. 106, and Epicharm.fr. 45, Diels i.3 126.
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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