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[572a]
and not
disturb the better part by its pleasure or pain, but may suffer that in
isolated purity to examine and reach out towards and apprehend some of the
things unknown to it, past, present or future and when he has in like manner
tamed his passionate part, and does not after a quarrel fall asleep1
with anger still awake within him, but if he has thus quieted the two
elements in his soul and quickened the third, in which reason resides, and
so goes to his rest, you are aware that in such case2 he is most likely to apprehend truth,
and
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the visions of his dreams are least
likely to be lawless.”3 “I certainly think so,” he
said. “This description has carried us too far,4 but the point
that we have to notice is this, that in fact there exists in every one of
us, even in some reputed most respectable,5 a terrible, fierce and
lawless brood of desires, which it seems are revealed in our sleep.
Consider, then, whether there is anything in what I say, and whether you
admit it.” “Well, I do.”“Now recall6 our characterization of the democratic man.
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His development was determined by his education
from youth under a thrifty father who approved only the acquisitive
appetites and disapproved the unnecessary ones whose object is entertainment
and display. Is not that so?” “Yes.”
“And by association with more sophisticated men, teeming with the
appetites we have just described, he is impelled towards every form of
insolence and outrage, and to the adoption of their way of life by his
hatred of his father's niggardliness. But since his nature is better than
that of his corrupters,
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being drawn both
ways he settles down in a compromise7 between the two tendencies, and indulging and enjoying each in
moderation, forsooth,8 as he supposes,9 he lives what he deems a life that is
neither illiberal nor lawless, now transformed from an oligarch to a
democrat.” “That was and is our belief about this
type.” “Assume,10 then, again,” said I,
“that such a man when he is older has a son bred in turn11 in his ways of life.” “I so
assume.” “And suppose the experience of his father
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to be repeated in his case. He is
drawn toward utter lawlessness, which is called by his seducers complete
freedom. His father and his other kin lend support to12 these compromise appetites while the
others lend theirs to the opposite group. And when these dread magi13 and king-makers come
to realize that they have no hope of controlling the youth in any other way,
they contrive to engender in his soul a ruling passion14 to be the
protector15
1 Cf. Ephesians iv. 26 “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”
2 ἐν τῷ τοιούτῳ: cf. 382 B, 465 A, 470 C, 492 C, 590 A, Lysis 212 C, Laws 625 D.
3 This sentence contains 129 words. George Moore says, “Pater's complaint that Plato's sentences are long may be regarded as Pater's single excursion into humor.” But Pater is in fact justifying his own long sentences by Plato's example. He calls this passage Plato's evening prayer.
4 Plato always returns to the point after a digression. Cf. 543 C, 471 C, 544 B, 568 D, 588 B, Phaedo 78 B, Theaet. 177 C, Protag. 359 A, Crat. 438 A, Polit. 287 A-B, 263 C, 302 B, Laws 682 E, 697 C, 864 C, and many other passages. Cf. also Lysias ii. 61ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἐξήχθην, Demosth.De cor. 211, Aristot.De an. 403 b 16, also p. 193, note i, and Plato's carefulness in keeping to the point under discussion in 353 C, Theaet. 182 C, 206 C, Meno 93 A-B, Gorg. 479 D-E, 459 C-D, etc.
5 For the irony of the expression Cf. Laws 693 D, Aesch.Eumen. 373.
6 Cf. 559 D f.
7 εἰς μέσον: cf. p. 249, note f.
8 Ironical.δή. See p. 300, note a. Cf. modern satire on “moderate” drinking and “moderate” preparedness.
9 ὡς ᾤετο is another ironical formula like ἵνα δή, ὡς ἄρα, etc.
10 θές: Cf. Theaet. 191 C, Phileb. 33 D.
11 This is the αὖ of the succession of the generations. Cf. p. 247, note f.
12 Cf. 559 E.
13 An overlooked reference to the Magi who set up the false Smerdis. Cf. Herod. iii. 61 ff.
14 Cf. Symp. 205 D.
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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