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[589a]
but
to starve the man1 and so enfeeble him that
he can be pulled about2 whithersoever either of the
others drag him, and not to familiarize or reconcile with one another the
two creatures but suffer them to bite and fight and devour one another.3”
“Yes,” he said, “that is precisely what the
panegyrist of injustice will be found to say.” “And on
the other hand he who says that justice is the more profitable affirms that
all our actions and words should tend to give the man within us4
[589b]
complete domination5 over the entire man and make him take
charge6 of the many-headed beast—like a farmer7 who cherishes and trains the cultivated plants but checks
the growth of the wild—and he will make an ally8 of the lion's nature, and
caring for all the beasts alike will first make them friendly to one another
and to himself, and so foster their growth.” “Yes, that
in turn is precisely the meaning of the man who commends justice.”
“From every point of view, then, the panegyrist of justice
[589c]
speaks truly and the panegyrist of
injustice falsely. For whether we consider pleasure, reputation, or profit,
he who commends justice speaks the truth, while there is no soundness or
real knowledge of what he censures in him who disparages it.”
“None whatever, I think,” said he. “Shall we,
then, try to persuade him gently,9 for he does not willingly
err,10 by
questioning him thus: Dear friend, should we not also say that the things
which law and custom deem fair or foul have been accounted so for a like
reason—
[589d]
the fair and honorable
things being those that subject the brutish part of our nature to that which
is human in us, or rather, it may be, to that which is divine,11 while the foul and
base are the things that enslave the gentle nature to the wild? Will he
assent or not?” “He will if he is counselled by
me.” “Can it profit any man in the light of this thought
to accept gold unjustly if the result is to be that by the acceptance he
enslaves the best part of himself to the worst?
[589e]
Or is it conceivable that, while, if the taking of the
gold enslaved his son or daughter and that too to fierce and evil men, it
would not profit him,12 no matter how large the sum, yet that,
if the result is to be the ruthless enslavement of the divinest part of
himself to the most despicable and godless part, he is not to be deemed
wretched
1 The whole passage illustrates the psychology of 440 B ff.
2 Cf. Protag. 352 Cπεριελκομένης, with Aristot.Eth. Nic. 1145 b 24.
3 Perhaps a latent allusion to Hesiod, Works and Days 278.
4 Cf. “the inward man,”Romans vii. 22, 2 Cor. iv. 16, Ephes. iii. 16.
5 Cf. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy, p. 10 “Religion says: ‘The kingdom of God is within you’; and culture, in like manner, places human perfection in an internal condition, in the growth and predominance of our humanity proper, as distinguished from our animality.”
6 Cf. Gorg. 516 A-B.
7 Cf. Theaet. 167 B-C, and What Plato Said, p. 456, on Euthyphro 2 D.
8 Cf. 441 A.
9 πράως: cf. the use of ἠρέμα476 E, 494 D.
10 Plato always maintains that wrong-doing is involuntary and due to ignorance. Cf. What Plato Said, p. 640 on Laws 860 D.
11 Cf. 501 B, Tennyson, “Locksley Hall Sixty Years after,”in fine,“The highest Human Nature is divine.”
12 Cf. Matt. xvi.26, Mark viii. 36, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” A typical argumentum ex contrario. Cf. 445 A-B and Vol. I. p. 40, note c. On the supreme value of the soul Cf. Laws 726-728, 743 E, 697 B, 913 B, 959 A-B. Cf. 585 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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