James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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οὔτε γάρ -- νομοθετηθέντα. Plato means that specific enactments are powerless either to produce or to maintain civilities and proprieties of this kind. The flowers of civilisation must bloom naturally, or not at all. With the general sentiment of this passage cf. Isocr. Areop. 41 δεῖν δὲ τοὺς ὀρθῶς πολιτευομένους οὐ τὰς στοὰς ἐμπιμπλάναι γραμμάτων ἀλλ᾽ ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἔχειν τὸ δίκαιον: οὐ γὰρ τοῖς ψηφίσμασιν ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἤθεσι καλῶς οἰκεῖσθαι τὰς πόλεις.

ὅποι -- εἶναι: “the bent given by education will determine all that follows” (D. and V.): “wohin einer die Richtung durch die Erziehung bekommen hat, dem auch das folgende entspricht” (Schneider). The sense is satisfactory, nor is the apparent correlation of ὅποι and τοιαῦτα a sufficient reason for impugning the text, as (in common with Dobree and others) I formerly did. ὅπῃ (so Ast with q) would convey the idea of direction more precisely than ὅποι, but as the route is determined by the goal, we may be satisfied. Of the various emendations— ὁποἶ (Heller), ὁποῖος (Stallbaum, who afterwards recanted), ὁποίας (Dobree)— that of Dobree deserves high praise for elegance and point. The meaning would be ‘as is the education from which one starts, so is the sequel’; and for ὁποίας =ἐξ ὁποίας we might compare III 402 A, VII 520 D. I once thought of ὁποία ἄν τις ὁρμὴ ᾖ, but am now content with the text as it stands.