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[303e] and after that there remain the precious substances which are mixed with the gold and akin to it and can be removed only by fire—copper and silver and sometimes adamant.1 These are removed by the difficult processes of smelting and tests, leaving before our eyes what is called unalloyed gold in all its purity.

Younger Socrates
Yes, that is said, at least, to be the process.

Stranger
By the same method I think all that is different and alien and incompatible has now been eliminated by us from the science of statesmanship, and what is precious and akin to it is left. Herein are included the arts


1 Plat. Tim. 59 B, defines adamant as χρυσοῦ ὄζος“a branch of gold.” It was, then, a substance akin to gold. Platinum has been suggested.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.

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