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[519c] preside over a state, nor could those who had been permitted to linger on to the end in the pursuit of culture—the one because they have no single aim1 and purpose in life to which all their actions, public and private, must be directed, and the others, because they will not voluntarily engage in action, believing that while still living they have been transported to the Islands of the Blest.2” “True,” he said. “It is the duty of us, the founders, then,” said I, “to compel the best natures to attain the knowledge which we pronounced the greatest, and to win to the vision of the good,

1 σκοπόν: this is what distinguishes the philosophic statesman from the opportunist politician. Cf. 452 E, Laws 962 A-B, D, Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 18 n. 102.

2 Cf. 540 B, Gorg. 526 C, 520 Dἐν τῷ καθαρῷ and Phaedo 114 C, 109 B. Because they will still suppose that they are “building Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land” (Blake).

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    • C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XIV
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