[500a]
and their
pursuits so that the people may not suppose you to mean those of whom they
are thinking. Or even if they do look at them in that way, are you still
going to deny that they will change their opinion and answer differently? Or
do you think that anyone is ungentle to the gentle or grudging to the
ungrudging if he himself is ungrudging1 and mild? I
will anticipate you and reply that I think that only in some few and not in
the mass of mankind is so ungentle or harsh a temper to be found.”
“And I, you may be assured,”
[500b]
he said, “concur.” “And do
you not also concur2 in
this very point that the blame for this harsh attitude of the many towards
philosophy falls on that riotous crew who have burst in3
where they do not belong, wrangling with one another,4 filled with spite5 and always talking
about persons,6 a thing least befitting philosophy?” “Least of
all, indeed,” he said.“For surely, Adeimantus, the man whose mind is truly fixed on
eternal realities7 has no leisure
[500c]
to turn his eyes downward upon the
petty affairs of men, and so engaging in strife with them to be filled with
envy and hate, but he fixes his gaze upon the things of the eternal and
unchanging order, and seeing that they neither wrong nor are wronged by one
another, but all abide in harmony as reason bids, he will endeavor to
imitate them and, as far as may be, to fashion himself in their likeness and
assimilate8 himself to them. Or do you think it
possible not to imitate the things to which anyone attaches himself with
admiration?” “Impossible,” he said.
“Then the lover of wisdom
[500d]
associating with the divine order will himself become orderly and divine
in the measure permitted to man.9 But calumny10 is plentiful everywhere.”
“Yes, truly.” “If, then,” I said,
“some compulsion11 is laid upon him to
practise stamping on the plastic matter of human nature in public and
private the patterns that he visions there,12 and not merely to mould13 and
fashion himself, do you think he will prove a poor craftsman14 of sobriety and justice and all forms
of ordinary civic virtue15?” “By no means,”
he said. “But if the multitude become aware
[500e]
that what we are saying of the philosopher is true, will
they still be harsh with philosophers, and will they distrust our statement
that no city could ever be blessed unless its lineaments were traced16 by artists who used the heavenly
model?” “They will not be harsh,”
1 A recurrence to etymological meaning. Cf.ἄθυμον411 B, Laws 888 A,εὐψυχίαςLaws 791 C, Thompson on Meno 78 E, Aristot.Topics 112 a 32-38, Eurip.Heracleidae 730ἀσθαλῶς, Shakes.Rich. III. v. v. 37 “reduce these bloody days again.”
2 For a similar teasing or playful repetition of a word cf. 517 C, 394 B, 449 C, 470 B-C.
3 For the figure of the κῶμος or revel rout Cf. Theaet. 184A, Aesch.Ag. 1189, Eurip.Ion 1197, and, with a variation of the image, Virgil, Aen. i. 148.
4 Cf. Adam ad loc. and Wilamowitz, Platon, ii. 121.
5 Isoc.Antid. 260 seems to take this term to himself; Cf. Panath. 249, Peace 65,Lysias xxiv. 24πολυπράγμων εἰμὶ καὶ θρασὺς καὶ φιλαπεχθήμωνDemosth, xxiv, 6.
6 i.e. gossip. cf. Aristot.Eth. Nic. 1125 a 5οὐδ᾽ ἀνθρωπολόγος, Epictetus iii. 16. 4. Cf. also Phileb. 59 b, Theaet. 173 D, 174 C.
7 Cf. on 486 A, also Phileb. 58 D, 59 A, Tim. 90 D, and perhaps Tim. 47 A and Phaedo 79. This passage is often supposed to refer to the ideas, and ἐκεῖ in 500 D shows that Plato is in fact there thinking of them, though in Rep. 529 A-B ff. he protests against this identification. And strictly speaking κατὰ ταὐτὰ ἀεὶ ἔχοντα in C would on Platonic principles be true only of the ideas. Nevertheless poets and imitators have rightly felt that the dominating thought of the passage is the effect on the philosopher's mind of the contemplation of the heavens. This confusion or assimilation is, of course, still more natural to Aristotle, who thought the stars unchanging. Cf. Met. 1063 a 16ταὐτὰ δ᾽ αἰεὶ καὶ μεταβολῆς οὐδεμιᾶς κοινωνοῦντα. Cf. also Sophocles, Ajax 669 ff., and Shorey in Sneath, Evolution of Ethics, pp. 261-263, Dio Chrys. xl. (Teubner ii. p. 199), Boethius, Cons. iii. 8 “respicite caeli spatium . . . et aliquando desinite vilia mirari.”
8 ἀφομοιοῦσθαι suggests the ὁμοίωσις θέῳTheaet. 176 B. Cf. What Plato Said, p. 578.
9 Cf. on 493 D, and for the idea 383 C.
10 Cf. HamletIII. i. 141 “thou shalt not escape calumny,” Bacchylides 12 (13). 202-203βροτῶν δὲ μῶμος πάντεσσι μέν ἐστιν ἐπ᾽ ἔγοις.
11 The philosopher unwillingly holds office. Cf. on 345 E.
12 ἐκεῖ is frequently used in Plato of the world of ideas. Cf. Phaedrus 250 A.Phaedo 109 E.
13 For the word πλάττειν used of the lawgiver cf. 377 C, Laws 671 C, 712 B, 746 A, 800 B, Rep. 374 A, 377 c, 420 c, 466 A, 588 C, etc. For the idea that the ruler shapes the state according to the pattern Cf. 540 A-B. Plato apples the language of the theory of ideas to the “social tissue” here exactly as he apples it to the making of a tool in the Cratylus 389 C. In both cases there is a workman, the ideal pattern and the material in which it is more or less perfectly embodied. Such passages are the source of Aristotle's doctrine f matter and form. Cf. Met. 1044 a 25De part. an. 630 b 25-27, 640 b 24 f., 642 a 10 ff., De an. 403 b 3, Seller, Aristot.(Eng.) i. p. 356. Cf. also Gorg. 503 D-E, Polit. 306 C, 309 D and Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 31-32. Cf. Alcinous,Εἰσαγωγή ii. (Teubner vi. p. 153)ἃ κατὰ τὸν θεωρητικὸν βίον ὁρᾶται, μελετῆσαι εἰς ἀνθρώπων ἤθη.
14 Cf. Aristot.Pol. 1329 a 21ἀρετῆς δημιουργόν. Cf. also 1275 b 29 with Newman, Introd. Aristot.Pol. p. 229. Cf. 395 Cδημιουργοὺς ἐλευθερίας, Theages 125 Aδημιουργὸν . . . τῆς σοφίας.
15 Cf. Laws 968 Aπρὸς ταῖς δημοσίαις ἀρεταῖς, Phaedo 82 A and supra, Vol. I. on 430 C. Brochard, “La Morale de Platon,”L’Année Philosophique, xvi. (1905) p. 12 “La justice est appelée une vertu populaire.” This is a little misleading, if he means that justice itself is “une vertu populaire.”
16 For διαγράψειαν cf. 387 B and Laws 778 A. See also Stallbaum ad loc.
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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