James Adam, The Republic of Plato

412B - 414B So much for Education. It remains to ask ‘Which of the guardians are to be our rulers?’ The elder shall rule the younger, and the better the worse. Now the best guardians are those who care most for their country and her interests. We shall make our selection on this principle; and we must further try those whom we select and see whether their patriotism is proof against all seductive influences. Every true opinion or belief —and the belief on which patriotism rests is true,—like everything else which we call good, is unwillingly discarded, but may be forcibly expelled by persuasion or forgetfulness, by pain, pleasure and the like. We shall apply these tests to prove our guardians. Those who emerge unscathed will become our rulers. They are the true Guardians; the others should be called Auxiliaries.

ff. This is the first appearance of the Rulers in Plato's State, if we except the passing allusion in 389 C. Their presence is necessary to take the place of the original νομοθέτης when the State has once been founded (VI 497 D); they represent in fact the Royal or Kingly art, whose business it is to prescribe to others their specific good or end. See on 410 A and Nohle die Statslehre Platos pp. 47 f., 85 ff., 113 ff. Such is their duty according to the later books; but here it is not so described, and the whole subject is treated in an exoteric way. The full and esoteric discussion of this subject is reserved for VI and VII. To this later treatment reference is made in 414 A and 416 B. The advocates of the original unity of the Republic justly lay stress upon the tentative and provisional nature of the regulations here laid down (e.g. Susemihl Gen. Entw. p. 143, Zeller^{4} II 1. p. 560 note); whereas the separatists hold that Plato's wider conception of the Ruling class is chronologically later than the account now given (Krohn Pl. St. pp. 28—31). An excellent defence of the conservative view will be found in Hirmer Entst. u. Komp. d. pl. Pol. pp. 613 ff. See also Introd. § 4.

χορείας -- ἱππικούς. See Laws 814 D ff., 822 D ff., 830 C ff., 832 D ff.

οὐκέτι: ‘not now,’ sc. when we have trained our Guardians. On such idiomatic uses of οὐκέτι and its opposite ἤδη see Cope's Rhetoric of Aristotle, Vol. I p. 13.