[572]
and when he has in like manner tamed his passionate part, and does not after a quarrel fall asleep
1
with anger still awake within him, but if he has thus quieted the two elements in his soul and quickened the third, in which reason resides, and so goes to his rest, you are aware that in such case
2
he is most likely to apprehend truth, and
572b
the visions of his dreams are least likely to be lawless.
3
I certainly think so, he said.
This description has carried us too far,
4
but the point that we have to notice is this, that in fact there exists in every one of us, even in some reputed most respectable,
5
a terrible, fierce and lawless brood of desires, which it seems are revealed in our sleep. Consider, then, whether there is anything in what I say, and whether you admit it.
Well, I do.
Now recall 6 our characterization of the democratic man. 572c His development was determined by his education from youth under a thrifty father who approved only the acquisitive appetites and disapproved the unnecessary ones whose object is entertainment and display. Is not that so? Yes. And by association with more sophisticated men, teeming with the appetites we have just described, he is impelled towards every form of insolence and outrage, and to the adoption of their way of life by his hatred of his father’s niggardliness. But since his nature is better than that of his corrupters, 572d being drawn both ways he settles down in a compromise 7 between the two tendencies, and indulging and enjoying each in moderation, forsooth, 8 as he supposes, 9 he lives what he deems a life that is neither illiberal nor lawless, now transformed from an oligarch to a democrat. That was and is our belief about this type. Assume, 10 then, again, said I, that such a man when he is older has a son bred in turn 11 in his ways of life. I so assume. And suppose the experience of his father 572e to be repeated in his case. He is drawn toward utter lawlessness, which is called by his seducers complete freedom. His father and his other kin lend support to 12 these compromise appetites while the others lend theirs to the opposite group.
Now recall 6 our characterization of the democratic man. 572c His development was determined by his education from youth under a thrifty father who approved only the acquisitive appetites and disapproved the unnecessary ones whose object is entertainment and display. Is not that so? Yes. And by association with more sophisticated men, teeming with the appetites we have just described, he is impelled towards every form of insolence and outrage, and to the adoption of their way of life by his hatred of his father’s niggardliness. But since his nature is better than that of his corrupters, 572d being drawn both ways he settles down in a compromise 7 between the two tendencies, and indulging and enjoying each in moderation, forsooth, 8 as he supposes, 9 he lives what he deems a life that is neither illiberal nor lawless, now transformed from an oligarch to a democrat. That was and is our belief about this type. Assume, 10 then, again, said I, that such a man when he is older has a son bred in turn 11 in his ways of life. I so assume. And suppose the experience of his father 572e to be repeated in his case. He is drawn toward utter lawlessness, which is called by his seducers complete freedom. His father and his other kin lend support to 12 these compromise appetites while the others lend theirs to the opposite group.
Republic. Plato. Paul Shorey (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1935-37.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.