STATESMAN [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Y. Soc.

ClearlY.
Str.

And now, I will not wait for you to ask the, but will of my own
accord take you by the shorter road to the definition of a king.

Y. Soc.

By all means.

Str.

I say that we should have begun at first by dividing land
animals into biped and quadruped; and since the winged herd, and
that alone, comes out in the same class with man, should divide bipeds
into those which have feathers and those which have not, and when they
have been divided, and the art of the management of mankind is brought
to light, the time will have come to produce our Statesman and
ruler, and set him like a charioteer in his place, and hand over to
him the reins of state, for that too is a vocation which belongs to
him.

Y. Soc.

Very good; you have paid me the debt-I mean, that you have
completed the argument, and I suppose that you added the digression by
way of interest.

Str.

Then now, let us go back to the beginning, and join the
links, which together make the definition of the name of the
Statesman's art.

Y. Soc.

By all means.

Str.

The science of pure knowledge had, as we said originally, a
part which was the science of rule or command, and from this was
derived another part, which was called command-for-self, on the
analogy of selling-for-self; an important section of this was the
management of living animals, and this again was further limited to
the manage merit of them in herds; and again in herds of pedestrian
animals.

The chief division of the latter was the art of managing
pedestrian animals which are without horns; this again has a part
which can only be comprehended under one term by joining together
three names-shepherding pure-bred animals.

The only further
subdivision is the art of man herding-this has to do with bipeds,
and is what we were seeking after, and have now found, being at once
the royal and political.

Y. Soc.

To be sure.

Str.

And do you think, Socrates, that we really have done as you
say?
Y. Soc.

What?
Str.

Do you think, I mean, that we have really fulfilled our
intention?-There has been a sort of discussion, and yet the
investigation seems to me not to be perfectly worked out: this is
where the enquiry fails.

Y. Soc.

I do not understand.

Str.

I will try to make the thought, which is at this moment present
in my mind, clearer to us both.

Y. Soc.

Let me hear.

Str.

There were many arts of shepherding, and one of them was the
political, which had the charge of one particular herd?
Y. Soc.

Yes.

Str.

And this the argument defined to be the art of rearing, not
horses or other brutes, but the art of rearing man collectively?
Y. Soc.

True.

Str.

Note, however, a difference which distinguishes the king from
all other shepherds.

Y. Soc.

To what do you refer?
Str.

I want to ask, whether any one of the other herdsmen has a
rival who professes and claims to share with him in the management
of the herd?
Y. Soc.

What do you mean?
Str.

I mean to say that merchants husbandmen, providers of food, and
also training-masters and physicians, will all contend with the
herdsmen of humanity, whom we call Statesmen, declaring that they
themselves have the care of rearing of managing mankind, and that they
rear not only the common herd, but also the rulers themselves.

Y. Soc.

Are they not right in saying so?
Str.

Very likely they may be, and we will consider their claim.

But we are certain of this,-that no one will raise a similar claim
as against the herdsman, who is allowed on all hands to be the sole
and only feeder and physician of his herd; he is also their matchmaker
and accoucheur; no one else knows that department of science.

And he
is their merry-maker and musician, as far as their nature is
susceptible of such influences, and no one can console and soothe
his own herd better than he can, either with the natural tones of
his voice or with instruments.

And the same may be said of tenders
of animals in general.

Y. Soc.

Very true.

Str.

But if this is as you say, can our argument about the king be
true and unimpeachable? Were we right in selecting him out of ten
thousand other claimants to be the shepherd and rearer of the human
flock?
Y. Soc.

Surely not.

Str.

Had we not reason just to now apprehend, that although we may
have described a sort of royal form, we have not as yet accurately
worked out the true image of the Statesman? and that we cannot
reveal him as he truly is in his own nature, until we have
disengaged and separated him from those who bang about him and claim
to share in his prerogatives?
Y. Soc.

Very true.

Str.

And that, Socrates, is what we must do, if we do not mean to
bring disgrace upon the argument at its close.

Y. Soc.

We must certainly avoid that.

Str.

Then let us make a new beginning, and travel by a different
road.

Y. Soc.

What road?
Str.

I think that we may have a little amusement; there is a
famous tale, of which a good portion may with advantage be interwoven,
and then we may resume our series of divisions, and proceed in the old
path until we arrive at the desired summit.

Shall we do as I say?
Y. Soc.

By all means.

Str.

Listen, then, to a tale which a child would love to hear; and
you are not too old for childish amusement.

Y. Soc.

Let me hear.

Str.

There did really happen, and will again happen, like many other
events of which ancient tradition has preserved the record, the
portent which is traditionally said to have occurred in the quarrel of
Atreus and Thyestes.

You have heard no doubt, and remember what they
say happened at that time?
Y. Soc.

I suppose you to mean the token of the birth of the golden
lamb.

Str.

No, not that; but another part of the story, which tells how
the sun and the stars once rose in the west, and set in the east,
and that the god reversed their motion, and gave them that which
they now have as a testimony to the right of Atreus.

Y. Soc.

Yes; there is that legend also.

Str.

Again, we have been often told of the reign of Cronos.

Y. Soc.

Yes, very often.

Str.

Did you ever hear that the men of former times were
earthborn, and not begotten of one another?
Y. Soc.

Yes, that is another old tradition.

Str.

All these stories, and ten thousand others which are still more
wonderful, have a common origin; many of them have been lost in the
lapse of ages, or are repeated only in a disconnected form; but the
origin of them is what no one has told, and may as well be told now;
for the tale is suited to throw light on the nature of the king.

Y. Soc.

Very good; and I hope that you will give the whole story,
and leave out nothing.

Str.

Listen, then.

There is a time when God himself guides and helps
to roll the world in its course; and there is a time, on the
completion of a certain cycle, when he lets go, and the world being
a living creature, and having originally received intelligence from
its author and creator turns about and by an inherent necessity
revolves in the opposite direction.

Y. Soc.

Why is that?
Str.

Why, because only the most divine things of all remain ever
unchanged and the same, and body is not included in this class.

Heaven
and the universe, as we have termed them, although they have been
endowed by the Creator with many glories, partake of a bodily
nature, and therefore cannot be entirely free from perturbation.

But
their motion is, as far as possible, single and in the same place, and
of the same kind; and is therefore only subject to a reversal, which
is the least alteration possible.

For the lord of all moving things is
alone able to move of himself; and to think that he moves them at
one time in one direction and at another time in another is blasphemY.
Hence we must not say that the world is either self-moved always, or
all made to go round by God in two opposite courses; or that two Gods,
having opposite purposes, make it move round.

But as I have already
said (and this is the only remaining alternative) the world is
guided at one time by an external power which is divine and receives
fresh life and immortality from the renewing hand of the Creator,
and again, when let go, moves spontaneously, being set free at such
a time as to have, during infinite cycles of years, a reverse