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 ungrudging Footnote 1A recurrence to etymological meaning. Cf.
ἄθυμον
411 B, Laws 888 A, εὐψυχίας
Laws 791 C, Thompson on Meno 78 E, Aristot. Topics 112 a 32-38, Eurip. Heracleidae 730 ἀσθαλῶς
, Shakes. Rich. III. v. v. 37 reduce these bloody days again.
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,
he said, concur.
And do you not also concur Footnote 2For a similar teasing or playful repetition of a word cf. 517 C, 394 B, 449 C, 470 B-C. in this very point that the blame for this harsh attitude of the many towards philosophy falls on that riotous crew who have burst in Footnote 3For 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. where they do not belong, wrangling with one another, Footnote 4Cf. Adam ad loc. and Wilamowitz, Platon, ii. 121. filled with spite Footnote 5Isoc. Antid. 260 seems to take this term to himself; Cf. Panath. 249, Peace 65, Lysias xxiv. 24
πολυπράγμων εἰμὶ καὶ θρασὺς καὶ φιλαπεχθήμων
Demosth, xxiv, 6. and always talking about persons, Footnote 6i.e. gossip. cf. Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1125 a 5 οὐδ’ ἀνθρωπολόγος
, Epictetus iii. 16. 4. Cf. also Phileb. 59 b, Theaet. 173 D, 174 C. a thing least befitting philosophy?Least of all, indeed,
he said.
For surely, Adeimantus, the man whose mind is truly fixed on eternal realities Footnote 7Cf. 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 16 ταὐτὰ 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.
has no leisure 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 assimilate Footnote 8ἀφομοιοῦσθαι suggests the ὁμοίωσις θέῳ Theaet. 176 B. Cf. What Plato Said, p. 578. 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 associating with the divine order will himself become orderly and divine in the measure permitted to man. Footnote 9Cf. on 493 D, and for the idea 383 C. But calumny Footnote 10Cf. HamletIII. i. 141
thou shalt not escape calumny,
Bacchylides 12 (13). 202-203 βροτῶν δὲ μῶμος πάντεσσι μέν ἐστιν ἐπ’ ἔγοις
. is plentiful everywhere.Yes, truly.
If, then,
I said, some compulsion Footnote 11The philosopher unwillingly holds office. Cf. on 345 E. is laid upon him to practise stamping on the plastic matter of human nature in public and private the patterns that he visions there, Footnote 12ἐκεῖ is frequently used in Plato of the world of ideas. Cf. Phaedrus 250 A. Phaedo 109 E. and not merely to mould Footnote 13For 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 applies the language of the theory of ideas to the
social tissue
here exactly as he applies 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 25 De 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
. and fashion himself, do you think he will prove a poor craftsman Footnote 14Cf. Aristot. Pol. 1329 a 21 ἀρετῆς δημιουργόν
. Cf. also 1275 b 29 with Newman, Introd. Aristot. Pol. p. 229. Cf. 395 C δημιουργοὺς ἐλευθερίας
, Theages 125 A δημιουργὸν . . . τῆς σοφίας
. of sobriety and justice and all forms of ordinary civic virtue Footnote 15Cf. Laws 968 A πρὸς ταῖς δημοσίαις ἀρεταῖς
, Phaedo 82 A and ibid, Vol. I. on 430 C. Brochard, La Morale de Platon,
L’Année Philosophique, xvi. () p. 12 La justice est appelée une vertu populaire.
This is a little misleading, if he means that justice itself is une vertu populaire.
?By no means,
he said. But if the multitude become aware 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 traced Footnote 16For διαγράψειαν cf. 387 B and Laws 778 A. See also Stallbaum ad loc. by artists who used the heavenly model?
They will not be harsh,
he said, if they perceive that.
Book 6