Section 548

Yes. Such men, said I, will be avid of wealth, like those in an oligarchy, and will cherish a fierce secret lust for gold 1 and silver, owning storehouses 2 and private treasuries where they may hide them away, and also the enclosures 3 of their homes, literal private love-nests 4 in which they can lavish their wealth on their women 5 and any others they please with great expenditure. Most true, he said. And will they not be stingy about money, since they prize it and are not allowed to possess it openly, prodigal of others’ wealth 6 because of their appetites, enjoying 7 their pleasures stealthily, and running away from the law as boys from a father, 8 since they have not been educated by persuasion 9 but by force because of their neglect of the true Muse, the companion of discussion and philosophy, and because of their preference of gymnastics to music? You perfectly describe, he said, a polity that is a mixture 10 of good and evil. Why, yes, the elements have been mixed, I said, but the most conspicuous 11 feature in it is one thing only, due to the predominance of the high-spirited element, namely contentiousness and covetousness of honor. 12 Very much so, said he. Such, then, would be the origin and nature of this polity if we may merely outline the figure of a constitution in words and not elaborate it precisely, since even the sketch will suffice to show us the most just and the most unjust type of man, and it would be an impracticable task to set forth all forms 13 of government without omitting any, and all customs and qualities of men. Quite right, he said. What, then, is the man that corresponds to this constitution? What is his origin and what his nature? I fancy, Adeimantus said, that he comes rather close 14 to Glaucon here in point of contentiousness. Perhaps, said I, in that, but I do not think their natures are alike in the following respects. In what?