Section 550

You are aware, then, said I, that the very house-slaves of such men, if they are loyal and friendly, privately say the same sort of things to the sons, and if they observe a debtor or any other wrongdoer whom the father does not prosecute, they urge the boy to punish all such when he grows to manhood and prove himself more of a man than his father, and when the lad goes out he hears and sees the same sort of thing. 1 Men who mind their own affairs 2 in the city are spoken of as simpletons and are held in slight esteem, while meddlers who mind other people’s affairs are honored and praised. Then it is 3 that the youth, hearing and seeing such things, and on the other hand listening to the words of his father, and with a near view of his pursuits contrasted with those of other men, is solicited by both, his father watering and fostering the growth of the rational principle 4 in his soul and the others the appetitive and the passionate 5 ; and as he is not by nature of a bad disposition but has fallen into evil communications, 6 under these two solicitations he comes to a compromise 7 and turns over the government in his soul 8 to the intermediate principle of ambition and high spirit and becomes a man haughty of soul 9 and covetous of honor. 10 You have, I think, most exactly described his origin. Then, said I, we have our second polity and second type of man. We have, he said. Shall we then, as Aeschylus: would say, tell of another champion before another gate, Aesch. Seven 451 11 or rather, in accordance with our plan, 12 the city first? That, by all means, he said. The next polity, I believe, would be oligarchy. And what kind of a regime, said he, do you understand by oligarchy? That based on a property qualification, 13 said I, wherein the rich hold office and the poor man is excluded. I understand, said he. Then, is not the first thing to speak of how democracy passes over into this? Yes. And truly, said I, the manner of the change is plain even to the proverbial blind man. 14 How so? That treasure-house 15 which each possesses filled with gold destroys that polity; for first they invent ways of expenditure for themselves and pervert the laws to this end, and neither they nor their wives obey them. That is likely, he said. And then, I take it, by observing and emulating one another they bring the majority of them to this way of thinking. That is likely, he said. And so, as time goes on, and they advance 16 in the pursuit of wealth, the more they hold that in honor the less they honor virtue. May not the opposition of wealth and virtue 17 be conceived as if each lay in the scale 18 of a balance inclining opposite ways? Yes, indeed, he said.