Section 591

and this is the aim of our control of children, 1 our not leaving them free before we have established, so to speak, a constitutional government within them 2 and, by fostering the best element in them with the aid of the like in ourselves, have set up in its place a similar guardian and ruler in the child, and then, and then only, we leave it free. Yes, that is plain, he said. In what way, 3 then, Glaucon, and on what principle, shall we say that it profits a man to be unjust or licentious or do any shameful thing that will make him a worse man, but otherwise will bring him more wealth or power? In no way, he said. And how that it pays him to escape detection in wrongdoing and not pay the penalty 4 ? Or is it not true that he who evades detection becomes a still worse man, while in the one who is discovered and chastened the brutish part is lulled and tamed and the gentle part liberated, and the entire soul, returning to its nature at the best, attains to a much more precious condition in acquiring sobriety and righteousness together with wisdom, than the body 5 does when it gains strength and beauty conjoined with health, even as the soul is more precious than the body? Most assuredly, he said. Then the wise man will bend all his endeavors 6 to this end throughout his life; he will, to begin with, prize the studies that will give this quality to his soul and disprize the others. Clearly, he said. And then, I said, he not only will not abandon the habit and nurture of his body to the brutish and irrational pleasure and live with his face set in that direction, but he will not even make health his chief aim, 7 nor give the first place to the ways of becoming strong or healthy or beautiful unless these things are likely to bring with them soberness of spirit, but he will always be found attuning the harmonies of his body for the sake of the concord in his soul. 8 By all means, he replied, if he is to be a true musician. 9 And will he not deal likewise with the ordering and harmonizing of his possessions? He will not let himself be dazzled 10 by the felicitations of the multitude and pile up the mass 11 of his wealth without measure, 12 involving himself in measureless ills. No, I think not, he said. He will rather, I said, keep his eyes fixed on the constitution in his soul, 13 and taking care and watching lest he disturb anything there either by excess or deficiency of wealth, 14 will so steer his course and add to or detract from his wealth on this principle, so far as may be. Precisely so, he said.