[Footnote 314: Plato, Republic, x. p. 597 A. [Greek: ou)k a)\n to\ o)\n poioi=, a)lla/ ti toiou=ton oi(=on to\ o)/n, o)\n de\ ou)/.]] [Footnote 315: Plato, Republic, x. p. 598 B-C.] [Side-note: Censure of Homer--He is falsely extolled as educator of the Hellenic world. He and other poets only deceive their hearers.] The like is true also of the poets. Homer and the tragedians give us talk and affirmations about everything: government, legislation, war, medicine, husbandry, the character and proceedings of the Gods, the habits and training of men, &c. Some persons even extol Homer as the great educator of the Hellenic world, whose poems we ought to learn by heart as guides for education and administration.[316] But Homer, Hesiod, and the other poets, had no real knowledge of the multifarious matters which they profess to describe. These poets know nothing except about appearances, and will describe only appearances, to the satisfaction of the ignorant multitude.[317] The representations of the painter, reproducing only the appearances to sense, will be constantly fallacious and deceptive, requiring to be corrected by measuring, weighing, counting--which are processes belonging to Reason.[318] The lower and the higher parts of the mind are here at variance; and the painter addresses himself to the lower, supplying falsehood as if it were truth. The painter does this through the eye, the poet through the ear.[319] [Footnote 316: Plato, Republic, p. 606 E.] [Footnote 317: Plato, Republic, x. pp. 600-601 C. 601 B: [Greek: tou= me\n o)/ntos ou)de\n e)pai+/ei, tou= de\ phainome/nou.] 602 B: [Greek: oi(=on phai/netai kalo\n ei)=nai toi=s polloi=s te kai\ mêde\n ei)do/si, tou=to mimê/setai.]] [Footnote 318: Plato, Republic, x. pp. 602-603.] [Footnote 319: Plato, Republic, x. p. 603 B.] [Side-note: The poet chiefly appeals to emotions--Mischiefs of such eloquent appeals, as disturbing the rational government of the mind.]