STRANGER: I say that we should have begun at first by dividing land
animals into biped and quadruped; and since the winged herd, and that
alone, comes out in the same class with man, we should divide bipeds
into those which have feathers and those which have not, and when they
have been divided, and the art of the management of mankind is brought
to light, the time will have come to produce our Statesman and ruler,
and set him like a charioteer in his place, and hand over to him the
reins of state, for that too is a vocation which belongs to him.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very good; you have paid me the debt,--I mean, that you
have completed the argument, and I suppose that you added the digression
by way of interest. (Compare Republic.)
STRANGER: Then now, let us go back to the beginning, and join the links,
which together make the definition of the name of the Statesman's art.
YOUNG SOCRATES: By all means.
STRANGER: The science of pure knowledge had, as we said originally, a
part which was the science of rule or command, and from this was derived
another part, which was called command-for-self, on the analogy of
selling-for-self; an important section of this was the management of
living animals, and this again was further limited to the management
of them in herds; and again in herds of pedestrian animals. The chief
division of the latter was the art of managing pedestrian animals which
are without horns; this again has a part which can only be comprehended
under one term by joining together three names--shepherding pure-bred
animals. The only further subdivision is the art of man-herding,--this
has to do with bipeds, and is what we were seeking after, and have now
found, being at once the royal and political.
YOUNG SOCRATES: To be sure.
STRANGER: And do you think, Socrates, that we really have done as you
say?
YOUNG SOCRATES: What?
STRANGER: Do you think, I mean, that we have really fulfilled
our intention?--There has been a sort of discussion, and yet the
investigation seems to me not to be perfectly worked out: this is where
the enquiry fails.
YOUNG SOCRATES: I do not understand.
STRANGER: I will try to make the thought, which is at this moment
present in my mind, clearer to us both.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Let me hear.
STRANGER: There were many arts of shepherding, and one of them was the
political, which had the charge of one particular herd?
YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes.
STRANGER: And this the argument defined to be the art of rearing, not
horses or other brutes, but the art of rearing man collectively?
YOUNG SOCRATES: True.
STRANGER: Note, however, a difference which distinguishes the king from
all other shepherds.
YOUNG SOCRATES: To what do you refer?
STRANGER: I want to ask, whether any one of the other herdsmen has a
rival who professes and claims to share with him in the management of
the herd?
YOUNG SOCRATES: What do you mean?