The dialogues of Plato in five volumes, Vol. 2 (of 5) : $b Translated into English with analyses and introductions
Plato · en
That is because you are in love with Demos. But let us have a
little more conversation. You remember the two processes—one
which was directed to pleasure, the other which was directed to
making men as good as possible. And those who have the care
of the city should make the citizens as good as possible. But who 514
would undertake a public building, if he had never had a teacher
of the art of building, and had never constructed a building before?
or who would undertake the duty of state-physician, if he had
never cured either himself or any one else? Should we not
examine him before we entrusted him with the office? And as
Callicles is about to enter public life, should we not examine
him? Whom has he made better? For we have already admitted that 515
this is the statesman’s proper business. And we must ask the
same question about Pericles, and Cimon, and Miltiades, and
Themistocles. Whom did they make better? Nay, did not Pericles
make the citizens worse? For he gave them pay, and at first he
was very popular with them, but at last they condemned him to
death. Yet surely he would be a bad tamer of animals who, 516
having received them gentle, taught them to kick and butt, and
man is an animal; and Pericles who had the charge of man only
made him wilder, and more savage and unjust, and therefore he
could not have been a good statesman. The same tale might
be repeated about Cimon, Themistocles, Miltiades. But the
charioteer who keeps his seat at first is not thrown out when he 517
gains greater experience and skill. The inference is, that the
statesmen of a past age were no better than those of our own.
They may have been cleverer constructors of docks and harbours,
but they did not improve the character of the citizens. I have
told you again and again (and I purposely use the same images)
that the soul, like the body, may be treated in two ways—there is
the meaner and the higher art. You seemed to understand what 518
I said at the time, but when I ask you who were the really good
statesmen, you answer—as if I asked you who were the good
trainers, and you answered, Thearion, the baker, Mithoecus, the
author of the Sicilian cookery-book, Sarambus, the vintner. And
you would be affronted if I told you that these are a parcel of
cooks who make men fat only to make them thin. And those
whom they have fattened applaud them, instead of finding fault
with them, and lay the blame of their subsequent disorders on
their physicians. In this respect, Callicles, you are like them;
you applaud the statesmen of old, who pandered to the vices of the
citizens, and filled the city with docks and harbours, but neglected
virtue and justice. And when the fit of illness comes, the 519
citizens who in like manner applauded Themistocles, Pericles, and