'What, then, shall a man profit, if he gain the whole world' and become
more and more wicked? Or what shall he profit by escaping discovery, if
the concealment of evil prevents the cure? If he had been punished, the
brute within him would have been silenced, and the gentler element
liberated; and he would have united temperance, justice, and wisdom in his
soul--a union better far than any combination of bodily gifts. The man of
understanding will honour knowledge above all; in the next place he will
keep under his body, not only for the sake of health and strength, but in
order to attain the most perfect harmony of body and soul. In the
acquisition of riches, too, he will aim at order and harmony; he will not
desire to heap up wealth without measure, but he will fear that the
increase of wealth will disturb the constitution of his own soul. For the
same reason *592* he will only accept such honours as will make him a
better man; any others he will decline. 'In that case,' said he, 'he will
never be a politician.' Yes, but he will, in his own city; though probably
not in his native country, unless by some divine accident. 'You mean that
he will be a citizen of the ideal city, which has no place upon earth.'
But in heaven, I replied, there is a pattern of such a city, and he who
wishes may order his life after that image. Whether such a state is or
ever will be matters not; he will act according to that pattern and no
other.....
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _Republic IX._ Introduction.]
The most noticeable points in the 9th Book of the Republic are:--(1) the
account of pleasure; (2) the number of the interval which divides the king
from the tyrant; (3) the pattern which is in heaven.