| Plato, Republic (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Pl. Resp.]. | ||
| <<Pl. Resp. 573c | Pl. Resp. 575c (Greek) | >>Pl. Resp. 577b |
574dand the swarm note of pleasures collected in his soul is grown great, will he not first lay hands on the wall note of someone's house or the cloak of someone who walks late at night, and thereafter he will make a clean sweep note of some temple, and in all these actions the beliefs which he held from boyhood about the honorable and the base, the opinions accounted just, note will be overmastered by the opinions newly emancipated note and released, which, serving as bodyguards of the ruling passion, will prevail in alliance with it—I mean the opinions that formerly were freed from restraint in sleep,
574ewhen, being still under the control of his father and the laws, he maintained the democratic constitution in his soul. But now, when under the tyranny of his ruling passion, he is continuously and in waking hours what he rarely became in sleep, and he will refrain from no atrocity of murder nor from any food or deed,
575abut the passion that dwells in him as a tyrant will live in utmost anarchy and lawlessness, and, since it is itself sole autocrat, will urge the polity, note so to speak, of him in whom it dwells note to dare anything and everything in order to find support for himself and the hubbub of his henchmen, note in part introduced from outside by evil associations, and in part released and liberated within by the same habits of life as his. Is not this the life of such a one?” “It is this,” he said. “And if,” I said, “there are only a few of this kind in a city,
575band the others, the multitude as a whole, are sober-minded, the few go forth into exile and serve some tyrant elsewhere as bodyguard or become mercenaries in any war there may be. But if they spring up in time of peace and tranquillity they stay right there in the city and effect many small evils.” “What kind of evils do you mean?” “Oh, they just steal, break into houses, cut purses, strip men of their garments, plunder temples, and kidnap, note and if they are fluent speakers they become sycophants and bear false witness and take bribes.”
575c“Yes, small evils indeed, note” he said, “if the men of this sort are few.” “Why, yes,” I said, “for small evils are relatively small compared with great, and in respect of the corruption and misery of a state all of them together, as the saying goes, don't come within hail note of the mischief done by a tyrant. For when men of this sort and their followers become numerous in a state and realize their numbers, then it is they who, in conjunction with the folly of the people, create a tyrant out of that one of them who has
575dthe greatest and mightiest tyrant in his own soul.” “Naturally,” he said, “for he would be the most tyrannical.” “Then if the people yield willingly—’tis well, note but if the city resists him, then, just as in the previous case the man chastized his mother and his father, so now in turn will he chastize his fatherland if he can, bringing in new boon companions beneath whose sway he will hold and keep enslaved his once dear motherland note—as the Cretans name her—and fatherland. And this would be the end of such a man's desire. note”
575e“Yes,” he said, “this, just this.” “Then,” said I, “is not this the character of such men in private life and before they rule the state: to begin with they associate with flatterers, who are ready to do anything to serve them,
576aor, if they themselves want something, they themselves fawn note and shrink from no contortion note or abasement in protest of their friendship, though, once the object gained, they sing another tune. note” “Yes indeed,” he said. “Throughout their lives, then, they never know what it is to be the friends of anybody. They are always either masters or slaves, but the tyrannical nature never tastes freedom note or true friendship.” “Quite so.” “May we not rightly call such men faithless note?” “Of course.” “Yes, and unjust to the last degree,
576bif we were right in our previous agreement about the nature of justice.” “But surely,” he said, “we were right.” “Let us sum up, note then,” said I, “the most evil type of man. He is, I presume, the man who, in his waking hours, has the qualities we found in his dream state.” “Quite so.” “And he is developed from the man who, being by nature most of a tyrant, achieves sole power, and the longer he lives as an actual tyrant the stronger this quality becomes.” “Inevitably,” said Glaucon, taking up the argument.
“And shall we find,” said I, “that the man who is shown to be the most evil
576cwill also be the most miserable, and the man who is most of a tyrant for the longest time is most and longest miserable note in sober truth? Yet the many have many opinions. note” “That much, certainly,” he said, “must needs be true.” “Does not the tyrannical man,” said I, “correspond to the tyrannical state in similitude, note the democratic to the democratic and the others likewise?” “Surely.” “And may we not infer that the relation of state to state in respect of virtue and happiness| Plato, Republic (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Pl. Resp.]. | ||
| <<Pl. Resp. 573c | Pl. Resp. 575c (Greek) | >>Pl. Resp. 577b |
