Dialogues

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.340 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 purebred 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?341 Young Socrates What do you mean? Stranger I mean to say that merchants, husbandmen, providers of food, and also training-masters and physicians, will all contend with the herdsmen of humanity, whom we call Statesmen, declaring that they themselves have the care of rearing or managing mankind, and that they rear not only the common herd, but also the rulers themselves. Young Socrates Are they not right in saying so? Stranger Very likely they may be, and we will consider their claim. But we are certain of this⁠—that no one will raise a similar claim as against the herdsman, who is allowed on all hands to be the sole and only feeder and physician of his herd; he is also their matchmaker and accoucheur; no one else knows that department of science. And he is their merrymaker and musician, as far as their nature is susceptible of such influences, and no one can console and soothe his own herd better than he can, either with the natural tones of his voice or with instruments. And the same may be said of tenders of animals in general. Young Socrates Very true. Stranger But if this is as you say, can our argument about the king be true and unimpeachable? Were we right in selecting him out of ten thousand other claimants to be the shepherd and rearer of the human flock? Young Socrates Surely not. Stranger Had we not reason just now342 to apprehend, that although we may have described a sort of royal form, we have not as yet accurately worked out the true image of the Statesman? and that we cannot reveal him as he truly is in his own nature, until we have disengaged and separated him from those who hang about him and claim to share in his prerogatives? Young Socrates Very true. Stranger And that, Socrates, is what we must do, if we do not mean to bring disgrace upon the argument at its close. Young Socrates We must certainly avoid that. Stranger Then let us make a new beginning, and travel by a different road. Young Socrates What road? Stranger I think that we may have a little amusement; there is a famous tale, of which a good portion may with advantage be interwoven, and then we may resume our series of divisions, and proceed in the old path until we arrive at the desired summit. Shall we do as I say? Young Socrates By all means. Stranger Listen, then, to a tale which a child would love to hear; and you are not too old for childish amusement. Young Socrates Let me hear. Stranger There did really happen, and will again happen, like many other events of which ancient tradition has preserved the record, the portent which is traditionally said to have occurred in the quarrel of Atreus and Thyestes. You have heard, no doubt, and remember what they say happened at that time? Young Socrates I suppose you to mean the token of the birth of the golden lamb. Stranger No, not that; but another part of the story, which tells how the sun and the stars once rose in the west, and set in the east, and that the god reversed their motion, and gave them that which they now have as a testimony to the right of Atreus. Young Socrates Yes; there is that legend also. Stranger Again, we