Dialogues

and prerogative, and they create an awful impression of themselves by the magnitude of their enterprises; in Egypt, the king himself is not allowed to reign, unless he have priestly powers, and if he should be of another class and has thrust himself in, he must get enrolled in the priesthood. In many parts of Hellas, the duty of offering the most solemn propitiatory sacrifices is assigned to the highest magistracies, and here, at Athens, the most solemn and national of the ancient sacrifices are supposed to be celebrated by him who has been chosen by lot to be the King Archon. Young Socrates Precisely. Stranger But who are these other kings and priests elected by lot who now come into view followed by their retainers and a vast throng, as the former class disappears and the scene changes? Young Socrates Whom can you mean? Stranger They are a strange crew. Young Socrates Why strange? Stranger A minute ago I thought that they were animals of every tribe; for many of them are like lions and centaurs, and many more like satyrs and such weak and shifty creatures;⁠—Protean shapes quickly changing into one another’s forms and natures; and now, Socrates, I begin to see who they are. Young Socrates Who are they? You seem to be gazing on some strange vision. Stranger Yes; everyone looks strange when you do not know him; and just now I myself fell into this mistake⁠—at first sight, coming suddenly upon him, I did not recognize the politician and his troop. Young Socrates Who is he? Stranger The chief of Sophists and most accomplished of wizards, who must at any cost be separated from the true king or Statesman, if we are ever to see daylight in the present enquiry. Young Socrates That is a hope not lightly to be renounced. Stranger Never, if I can help it; and, first, let me ask you a question. Young Socrates What? Stranger Is not monarchy a recognized form of government? Young Socrates Yes. Stranger And, after monarchy, next in order comes the government of the few? Young Socrates Of course. Stranger Is not the third form of government the rule of the multitude, which is called by the name of democracy? Young Socrates Certainly. Stranger And do not these three expand in a manner into five, producing out of themselves two other names? Young Socrates What are they? Young Socrates What are they? Stranger There is a criterion of voluntary and involuntary, poverty and riches, law and the absence of law, which men nowadays apply to them; the two first they subdivide accordingly, and ascribe to monarchy two forms and two corresponding names, royalty and tyranny. Young Socrates Very true. Stranger And the government of the few they distinguish by the names of aristocracy and oligarchy. Young Socrates Certainly. Stranger Democracy alone, whether rigidly observing the laws or not, and whether the multitude rule over the men of property with their consent or against their consent, always in ordinary language has the same name. Young Socrates True. Stranger But do you suppose that any form of government which is defined by these characteristics of the one, the few, or the many, of poverty or wealth, of voluntary or compulsory submission, of written law or the absence of law, can be a right one? Young Socrates Why not? Stranger Reflect; and follow me. Young Socrates In what direction? Stranger Shall we abide by what we said at first, or shall we retract our words? Young Socrates To what do you refer? Stranger If I am not mistaken, we said that royal power was a science? Young Socrates Yes. Stranger And a science of a peculiar kind, which was selected out of the rest as having a character which is at once judicial and authoritative? Young Socrates Yes. Stranger And there was one kind of authority over lifeless things and another other living animals; and so we proceeded in the division step by step up to this point, not losing the idea of science, but unable as yet to determine the nature of the particular science? Young Socrates True. Stranger Hence we are led to observe that the distinguishing principle of the State cannot be the few or many, the voluntary or involuntary, poverty or riches; but some notion of science must enter into it, if we are to be consistent with what has preceded. Young Socrates And we must be consistent. Stranger Well, then, in which of these various forms of States may the science of government, which is among the greatest of all sciences and most difficult to acquire, be supposed to reside? That we must discover, and then we shall see who are the false politicians who pretend to be politicians but are not, although they persuade many, and shall separate them from the wise king. Young Socrates That, as the argument has already intimated, will be our duty. Stranger Do you think that the multitude in a State can attain political science? Young Socrates Impossible. Stranger But, perhaps, in a city of a thousand men, there would be a hundred, or say fifty, who could? Young Socrates In that case political science would certainly be the easiest of all sciences; there could not be found in a city of that number as many really first-rate draught-players, if judged by the standard of the rest of Hellas, and there would certainly not be as many kings. For kings we may truly call those who possess royal science, whether they rule or not, as was shown in the previous argument.348 Stranger Thank you for reminding me; and the consequence is that any true form of government can only be supposed to be the government of one, two, or, at any rate, of a few. Young Socrates Certainly. Stranger And these, whether they rule with the will, or against the will, of their subjects, with written laws or without written laws, and whether they are poor or rich, and whatever be the nature of their rule, must be supposed, according to our present view, to rule on some scientific principle; just as the physician, whether he cures us against our will or with our will, and whatever be his mode of treatment⁠—incision, burning, or the