Ath.Those which we were examining when we spoke of who ought to govern whom.Did we not arrive at the conclusion that parents ought to govern their children,and the elder the younger,and the noble the ignoble?And there were many other principles,if you remember,and they were not always consistent.One principle was this very principle of might,and we said that Pindar considered violence natural and justified it.
Cle.Yes;I remember.
Ath.Consider,then,to whom our state is to be entrusted.For there is a thing which has occurred times without number in states-Cle.What thing?
Ath.That when there has been a contest for power,those who gain the upper hand so entirely monopolize the government,as to refuse all share to the defeated party and their descendants-they live watching one another,the ruling class being in perpetual fear that some one who has a recollection of former wrongs will come into power and rise up against them.Now,according to our view,such governments are not polities at all,nor are laws right which are passed for the good of particular classes and not for the good of the whole state.
States which have such laws are not polities but parties,and their notions of justice are simply unmeaning.I say this,because I am going to assert that we must not entrust the government in your state to any one because he is rich,or because he possesses any other advantage,such as strength,or stature,or again birth:but he who is most obedient to the laws of the state,he shall win the palm;and to him who is victorious in the first degree shall be given the highest office and chief ministry of the gods;and the second to him who bears the second palm;and on a similar principle shall all the other be assigned to those who come next in order.And when I call the rulers servants or ministers of the law,I give them this name not for the sake of novelty,but because I certainly believe that upon such service or ministry depends the well-or ill-being of the state.For that state in which the law is subject and has no authority,Iperceive to be on the highway to ruin;but I see that the state in which the law is above the rulers,and the rulers are the inferiors of the law,has salvation,and every blessing which the Gods can confer.
Cle.Truly,Stranger,you see with the keen vision of age.
Ath.Why,yes;every man when he is young has that sort of vision dullest,and when he is old keenest.
Cle.Very true.
Ath.And now,what is to be the next step?May we not suppose the colonists to have arrived,and proceed to make our speech to them?
Cle.Certainly.
Ath."Friends,"we say to them,-"God,as the old tradition declares,holding in his hand the beginning,middle,and end of all that is,travels according to his nature in a straight line towards the accomplishment of his end.Justice always accompanies him,and is the punisher of those who fall short of the divine law.To justice,he who would be happy holds fast,and follows in her company with all humility and order;but he who is lifted up with pride,or elated by wealth or rank,or beauty,who is young and foolish,and has a soul hot with insolence,and thinks that he has no need of any guide or ruler,but is able himself to be the guide of others,he,I say,is left deserted of God;and being thus deserted,he takes to him others who are like himself,and dances about,throwing all things into confusion,and many think that he is a great man,but in a short time he pays a penalty which justice cannot but approve,and is utterly destroyed,and his family and city with him.Wherefore,seeing that human things are thus ordered,what should a wise man do or think,or not do or think?
Cle.Every man ought to make up his mind that he will be one of the followers of God;there can be no doubt of that.
Ath.Then what life is agreeable to God,and becoming in his followers?One only,expressed once for all in the old saying that "like agrees with like,with measure measure,"but things which have no measure agree neither with themselves nor with the things which have.Now God ought to be to us the measure of all things,and not man,as men commonly say (Protagoras):the words are far more true of him.And he who would be dear to God must,as far as is possible,be like him and such as he is.Wherefore the temperate man is the friend of God,for he is like him;and the intemperate man is unlike him,and different from him,and unjust.And the same applies to other things;and this is the conclusion,which is also the noblest and truest of all sayings-that for the good man to offer sacrifice to the Gods,and hold converse with them by means of prayers and offerings and every kind of service,is the noblest and best of all things,and also the most conducive to a happy life,and very fit and meet.But with the bad man,the opposite of this is true:for the bad man has an impure soul,whereas the good is pure;and from one who is polluted,neither good man nor God can without impropriety receive gifts.Wherefore the unholy do only waste their much service upon the Gods,but when offered by any holy man,such service is most acceptable to them.This is the mark at which we ought to aim.