Republic

”Then,” I said, “concerning the men also, if I were to make this same proposal, would I propose rightly in demanding that he who is to judge them should be one who is able to penetrate with his intellect into a man’s character and see through it, and not, like a child looking from the outside, be struck with awe by the facade of tyrannical men which they put on for those outside, but rather discern it sufficiently? If, then, I should think we ought all to listen to that man, who is capable of judging, and who has lived in the same house and has been present at his domestic actions, observing how he behaves toward each of his household members—for in these situations especially he would be seen stripped of his tragic costume—and again in public dangers; and if we should bid him, having seen all these things, to report how the tyrant stands in terms of happiness and misery compared to the others, would we be doing so rightly?” “Most rightly,” he said, “would you make this proposal too.” “Do you wish, then,” I said, “that we pretend to be of those who would be able to judge and who have already encountered such people, so that we may have someone who will answer our questions?” “By all means.” ”Come then,” I said, “look at it in this way. Recalling the similarity of the city and the man, and thus looking at each in turn, tell me the experiences of each.” “What kind of experiences?” he said. “First,” I said, “to speak of a city, will you say that the tyrannized city is free or enslaved?” “To the highest degree enslaved,” he said. “And yet you see in it masters and free men.” “I see them,” he said, “but that is a small part; the whole, so to speak, in it, and even the most decent part, is dishonorably and miserably enslaved.” ”If, then,” I said, “the man is like the city, is it not necessary that the same arrangement exist in him too, and that his soul be full of much slavery and illiberality, and that those very parts of it be enslaved which were the most decent, while a small, most wicked and mad part plays the master?” “Inevitably,” he said. “What then? Will you say that such a soul is slave or free?” “Slave, surely, I would say.” “And does the enslaved and tyrannized city do least of all what it wishes?” “Very much so.” ”And therefore the tyrannized soul will also do least of all what it wishes—to speak of the soul as a whole—but always dragged violently by a gadfly, it will be full of confusion and regret.” “Of course.” “And is it necessary that the tyrannized city be wealthy or poor?” “Poor.”