“So,” said I, “you are making fun of me after driving me into such an impasse of argument. But, all the same, hear my comparison 488a so that you may still better see how I strain after¹ imagery. For so cruel is the condition of the better sort in relation to the state that there is no single thing² like it in nature. But to find a likeness for it and a defence for them one must bring together many things in such a combination as painters mix when they portray goat-stags³ and similar creatures.⁴ Conceive this sort of thing happening either on many ships or on one: Picture a shipmaster⁵ in height and strength surpassing all others on the ship, 488b but who is slightly deaf⁶ and of similarly impaired vision, and whose knowledge of navigation is on a par with⁷ his sight and hearing. Conceive the sailors to be wrangling with one another for control of the helm, each claiming that it is his right to steer though he has never learned the art and cannot point out his teacher⁸ or any time when he studied it. And what is more, they affirm that it cannot be taught at all,⁹ but they are ready to make mincemeat of anyone¹⁰ who says that it can be taught, 488c and meanwhile they are always clustered about¹¹ the shipmaster importuning him and sticking at nothing¹² to induce him to turn over the helm to them. And sometimes, if they fail and others get his ear, they put the others to death or cast them out¹³ from the ship, and then, after binding¹⁴ and stupefying the worthy shipmaster¹⁵ with mandragora or intoxication or otherwise, they take command of the ship, consume its stores and, drinking and feasting, make such a voyage¹⁶ of it as is to be expected¹⁷ from such, and as if that were not enough, they praise and celebrate as a navigator, 488d a pilot, a master of shipcraft, the man who is most cunning to lend a hand¹⁸ in persuading or constraining the shipmaster to let them rule,¹⁹ while the man who lacks this craft²⁰ they censure as useless. They have no suspicions²¹ that the true pilot must give his attention²² to the time of the year, the seasons, the sky, the winds, the stars, and all that pertains to his art if he is to be a true ruler of a ship, and that he does not believe that there is any art or science of seizing the helm²³ 488e with or without the consent of others, or any possibility of mastering this alleged art²⁴ and the practice of it at the same time with the science of navigation.”

Socrates “With such goings-on aboard ship do you not think that the real pilot would in very deed²⁵ be called a star-gazer, an idle babbler, 489a a useless fellow, by the sailors in ships managed after this fashion?” “Quite so,” said Adeimantus. “You take my meaning, I presume, and do not require us to put the comparison to the proof²⁶ and show that the condition²⁷ we have described is the exact counterpart of the relation of the state to the true philosophers.” “It is indeed,” he said. “To begin with, then, teach this parable²⁸ to the man who is surprised that philosophers are not honored in our cities, and try to convince him that it would be far more surprising 489b if they were honored.” “I will teach him,”²⁹ he said. “And say to him further: You are right in affirming that the finest spirit among the philosophers are of no service to the multitude. But bid him blame for this uselessness,³⁰ not the finer spirits, but those who do not know how to make use of them. For it is not the natural³¹ course of things that the pilot should beg the sailors to be ruled by him or that wise men should go to the doors of the rich.³² The author of that epigram³³ was a liar. But the true nature of things is that whether the sick man be rich or poor he must needs go to the door of the physician, 489c and everyone who needs to be governed³⁴ to the door of the man who knows how to govern, not that the ruler should implore his natural subjects to let themselves be ruled, if he is really good for anything.³⁵ But you will make no mistake in likening our present political rulers to the sort of sailors we are just describing, and those whom these call useless and star-gazing ideologists to the true pilots.” “Just so,” he said. “Hence, and under these conditions, we cannot expect that the noblest pursuit should be highly esteemed by those whose way of life is quite the contrary. 489d But far the greatest and chief disparagement of philosophy is brought upon it by the pretenders³⁶ to that way of life, those whom you had in mind when you affirmed that the accuser of philosophy says that the majority of her followers³⁷ are rascals and the better sort useless, while I admitted³⁸ that what you said was true. Is not that so?” “Yes.”

“Have we not, then, explained the cause of the uselessness of the better sort?” “We have.” “Shall we next set forth the inevitableness of the degeneracy of the majority, and try to show if we can that philosophy 489e is not to be blamed for this either?” “By all means.”

“Let us begin, then, what we have to say and hear by recalling the starting-point of our description of the nature which he who is to be 490a a scholar and gentleman³⁹ must have from birth. The leader of the choir for him, if you recollect, was truth. That he was to seek always and altogether, on pain of⁴⁰ being an impostor without part or lot in true philosophy.” “Yes, that was said.” “Is not this one point quite contrary to the prevailing opinion about him?” “It is indeed,” he said. “Will it not be a fair plea in his defence to say that it was the nature of the real lover of knowledge to strive emulously for true being and that he would not linger over 490b the many particulars that are opined to be real, but would hold on his way, and the edge of his passion would not be blunted nor would his desire fail till he came into touch with⁴¹ the nature of each thing in itself by that part of his soul to which it belongs⁴² to lay hold on that kind of reality—the part akin to it, namely—and through that approaching it, and consorting with reality really, he would beget intelligence and truth, attain to knowledge and truly live and grow,⁴³ and so find surcease from his travail⁴⁴ of soul, but not before?” “No plea could be fairer.” “Well, then, will such a man love falsehood, 490c or, quite the contrary, hate it?” “Hate it,” he said. “When truth led the way, no choir⁴⁵ of evils, we, I fancy, would say, could ever follow in its train.” “How could it?” “But rather a sound and just character, which is accompanied by temperance.” “Right,” he said. “What need, then, of repeating from the beginning our proof of the necessary order of the choir that attends on the philosophical nature? You surely remember that we found pertaining to such a nature courage, grandeur of soul, aptness to learn, memory.⁴⁶ And when you interposed 490d the objection that though everybody will be compelled to admit our statements,⁴⁷ yet, if we abandoned mere words and fixed our eyes on the persons to whom the words referred, everyone would say that he actually saw some of them to be useless and most of them base with all baseness, it was in our search for the cause of this ill-repute that we came to the present question: Why is it that the majority are bad? And, for the sake of this, we took up again the nature of the true philosophers and defined what it must necessarily be?” 490e “That is so,” he said.

“We have, then,” I said, “to contemplate the causes of the corruption of this nature in the majority, while a small part escapes,⁴⁸ even those whom men call not bad but useless; and after that in turn 491a we are to observe those who imitate this nature and usurp its pursuits and see what types of souls they are that thus entering upon a way of life which is too high⁴⁹ for them and exceeds their powers, by the many discords and disharmonies of their conduct everywhere and among all men bring upon philosophy the repute of which you speak.” “Of what corruptions are you speaking?” “I will try,” I said, “to explain them to you if I can. I think everyone will grant us this point, that a nature such as we just now postulated 491b for the perfect philosopher is a rare growth among men and is found in only a few. Don’t you think so?” “Most emphatically.” “Observe, then, the number and magnitude of the things that operate to destroy these few.” “What are they?” “The most surprising fact of all is that each of the gifts of nature which we praise tends to corrupt the soul of its possessor and divert it from philosophy. I am speaking of bravery, sobriety, and the entire list.⁵⁰” “That does sound like a paradox,” said he. 491c “Furthermore,” said I, “all the so-called goods⁵¹ corrupt and divert, beauty and wealth and strength of body and powerful family connections in the city and all things akin to them—you get my general meaning?” “I do,” he said, “and I would gladly hear a more precise statement of it.” “Well,” said I, “grasp it rightly as a general proposition and the matter will be clear and the preceding statement will not seem to you so strange.” “How do you bid me proceed?” he said. 491d “We know it to be universally true of every seed and growth, whether vegetable or animal, that the more vigorous it is the more it falls short of its proper perfection when deprived of the food, the season, the place that suits it. For evil is more opposed to the good than to the not-good.⁵²” “Of course.” “So it is, I take it, natural that the best nature should fare worse⁵³ than the inferior under conditions of nurture unsuited to it.” “It is.” “Then,” said I, “Adeimantus, 491e shall we not similarly affirm that the best endowed souls become worse than the others under a bad education? Or do you suppose that great crimes and unmixed wickedness spring from a slight nature⁵⁴ and not from a vigorous one corrupted by its nurture, while a weak nature will never be the cause of anything great, either for good or evil?” “No,” he said, “that is the case.”