Book III, 411–417

411a soul?”

“Certainly.”

“And in one whose natures are out of tune, it is cowardly and uncultivated?”

“Very much so.”

“Then suppose a man lets music charm him and pour through his ears, as through a funnel, those sweet, soft, and plaintive modes of which we were just speaking, and spends his whole life humming and entranced by song. At first, if he had any spirit, he softened it like iron and made useful what had been hard and useless. 411b But if he persists and never lets up, submitting continually to its spell, he then melts it away until he has dissolved his spirit and cut the sinews, as it were, from his soul, leaving him a feeble warrior.”

“Indeed,” he said.

“And if,” I said, “he started with no spirit by nature, this happens quickly. But if he had spirit, he weakens it and makes it unstable, quick to flare up over trifles and just as quick to die down. Instead of being spirited, such men become irritable and hot-tempered, full of peevishness. 411c”

“Exactly.”

“And what if, conversely, a man devotes himself to hard physical training, feasts heartily, and has no share in music or philosophy? At first, as his body becomes strong, does he not fill with pride and spirit, and grow bolder than he was?”

“Certainly.”

“And what if he does nothing else and never has any communion with the Muse? 411d Whatever love of learning was once in his soul receives no taste of study or inquiry, no share in reason or any other part of music and the arts. Does it not grow feeble, deaf, and blind, since it is neither awakened nor nourished, and its perceptions are never cleansed?”

“So it does,” he said.

“Such a man, I think, becomes an enemy of reason and a stranger to the arts. He no longer uses speech to persuade, but gets his way in everything through force and brutality, like a wild beast, and lives in ignorance and clumsiness, without rhythm or grace. 411e”

“Exactly so,” he said.

“It seems, then, that for these two parts, the spirited and the philosophical, some god has given human beings two arts, music and physical training—not for soul and body respectively, except as an incidental matter, but for these two parts, so that 412a they may be brought into harmony by being tightened and relaxed to the proper degree.”

“So it seems,” he said.

“Then the man who blends music and physical training most beautifully, and applies them to the soul with the finest measure, deserves to be called wholly musical and harmonious far more than someone who tunes strings to one another.”

“Reasonably so, Socrates,” he said.

“And will our city, Glaucon, always need someone to oversee this, if its constitution is to be preserved?” 412b

“It certainly will, more than anything.”

“These, then, are the outlines of education and upbringing. Why should we detail the dances of such people, their hunting and pursuit of game, their athletic contests and horse races? Clearly these things must follow the principles already laid down; it is no longer difficult to discover them.”

“Perhaps not difficult,” he said.

“Very well,” I said. “What must we determine next? Is it not which of these men will govern and which will be governed?” 412c

“Of course.”

“Is it not clear that the rulers should be older, and those they rule younger?”

“Clear.”

“And that the rulers should be the best among them?”

“That too.”

“And the best farmers are the ones most skilled at farming, are they not?”

“Yes.”

“But since these men must be the best guardians, should they not be those most skilled at guarding the city?”

“Yes.”

“Then they must be intelligent and capable in this task, and also devoted to the city's welfare.” 412d

“That is so.”

“And a person cares most for what he loves.”

“Necessarily.”

“And he will love most what he believes has the same interests as himself: something whose prosperity, [especially when] it prospers, he thinks will bring prosperity to him, while if it fails, the reverse will follow.”

“So it is,” he said.

“We must therefore select from the other guardians the men who, on our observation throughout their lives, seem most eager in every way to do whatever they think will benefit 412e the city, and wholly unwilling to do what they think will not.”

“They would be suitable,” he said.

“I think we must watch them at every age, to see whether they guard this conviction well, and whether, neither bewitched nor forced, they throw aside and forget their belief that they must do what is best for the city.”

“What do you mean,” he asked, “by throwing it aside?”

“I will tell you,” I said. “It seems to me that a belief leaves the mind either willingly or unwillingly: willingly, when someone discovers that a false belief was false; unwillingly, in every case where the belief was true. 413a”

“I understand the willing loss,” he said, “but I need to understand the unwilling one.”

“Why? Do you not also think,” I said, “that people are unwilling to be deprived of good things but willingly part with bad ones? Is being mistaken about the truth not bad, and knowing the truth good? Or do you not think that holding beliefs about things as they are amounts to knowing the truth?”

“You are right,” he said, “and I think people lose a true belief against their will. 413b”

“And does this happen when they are robbed, bewitched, or forced?”

“I still do not understand,” he said.

“I seem to be speaking like a tragic poet,” I said. “By ‘robbed’ I mean people whose minds are changed by persuasion and people who forget, since a reasoned argument takes away the belief of one and time takes away the belief of the other without their noticing. Surely you understand now?”

“Yes.”

“And by ‘forced’ I mean those whom some pain or suffering causes to change their minds.”

“I understand that too,” he said, “and you are right. 413c”

“And by ‘bewitched,’ I think you too would mean those who change their minds, whether seduced by pleasure or frightened by fear.”

“Everything that deceives us,” he said, “does seem to bewitch us.”

“As I was just saying, then, we must look for the men who guard best the conviction within them that they must always do what they believe best for the city [for themselves to do]. We must watch them from childhood, giving them tasks in which someone would be most likely to forget this belief or be deceived out of it. We must accept the one who remembers 413d and is hard to deceive, and reject the other. Is that not so?”

“Yes.”

“We must also impose hardships, pains, and contests on them, and watch for the same thing in these.”

“Right,” he said.

“Then,” I said, “we must contrive a trial of the third kind, enchantment, and observe them. Just as people bring young horses up to noises and commotion to see whether they are easily frightened, so we must bring our young men face-to-face with certain terrors and then turn them toward pleasures, 413e testing them far more thoroughly than gold in the fire. We must see whether each is hard to bewitch, and bears himself well in every circumstance, a good guardian both of himself and of the music he learned, showing good rhythm and harmony throughout these trials—the kind of man who would be most useful both to himself and to his city. And the one who has been tested at every stage, as a child, a youth, and a grown man, 414a and has emerged uncorrupted, must be appointed ruler and guardian of the city. We must honor him in life and after death, awarding him the highest honors in burial and other memorials. The one who fails this test we must reject. That, Glaucon,” I said, “seems to me, in outline rather than exact detail, to be how our rulers and guardians should be selected and appointed.”

“That seems about right to me too,” he said. 414b

“Would it not be most accurate to call these men guardians in the fullest sense, guarding against enemies outside and friends within, so that the former will not wish and the latter will not be able to do harm? And should we not call the young men whom we have been calling guardians auxiliaries and helpers in carrying out the rulers' judgments?”

“I think so,” he said.

“How, then,” I asked, “could we devise one of those useful falsehoods we were speaking about—a noble falsehood by which we might persuade, preferably the rulers themselves, 414c or, failing that, the rest of the city?”

“What kind?” he asked.

“Nothing new,” I said, “but a Phoenician tale. Such a thing has happened in many places before, as the poets say and have persuaded people; it has not happened in our day, and I do not know if it ever could. Persuading people would take a great deal.”

“You seem reluctant to speak,” he said.

“You will see that I have good reason to hesitate,” I said, “when you hear it.”

“Speak,” he said, “and do not be afraid.” 414d

“Very well—I do not know how I shall find the courage or the words to say it. I shall try to persuade the rulers themselves first, and then the soldiers and the rest of the city, that the upbringing and education we gave them were like a dream: they merely thought they experienced everything that happened to them then, while in truth they were being formed and nourished beneath the earth, they and their weapons and all their other equipment 414e being fashioned there. When they were wholly finished, the earth, their mother, sent them up. Now they must plan for and defend the land they inhabit as their mother and nurse, if anyone marches against it, and regard their fellow citizens as brothers, born from the same earth.”

“No wonder,” he said, “you were ashamed to tell this lie.”

415a “With good reason,” I said. “But still, listen to the rest of the story. ‘All of you who live in this city are brothers,’ we shall say as we tell them the tale, ‘but when the god molded you, he mingled gold into the birth of those among you fit to rule, and for that reason they are held in highest honor. Into the auxiliaries he mixed silver, and into the farmers and other craftsmen, iron and bronze. Now, because you are all kin, most of the time you will beget children like yourselves, 415b but sometimes a silver child will be born from gold, or a golden child from silver, and so too with every other sort from another. Accordingly, the god's first and chief command to the rulers is that nothing should receive such vigilant guardianship from them as their children, to see what metal has been mixed into their souls. If their own child is touched with bronze or iron, they must show no pity at all, but 415c assign the station appropriate to that child's nature and send him to the craftsmen or the farmers. And if among these a child is born touched with gold or silver, they must honor him and raise him up, one kind to be a guardian, the other an auxiliary. For an oracle says that the city will be destroyed when a guardian of iron or bronze guards it.’ Now have you any way to make them believe this story?”

415d “Not those people themselves,” he said, “but perhaps their sons, and those who come after them, and other people of later generations.”

“Even that,” I said, “would help them care more for the city and for one another. I think I understand your meaning. As for the tale, it will go wherever public report carries it. Let us now arm these earthborn men and lead them forth under the rulers' command. When they reach the city, let them see where it would be best to make camp, so that from that place they can keep the people inside in check, should anyone refuse to obey the laws, and repel an attacker from outside, should an enemy come against the flock like a wolf. 415e Once they have set up camp and made the proper sacrifices, let them make places to sleep. What do you say?”

“So they should,” he said.

“And places adequate to shelter them in winter and summer?”

“Of course,” he said. “I take it you mean dwellings.”

“Yes,” I said, “dwellings fit for soldiers, not for moneymakers.”

416a “How,” he asked, “does the one differ from the other?”

“I shall try to tell you,” I said. “The most terrible and shameful thing of all for shepherds would surely be to rear dogs as helpers for their flocks in such a way that, from lack of restraint, hunger, or some other bad habit, the dogs themselves would attack the sheep, behaving like wolves instead of dogs.”

“That would be terrible,” he said. “How could it not?” 416b

“Then we must take every precaution that our auxiliaries do not behave this way toward their fellow citizens, since they are stronger than they are, and become savage masters instead of kindly allies.”

“We must,” he said.

“And would they not have the greatest protection against this if they had truly been well educated?”

“But they have been,” he said.

And I said, “That is more than we can confidently claim, my dear Glaucon. What we can claim is what we said just now: 416c they must receive the right education, whatever it is, if they are to gain what matters most for being gentle both to one another and to those under their protection.”

“Quite right,” he said.

“Besides this education, any sensible person would say that their dwellings and all their other possessions must be arranged so as neither to stop them from being the best guardians possible 416d nor to tempt them to harm their fellow citizens.”

“And rightly so,” he said.

“Consider, then,” I said, “whether, if they are to be such people, they should live and be housed in this way. First, none of them shall possess any private property unless it is strictly necessary. Next, none shall have any dwelling or storehouse to which anyone who wishes cannot enter. The necessities required by men who are temperate and 416e brave athletes of war they shall receive from the other citizens as wages for their guardianship, in an amount sufficient for the year, neither too much nor too little. They shall eat at common messes and live together as in a camp. As for gold and silver, we shall tell them that they always carry divine gold and silver from the gods within their souls, and have no need of human gold and silver. It is not holy to defile possession of the former by mingling it with possession of mortal gold: many impieties have arisen around 417a the coinage used by most people, whereas the gold within them is pure. They alone among the city's people are therefore forbidden to handle or touch gold or silver, to come under the same roof with it, to wear it, or to drink from vessels of gold or silver. In this way they would preserve themselves and preserve the city. But the moment they acquire private land, houses, and money, they will become householders and farmers instead of guardians, and hostile masters instead of allies to the other citizens. 417b Hating and hated, plotting against others and themselves the targets of plots, they will spend their entire lives fearing their enemies within far more than those outside, racing then, themselves and the rest of the city, toward imminent ruin. For all these reasons,” I said, “shall we declare that the guardians must be provided with housing and the other things in this way, and shall we make it law, or not?”

“Most certainly,” said Glaucon.

411a soul is self-controlled and courageous?”

“Absolutely.”

“And when they are out of harmony, cowardly and uncultivated?”

“Very much so.”

“So when someone lets music play over him and pour through his ears into his soul like water through a funnel—the sweet, soft, mournful tunes we were just talking about—and spends his whole life humming to himself and delighting in song, at first it softens any spirited quality he has, as one softens iron. It makes that quality useful where it was once hard and useless. 411b But if he keeps listening without stopping and lets the music enchant him, it then starts to melt and drain his spirit. Finally it melts it all away and cuts the strength from his soul like tendons from a body, leaving him a feeble fighter.”

“Yes, indeed,” he said.

“And if he has little spirit by nature to begin with,” I said, “the change happens quickly. If he has a spirited nature, the music weakens it and makes it unstable. Small things provoke it quickly, and it dies down just as quickly. Instead of spirited people, they become 411c hotheaded, quick-tempered people, full of bad temper.”

“Exactly.”

“Now suppose instead someone works hard at physical training and eats very well, but never touches music or philosophy. At first his physical well-being fills him with pride and spirit, doesn't it? He becomes braver than he was before.”

“Certainly.”

“But what if he does nothing else and has no contact at all with the arts? 411d If his soul had any desire to learn, wouldn't it grow weak, deaf, and blind? It has no taste of learning or inquiry, no part in discussion or the rest of music and the arts. Nothing awakens or nourishes it or clears its powers of perception.”

“Yes,” he said.

“Then I think he grows to hate reasoning and loses all culture. He no longer uses words to persuade people, but deals with everything by force and savagery, like a wild animal. He lives in ignorance and clumsiness, without any sense of rhythm or grace.” 411e

“That is exactly how it is,” he said.

“So I would say that some god has given human beings two arts for these two parts of us: music and physical training for the spirited part and the part that loves wisdom. They are not mainly for soul and body respectively, except as a side effect. They are for these two parts,

412a to bring them into harmony by tightening or relaxing each to the proper degree.”

“That seems right,” he said.

“Then the person who mixes physical training with music and the arts most beautifully, and applies them to the soul in the best proportion, is the one we should rightly call most completely musical and most in harmony. Far more so than a person who merely tunes strings to each other.”

“That makes sense, Socrates,” he said.

“Then, Glaucon, won't our city always need someone to oversee these things, if its system of government is to survive?” 412b

“It certainly will.”

“So much for the outlines of their education and upbringing. Why go through the details of their dances, hunts and chases, athletic contests, and horse races? It is fairly clear that these must follow the same principles, and they are no longer hard to work out.”

“Perhaps not,” he said.

“Well,” I said, “what should we decide next? Isn't it which of these people will rule and which will be ruled?” 412c

“Of course.”

“Clearly the rulers must be older and those they rule younger?”

“Clearly.”

“And the rulers must be the best of them?”

“Yes.”

“Aren't the best farmers those who are best at farming?”

“Yes.”

“Since these people must be the best guardians, shouldn't they be the best at guarding the city?”

“Yes.”

“Then they must have good judgment and ability for the job, and they must care about the city.” 412d

“That is right.”

“And people care most about what they love.”

“They must.”

“And they love most what they believe benefits them as well as the thing they love. They think that [especially when] it does well, they too do well, and if it does badly, the opposite happens.”

“That's right,” he said.

“So we must select from the other guardians those men who, when we examine them throughout their lives, seem most eager to do whatever they believe benefits the city, and unwilling under any circumstances to do what they think does not benefit it.” 412e

“They are the right people,” he said.

“I think we must watch them at every age to see whether they hold on to that belief. We must make sure neither deception nor pressure makes them forget and cast aside the conviction that they must do what is best for the city.”

“What do you mean by ‘cast aside’?” he asked.

“I'll explain,” I said. “I think a belief leaves the mind either willingly or unwillingly. When a person learns better, he willingly lets go of a false belief;

413a but a true belief always leaves unwillingly.”

“I understand letting go willingly,” he said, “but I need to understand the unwilling kind.”

“Don't you too think,” I said, “that people lose good things unwillingly but get rid of bad things willingly? Isn't it bad to be mistaken about the truth and good to get it right? And doesn't having beliefs about things as they really are count as getting it right?”

“Yes, you are right,” he said. “I think people lose true beliefs unwillingly.” 413b

“Doesn't this happen when they are robbed of them, put under a spell, or forced?”

“I still don't understand,” he said.

“I seem to be talking like a tragic poet,” I said. “By ‘robbed’ I mean those who change their minds because they are persuaded or because they forget. Time secretly takes the belief from those who forget, and an argument takes it from those who are persuaded. Do you understand now?”

“Yes.”

“By ‘forced’ I mean people whose opinion changes because of suffering or pain.”

“I understand that too,” he said. “You are right.” 413c

“And I think you would say that those ‘put under a spell’ are people whose opinion changes because pleasure charms them or fear frightens them.”

“Yes,” he said. “Anything deceptive seems to cast a spell.”

“Then, as I was just saying, we must find out who best guards the belief inside them that they must always do what they think best for the city [for themselves to do]. We must observe them from childhood. We should set them tasks where someone would be especially likely to forget that belief or be deceived out of it. We should select the one who remembers 413d and is hard to deceive, and reject the one who does not. Agreed?”

“Yes.”

“We should also give them hard work, pain, and contests, and watch for the same thing in those conditions.”

“Right,” he said.

“Then,” I said, “we must make a trial of the third kind, being put under a spell, and observe them. Just as people lead young horses toward noises and commotion to see whether they are easily frightened, we must expose our young people to frightening things and then plunge them into pleasures. We must test them far more thoroughly than gold is tested in fire. 413e We must see whether they resist deception and behave properly in every situation, guarding themselves and the education in music and the arts that they have received. They must show good rhythm and harmony throughout these trials. A person like that would be most useful to himself and to the city.

“We should appoint as ruler and guardian of the city the man who has been tested as a child, a young man, and an adult,

414a and has come through unchanged. We should honor him both while he lives and after his death, giving him the greatest honors of burial and memorial. We should reject anyone who does not meet this standard. Glaucon,” I said, “that, in broad outline rather than full detail, seems to me the way to select and appoint our rulers and guardians.”

“It seems about right to me too,” he said. 414b

“Should we, then, call these rulers the true guardians? They will guard against enemies outside the city and friends inside it, preventing the former from wanting to do harm and the latter from being able to do so. And should we call the young men we have called guardians up to now ‘helpers,’ who support the decisions of the rulers?”

“I think so,” he said.

“Then how could we invent one of those useful lies we were discussing and use it to persuade, if possible, even the rulers themselves? Or, failing that, the rest of the city? It would have to be a grand lie.” 414c

“What kind?” he asked.

“Nothing new,” I said. “It's an old Phoenician story that, according to the poets, has happened in many places before; they have persuaded people it did. It has not happened in our own time, and I don't know if it could. It would take a great deal of persuasion to make people believe it.”

“You sound reluctant to tell it,” he said.

“Once I do, you will see that I have good reason to be reluctant,” I said.

“Tell it,” he said. “Don't be afraid.” 414d

“Very well, though I don't know where I will find the nerve or the words. I will first try to persuade the rulers themselves and the soldiers, and then the rest of the city. I will tell them that the upbringing and education we gave them only seemed, like a dream, to be happening to them. In truth they were being formed and raised under the ground then, while their weapons and all their other equipment were being made there too. Once they were fully formed, the earth, their mother, sent them up. So now they must plan and fight for the land where they live, as for their mother and nurse, if anyone attacks it. They must regard their fellow citizens as brothers born from the same earth.” 414e

“No wonder you were ashamed to tell this lie earlier,” he said.

415a “Quite right,” I said. “But listen to the rest of the story. We will tell them: ‘All of you in the city are brothers. But when the god formed you, he mixed gold into the making of those who are fit to rule. That is why they are the most highly valued. He mixed silver into the helpers, and iron and bronze into the farmers and other craftsmen. Since all of you are related, most of your children will be like you. 415b But sometimes a child with silver in him will be born to parents with gold, or a child with gold to parents with silver. And children of every other kind can likewise come from one another. So the god's first and strongest command to the rulers is that nothing deserves their watchful care as much as their children do. They must watch what metals are mixed into their souls. If their own child has bronze or iron in him, they must 415c show no pity at all, but give him the position suited to his nature and send him to work among the craftsmen or farmers. If a child of the farmers or craftsmen has gold or silver in him, they must honor him and raise him to the role of guardian or helper, as appropriate. For there is a prophecy that the city will be destroyed when an iron or bronze guardian watches over it.’ Can you think of any way to make them believe this story?”

“Not the people who first hear it,” he said. “But their sons might believe it, and later generations, and everyone who comes after them.” 415d

“Even that would help them care more about the city and one another,” I said. “I think I understand what you mean. But let the story fare however public opinion takes it. Now let's arm these earthborn men and bring them out, with the rulers in the lead. Once they arrive, they should look for the best place in the city to make camp. From there they should be able to control people within the city if anyone refuses to obey the laws, and defend against attackers from outside if an enemy comes like a wolf against a flock. 415e Once they have set up camp and sacrificed to the proper gods, they should make places to sleep. Agreed?”

“Yes,” he said.

“And these places must shelter them well enough in winter and summer?”

“Of course,” he said. “I suppose you mean houses.”

“Yes,” I said. “Houses for soldiers, not for men bent on making money.”

416a “How do you distinguish the two?” he asked.

“I'll try to explain,” I said. “Nothing could be more dangerous or disgraceful for shepherds than to raise dogs to help guard their flocks in such a way that, through lack of self-control, hunger, or another bad habit, the dogs themselves attack the sheep. Instead of dogs, they become like wolves.”

“That would certainly be dangerous,” he said. 416b

“Then we must do everything we can to prevent our helpers from behaving like that toward the citizens. They have more power than the citizens, and might turn from friendly allies into savage masters.”

“We must prevent it,” he said.

“And wouldn't the best protection be for them to have a genuinely good education?”

“But they do have one,” he said.

“I wouldn't insist on that, my dear Glaucon,” I said. “What we can insist on is the point we just made. They need the right education, whatever that is, if they are to gain what matters most: being gentle to each other and to the people they guard.” 416c

“That's right,” he said.

“And besides this education, any sensible person would say we should provide them with homes and other possessions of a kind that will not stop them from being the best possible guardians or tempt them to mistreat the other citizens.”

“That is certainly what such a person would say.” 416d

“Now consider,” I said, “whether the following is how they should live and be housed if they are to be such guardians. First, none of them should own any private property except what is absolutely necessary. Second, none should have a house or storeroom that anyone who wishes cannot enter. As for the provisions that moderate and courageous athletes of war need, they should receive a fixed amount from the other citizens as payment for guarding them. It should be enough for the year, with nothing left over and nothing lacking. 416e They should go to communal meals and live together as if they were in a military camp.

“We should tell them they always have divine gold and silver in their souls, given by the gods, and have no need of the human kind. It is not right to contaminate their divine possession by mixing it with mortal gold. Many unholy things have been done for the

417a currency used by ordinary people, but the gold within the guardians is pure. They alone among the citizens must not handle or touch gold or silver. They must not enter a house that holds them, wear them, or drink from vessels made of them. That is how they will stay safe and protect the city. But once they acquire private land, houses, and money, they will become household managers and farmers instead of guardians. Instead of allies to the other citizens, they will become hostile masters. 417b They will spend their lives hating and being hated, plotting against others and facing plots themselves. They will fear the enemies inside the city far more than those outside it. By then they and the rest of the city will already be racing toward ruin. For all these reasons,” I said, “shall we say that the guardians' housing and other arrangements must be set up this way, and make these provisions into law?”

“Absolutely,” said Glaucon.