Book 7
535
“Do you agree, then,” said I, “that we have set dialectics above all other studies to be as it were the coping-stoneFor ὥσπερ θριγκός cf. Eur. Herc. Fur. 1280, Aesch. Ag. 1283: and Phileb. 38 C-D ff.—and that no other higher kind of study could rightly be placed above it, but that our discussion of studies is now completeCf. 541 B.” “I do,” he said. “The distribution, then, remains,” said I, “to whom we are to assign these studies and in what way.” Clearly, he said. “Do you remember, then, the kind of man we chose in our former selectionCf. 412 D-E, 485-487, 503 A, C-E. of rulers?” “Of course,” he said. “In most respects, then,” said I, “you must suppose that we have to choose those same natures. The most stable, the most brave and enterprisingIntellectually as well as physically. Cf. 357 A, Prot. 350 B f. are to be preferred, and, so far as practicable, the most comely.Cf. Symp. 209 B-C, Phaedr. 252 E and Vol. I. p. 261 on 402 D. Ascham, The Schoolmaster, Bk. I. also approves of this qualification. But in addition we must now require that they not only be virile and vigorousFor βλοσυρούς Cf. Theaet. 149 A. in temper, but that they possess also the gifts of nature suitable to this type of education.” “What qualities are you distinguishing?” “They must have, my friend, to begin with, a certain keenness for study, and must not learn with difficulty. For souls are much more likely to flinch and faintCf. 504 A, 364 E, Gorg. 480 C, Protag. 326 C, Euthyphro 15 C. in severe studies than in gymnastics, because the toil touches them more nearly, being peculiar to them and not shared with the body.” True, he said. “And we must demand a good memory and doggedness and industryThe qualities of the ideal student again. Cf. on 487 A. in every sense of the word. Otherwise how do you suppose anyone will consent both to undergo all the toils of the body and to complete so great a course of study and discipline?” “No one could,” he said, “unless most happily endowed.” “Our present mistake,” said I, “and the disesteem that has in consequence fallen upon philosophy are, as I said before,Cf. 495 C ff., pp. 49-51. caused by the unfitness of her associates and wooers. They should not have been bastardsMontaigne, i. 24 (vol. i. p. 73), les âmes boiteuses, les bastardes et vulgaires, sont indignes de Ia philosophie. but true scions.” “What do you mean?” he said. “In the first place,” I said, “the aspirant to philosophy must not limpCf. Laws 634 A, Tim. 44 C. in his industry, in the one half of him loving, in the other shunning, toil. This happens when anyone is a lover of gymnastics and hunting and all the labors of the body, yet is not fond of learning or of listeningCf. 548 E, Lysis 206 C, Euthyd. 274 C, 304 C, and Vol. I. p. 515 on 475 D. or inquiring, but in all such matters hates work. And he too is lame whose industry is one-sided in the reverse way.” “Most true,” he said. “Likewise in respect of truth,” I said, “we shall regard as maimed in precisely the same way the soul that hates the voluntary lie and is troubled by it in its own self and greatly angered by it in others, but cheerfully accepts the involuntary falsehoodCf. 382 A-B-C. and is not distressed when convicted of lack of knowledge, but wallows in the mud of ignorance as insensitively as a pig.Cf. Laws 819 D, Rep. 372 D, Politicus 266 C, and my note in Class. Phil. xii. (1917) pp. 308-310. Cf. too the proverbial ὗς γνοίη, Laches 196 D and Rivals 134 A; and Apelt’s emendation of Cratyl. 393 C, Progr. Jena, 1905, p. 19.”
