Book 4
709
Ath. And the lawgiver, I suppose, could do likewise?
709
Clin. I suppose so.
709
Ath. Come now, O lawgiver, let us say to him, what are we to give you, and what condition of State, to enable you, when you receive it, thence-forward to manage the State by yourself satisfactorily?
709
Clin. What is the next thing that can rightly be said?
709
Ath. You mean, do you not, on the side of the lawgiver?
709
Clin. Yes.
710
Ath. This is what he will say: Give me the State under a monarchy;Cp. Plat. Rep. 473c ff., 486a ff. and let the monarch be young, and possessed by nature of a good memory, quick intelligence, courage and nobility of manner; and let that quality, which we formerly mentionedPlat. Laws 696d. as the necessary accompaniment of all the parts of virtue, attend now also on our monarch’s soul, if the rest of his qualities are to be of any value.
710
Clin. Temperance, as I think, Megillus, is what the Stranger indicates as the necessary accompaniment. Is it not?
710
Ath. Yes, Clinias; temperance, that is, of the ordinary kindPlat. Laws 698a;Plat. Phaedo 82a ff. The academic (or philosophic) identification of virtue with wisdom was a main feature in the ethics of Socrates; cp.Plat. Rep. 430d ff. not the kind men mean when they use academic language and identify temperance with wisdom, but that kind which by natural instinct springs up at birth in children and animals, so that some are not incontinent, others continent, in respect of pleasures; and of this we saidPlat. Laws 696d. that, when isolated from the numerous so-called goods, it was of no account. You understand, of course, what I mean.
710
Clin. Certainly.
710
Ath. Let our monarch, then, possess this natural quality in addition to the other qualities mentioned, if the State is to acquire in the quickest and best way possible the constitution it needs for the happiest kind of life. For there does not exist, nor could there ever arise, a quicker and better form of constitution than this.
