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Their education and nurture, I replied. For if a right educationCf. on 416 E. Plato of course has in mind the education already described and the higher education of books VI. and VII. makes of them reasonable men they will easily discover everything of this kind—and other principles that we now pass over, as that the possession of wives and marriage, and the procreation of children and all that sort of thing should be made as far as possible the proverbial goods of friends that are common.The indirect introduction of the proverb is characteristic of Plato’s style. Cf. on 449 C, where the paradox thus lightly introduced is taken up for serious discussion. Quite fantastic is the hypothesis on which much ink has been wasted, that the Ecclesiazusae of Aristophanes was suggested by this sentence and is answered by the fifth book. Cf. introduction pp. xxv and xxxiv. It ought not to be necessary to repeat that Plato’s communism applies only to the guardians, and that its main purpose is to enforce their disinterestedness. Cf. Introduction pp. xv and note a, xxxiv, xlii, xliv, and Plato’s Laws and the Unity of Plato’s Thought, p. 358. Aristotle’s criticism is that the possessions of friends ought to be common in use but not in ownership. Cf. Politics 1263 a 30, and Euripides Andromache 376-377. Yes, that would be the best way, he said. And, moreover, said I, the state, if it once startsCf. Politcus 305 D τὴν ἀρχήν τε καὶ ὁρμήν. well, proceeds as it were in a cycleNo concrete metaphor of wheel, hook or circle seems to be intended, but only the cycle of cumulative effect of education on nature and nature on education, described in what follows. See the evidence collected in my note, Class. Phil. vol. v. pp. 505-507. of growth. I mean that a sound nurture and education if kept up creates good natures in the state, and sound natures in turn receiving an education of this sort develop into better men than their predecessors both for other purposes and for the production of offspring as among animals also.Cf. 459 A. It is probable, he said. To put it briefly, then, said I, it is to this that the overseers of our state must cleave and be watchful against its insensible corruption. They must throughout be watchful against innovations in music and gymnastics counter to the established order, and to the best of their power guard against them, fearing when anyone says that That song is most regarded among men Which hovers newest on the singer’s lips, Hom. Od. 1.351 Our text has ἐπικλείους’ and ἀκουόντεσσι. For the variant cf. Howes in Harvard Studies, vi. p. 205. For the commonplace that new songs are best cf. Pindar, Ol. 9. 52. lest haplyCf. Stallbaum on Phaedrus 238 D-E, Forman, Plato Selections, p. 457. it be supposed that the poet means not new songs but a new way of songThe meaning of the similar phrase in Pindar, Ol. iii. 4 is different. and is commending this. But we must not praise that sort of thing nor conceive it to be the poet’s meaning. For a change to a new type of music is something to beware of as a hazard of all our fortunes. For the modes of musicμουσικῆς τρόποι need not be so technical as it is in later Greek writers on music, who, however, were greatly influenced by Plato. For the ethical and social power of music cf. Introduction p. xiv note c, and 401 D-404 A, also Laws 700 D-E, 701 A. are never disturbed without unsettling of the most fundamental political and social conventions, as Damon affirms and as I am convinced.Cf. Protagoras 316 A, Julian 150 B. Set me too down in the number of the convinced, said Adeimantus. It is here, then, I said, in music, as it seems, that our guardians must build their guard-houseThe etymological force of the word makes the metaphor less harsh than the English translation guard-house. Cf. Laws 962 C, where Bury renders safeguard. Cf. Pindar’s ἀκόνας λιγυρᾶς, the sharpening thing, that is, the whetstone, Ol. vi. 82. and post of watch. It is certain, he said, that this is the kind of lawlessnessπαρανομία besides its moral meaning (537 E) suggests lawless innovation in music, from association with the musical sense of νόμος. Cf. Chicago Studies in Class. Phil. i. p. 22 n. 4. that easily insinuatesSo Aristotle Politics 1307 b 33. itself unobserved. Yes, said I, because it is supposed to be only a form of playCf. the warning aagainst innovation in children’s games, Laws 797 A-B. But music is παιδεία as well as παιδιά. Cf. Aristotle’s three uses of music, for play, education, and the entertainment of leisure (Politics 1339 a 16). and to work no harm. Nor does it work any, he said, except that by gradual infiltration it softly overflowsCf. Demosthenes xix. 228. The image is that of a stream overflowing and spreading. Cf. Euripides fr. 499 N. and Cicero’s use of serpit, Cat. iv. 3, and passim. upon the characters and pursuits of men and from these issues forth grown greater to attack their business dealings, and from these relations it proceeds against the laws and the constitution with wanton licence, Socrates, till finally it overthrowsCf. on 389 D. all things public and private. Well, said I, are these things so? I think so, he said.
