[
618a]
And after this again the prophet placed the patterns of
lives before them on the ground, far more numerous than the assembly. They
were of every variety, for there were lives of all kinds of animals and all
sorts of human lives, for there were tyrannies among them, some
uninterrupted till the end
1 and
others destroyed midway and issuing in penuries and exiles and beggaries;
and there were lives of men of repute for their forms and beauty and bodily
strength otherwise
[
618b]
and prowess and the
high birth and the virtues of their ancestors, and others of ill repute in
the same things, and similarly of women. But there was no determination of
the quality of soul, because the choice of a different life inevitably
2 determined a
different character. But all other things were commingled with one another
and with wealth and poverty and sickness and health and the
intermediate
3 conditions.
—And there, dear Glaucon, it appears, is the supreme hazard
4 for a man.
[
618c]
And this is the chief reason why it should be our main concern that each
of us, neglecting all other studies, should seek after and study this
thing
5—if in any way he may be able to learn of and
discover the man who will give him the ability and the knowledge to
distinguish the life that is good from that which is bad, and always and
everywhere to choose the best that the conditions allow, and, taking into
account all the things of which we have spoken and estimating the effect on
the goodness of his life of their conjunction or their severance, to know
how beauty commingled with poverty or wealth and combined with
[
618d]
what habit of soul operates for good or for
evil, and what are the effects of high and low birth and private station and
office and strength and weakness and quickness of apprehension and dullness
and all similar natural and acquired habits of the soul, when blended and
combined with one another,
6 so
that with consideration of all these things he will be able to make a
reasoned choice between the better and the worse life,
[
618e]
with his eyes fixed on the nature of his soul, naming
the worse life that which will tend to make it more unjust and the better
that which will make it more just. But all other considerations he will
dismiss, for we have seen that this is the best choice,