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[420d] we should think it a reasonable justification to reply, ‘Don't expect us, quaint friend, to paint the eyes so fine that they will not be like eyes at all, nor the other parts. But observe whether by assigning what is proper to each we render the whole beautiful.1’ And so in the present case you must not require us to attach to the guardians a happiness that will make them anything but guardians.

1 For this principle of aesthetics Cf. Phaedrus 264 C, Aristotle Poetics 1450 b 1-2.

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