[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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