[
456a]
and warlike and another
unwarlike and averse to gymnastics?” “I think
not.” “And again, one a lover, another a hater, of
wisdom? And one high-spirited, and the other lacking spirit?”
“That also is true.” “Then it is likewise true
that one woman has the qualities of a guardian and another not. Were not
these the natural qualities of the men also whom we selected for
guardians?” “They were.” “The women
and the men, then, have the same nature in respect to the guardianship of
the state, save in so far as the one is weaker, the other
stronger.” “Apparently.”
[
456b]
“Women of this
kind, then, must be selected to cohabit with men of this kind and to serve
with them as guardians since they are capable of it and akin by
nature.” “By all means.” “And to the
same natures must we not assign the same pursuits?” “The
same.” “We come round,
1 then, to our previous
statement, and agree that it does not run counter to nature to assign music
and gymnastics to the wives of the guardians.”
[
456c]
“By all means.” “Our
legislation, then, was not impracticable or utopian,
2 since the law we proposed accorded with
nature. Rather, the other way of doing things, prevalent today, proves, as
it seems, unnatural.” “Apparently.”
“The object of our inquiry was the possibility and the
desirability
3 of what we were proposing.” “It
was.” “That it is possible has been admitted.”
“Yes.” “The next point to be agreed upon is
that it is the best way.” “Obviously.”
“For the production of a guardian, then, education will not be one
thing for our men and another for our women, especially since
[
456d]
the nature which we hand over to it is the
same.” “There will be no difference.”
“How are you minded, now, in this matter?” “In
what?” “In the matter of supposing some men to be better
and some worse,
4
or do you think them all alike?” “By no
means.” “In the city, then, that we are founding, which
do you think will prove the better men, the guardians receiving the
education which we have described or the cobblers educated by the art of
cobbling
5?”
“An absurd question,” he said.
[
456e]
“I understand,” said I;
“and are not these the best of all the citizens?”
“By far.” “And will not these women be the
best of all the women?” “They, too, by far.”
“Is there anything better for a state than the generation in it of
the best possible women
6 and men?”
“There is not.” “And this, music and
gymnastics