[
474a]
and
strip and, snatching the first weapon that comes to hand, rush at you with
might and main, prepared to do
1
dreadful deeds. And if you don't find words to defend yourself against them,
and escape their assault, then to be scorned and flouted will in very
truth
2 be the penalty you will have to
pay.” “And isn't it you,” said I,
“that have brought this upon me and are to blame?”
“And a good thing, too,” said he; “but I won't
let you down, and will defend you with what I can. I can do so with my good
will and my encouragement, and perhaps I might answer your questions more
suitably
3 than another.
[
474b]
So, with such an
aid to back you, try to make it plain to the doubters that the truth is as
you say.” “I must try,” I replied,
“since you proffer so strong an alliance. I think it requisite,
then, if we are to escape the assailants you speak of, that we should define
for them whom we mean by the philosophers, who we dare to say ought to be
our rulers. When these are clearly discriminated it will be possible to
defend ourselves by showing that to them by their very nature belong the
study of philosophy
[
474c]
and political
leadership, while it befits the other sort to let philosophy alone and to
follow their leader.” “It is high time,” he
said, “to produce your definition.” “Come,
then, follow me on this line, if we may in some fashion or other explain our
meaning.” “Proceed,” he said. “Must
I remind you, then,” said I, “or do you remember, that
when we affirm that a man is a lover of something, it must be apparent that
he is fond of all of it? It will not do to say that some of it he likes and
some
4 does not.”
“I think you will have to remind
me,” he said,
[
474d]
“for I
don't apprehend at all.” “That reply,
Glaucon,” said I, “befits another rather than you. It
does not become a lover to forget that all adolescents in some sort sting
and stir the amorous lover of youth and appear to him deserving of his
attention and desirable. Is not that your ‘reaction’ to
the fair? One, because his nose is tip-tilted,
5 you will praise as piquant, the beak of
another you pronounce right-royal, the intermediate type you say strikes the
harmonious mean,
[
474e]
the swarthy are of
manly aspect, the white are children of the gods divinely fair, and as for
honey-hued, do you suppose the very word is anything but the euphemistic
invention of some lover who can feel no distaste for sallowness when it
accompanies the blooming time of youth? And, in short, there is no pretext