[
485a]
of the ideal would perhaps be the greatest of
superiorities.” “Then what we have to say is how it
would be possible for the same persons to have both qualifications, is it
not?” “ Quite so.” “Then, as we were
saying at the beginning of this discussion, the first thing to understand is
the nature that they must have from birth; and I think that if we
sufficiently agree on this we shall also agree that the combination of
qualities that we seek belongs to the same persons, and that we need no
others for guardians of states than these.” “How
so?”
“We must accept
as agreed this trait of the philosophical nature,
[
485b]
that it is ever enamored of the kind of knowledge which
reveals to them something of that essence which is eternal, and is not
wandering between the two poles of generation and decay.
1”
“Let us take that as agreed.” “And,
further,” said I, “that their desire is for the whole of
it and that they do not willingly renounce a small or a great, a more
precious or a less honored, part of it. That was the point of our former
illustration
2 drawn
from lovers and men covetous of honor.” “You are
right,” he said. “Consider, then, next whether the men
who are to meet our requirements
[
485c]
must
not have this further quality in their natures.” “What
quality?” “The spirit of truthfulness, reluctance to
admit falsehood in any form, the hatred of it and the love of
truth.” “It is likely,” he said. “It
is not only likely, my friend, but there is every necessity
3
that he who is by nature enamored of anything should cherish all that is
akin and pertaining to the object of his love.”
“Right,” he said. “Could you find anything
more akin to wisdom than truth
4?” “Impossible,” he said.
“Then can the same nature be a lover of wisdom and of
falsehood?”
[
485d]
“By no
means.” “Then the true lover of knowledge must, from
childhood up, be most of all a striver after truth in every form.”
“By all means.” “But, again, we surely are
aware that when in a man the desires incline strongly to any one thing, they
are weakened for other things. It is as if the stream had been diverted into
another channel.
5 “Surely.”
“So, when a man's desires have been taught to flow in the channel
of learning and all that sort of thing, they will be concerned, I presume,
with the pleasures of the soul in itself, and will be indifferent to those
of which the body is the instrument,
6 if the
man is a true and not a sham
7 philosopher.”
[
485e]
“That is quite necessary.”
“Such a man will be temperate and by no means greedy for wealth;
for the things for the sake of which money and great expenditure are eagerly
sought others may take seriously, but not he.” “It is
so.” “And there is this further point to be considered
in distinguishing