[499c]
either of the sons of the men now in
power and sovereignty or of themselves. To affirm that either or both of
these things cannot possibly come to pass is, I say, quite unreasonable.
Only in that case could we be justly ridiculed as uttering things as futile
as day-dreams are.1 Is not that so?”
“It is.” “If, then, the best philosophical
natures have ever been constrained to take charge of the state in infinite
time past,2 or now are in some
barbaric region3
1 We might say, “talking like vain Utopians or idly idealists.” The scholiast says, p. 348, τοῦτο καὶ κενήν φασι μακαρίαν. cf. supra, Vol. I. on 458 A, and for εὐχαί on 450 D, and Novotny on Epist. vii. 331 D.
2 Cf. Laws 782 A, 678 A-B, and What Plato Said, p. 627 on Laws 676 A-B; Also Isoc.Panath. 204-205, seven hundred years seemed a short time.
3 Cf. Phaedo 78 A.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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