[520b]
For we will say to them that it is natural
that men of similar quality who spring up in other cities should not share in
the labors there. For they grow up spontaneously1 from no volition of the government in the several states, and it is
justice that the self-grown, indebted to none for its breeding, should not be
zealous either to pay to anyone the price of its nurture.2 But you
we have engendered for yourselves and the rest of the city to be, as it were,
king-bees3
and leaders in the hive. You have received a better
1 αὐτόματοι Cf. Protag. 320 A, Euthyd. 282 C. For the thought that there are a few men naturally good in any state cf. also Laws 951 B, 642 C-D.
2 Cf. Isoc.Archidamus 108ἀποδῶμεν τὰ τροφεῖα τῇ πατρίδι. Stallbaum refers also to Phoenissae 44. For the country as τροφός see Vol. I. p. 303, note e on 414 E.
3 Cf. Polit. 301 D-E, Xen.Cyr. v.1.24, Oecon. 7.32-33.
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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