[544e]
which, as it were, by their
momentum and weight in the scales1 draw other things after
them?” “They could not possibly come from any other
source,” he said. “Then if the forms of government are
five, the patterns of individual souls must be five also.”
“Surely.” “Now we have already described the
man corresponding to aristocracy2 or the government of the best, whom we aver to be the truly
good and just man.”
1 For the metaphor cf. also 550 E and on 556 E.
2 ἀριστοκρατία is used by both Plato and Aristotle some times technically, sometimes etymologically as the government of the best, whoever they may be. Cf. 445 D, and Menex. 238 C-D (What Plato Said, p. 539).
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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