Plato was asked by the Cyrenaeans
1 to compose a
set of laws and leave it for them and to give them a
well-ordered government; but he refused, saying
that it was difficult to make laws for the Cyrenaeans
because they were so prosperous.
For nothing is so haughty
harsh, and ungovernable
by nature as a man,2
when he possesses what he regards as prosperity.
And that is why it is difficult to give advice to rulers
in matters of government, for they are afraid to
accept reason as a ruler over them, lest it curtail the
advantage of their power by making them slaves to
duty. For they are not familiar with the saying of
Theopompus, the King of Sparta who first made the
Ephors
3 associates of the Kings ; then, when his
wife reproached him because he would hand down
to his children a less powerful office than that which
he had received he said : ‘Nay, more powerful
rather, inasmuch as it is more secure.’ For by
giving up that which was excessive and absolute in
[p. 55]
it he avoided both the envy and the danger. And
yet Theopompus, by diverting to a different body
the vast stream of his royal authority, deprived
himself of as much as he gave to others. But when
philosophical reason derived from philosophy has
been established as the ruler's coadjutor and guardian, it removes the hazardous element from his power,
as a surgeon removes that which threatens a patient's
health and leaves that which is sound.
