Laws
strains; but of the learning of letters and of prose writings, and of
music, and of the use of calculation for military and domestic purposes
we have not spoken, nor yet of the higher use of numbers in reckoning
divine things--such as the revolutions of the stars, or the arrangements
of days, months, and years, of which the true calculation is necessary
in order that seasons and festivals may proceed in regular course, and
arouse and enliven the city, rendering to the Gods their due, and making
men know them better. There are, we say, many things about which we have
not as yet instructed you--and first, as to reading and music: Shall
the pupil be a perfect scholar and musician, or not even enter on these
studies? He should certainly enter on both:--to letters he will apply
himself from the age of ten to thirteen, and at thirteen he will begin
to handle the lyre, and continue to learn music until he is sixteen;
no shorter and no longer time will be allowed, however fond he or his
parents may be of the pursuit. The study of letters he should carry
to the extent of simple reading and writing, but he need not care for
calligraphy and tachygraphy, if his natural gifts do not enable him to
acquire them in the three years. And here arises a question as to the
learning of compositions when unaccompanied with music, I mean, prose
compositions. They are a dangerous species of literature. Speak then, O
guardians of the law, and tell us what we shall do about them. 'You seem
to be in a difficulty.' Yes; it is difficult to go against the opinion
of all the world. 'But have we not often already done so?' Very true.
And you imply that the road which we are taking, though disagreeable
to many, is approved by those whose judgment is most worth having.
'Certainly.' Then I would first observe that we have many poets, comic
as well as tragic, with whose compositions, as people say, youth are
to be imbued and saturated. Some would have them learn by heart entire
poets; others prefer extracts. Now I believe, and the general opinion
is, that some of the things which they learn are good, and some bad.
'Then how shall we reject some and select others?' A happy thought
occurs to me; this long discourse of ours is a sample of what we want,
and is moreover an inspired work and a kind of poem. I am naturally
pleased in reflecting upon all our words, which appear to me to be just
the thing for a young man to hear and learn. I would venture, then, to
offer to the Director of Education this treatise of laws as a pattern
for his guidance; and in case he should find any similar compositions,
written or oral, I would have him carefully preserve them, and commit
them in the first place to the teachers who are willing to learn them
(he should turn off the teacher who refuses), and let them communicate
the lesson to the young.
I have said enough to the teacher of letters; and now we will proceed to
the teacher of the lyre. He must be reminded of the advice which we gave
to the sexagenarian minstrels; like them he should be quick to perceive
the rhythms suited to the expression of virtue, and to reject the
opposite. With a view to the attainment of this object, the pupil and
his instructor are to use the lyre because its notes are pure; the voice
and string should coincide note for note: nor should there be complex
harmonies and contrasts of intervals, or variations of times or rhythms.
Three years' study is not long enough to give a knowledge of these
intricacies; and our pupils will have many things of more importance to
learn. The tunes and hymns which are to be consecrated for each festival
have been already determined by us.
Having given these instructions to the Director of Music, let us now
proceed to dancing and gymnastic, which must also be taught to boys and
girls by masters and mistresses. Our minister of education will have a
great deal to do; and being an old man, how will he get through so much
work? There is no difficulty;--the law will provide him with assistants,
male and female; and he will consider how important his office is,
and how great the responsibility of choosing them. For if education
prospers, the vessel of state sails merrily along; or if education
fails, the consequences are not even to be mentioned. Of dancing and
gymnastics something has been said already. We include under the latter
military exercises, the various uses of arms, all that relates to
horsemanship, and military evolutions and tactics. There should be
public teachers of both arts, paid by the state, and women as well as
men should be trained in them. The maidens should learn the armed dance,
and the grown-up women be practised in drill and the use of arms, if
only in case of extremity, when the men are gone out to battle, and they
are left to guard their families. Birds and beasts defend their young,
but women instead of fighting run to the altars, thus degrading man
below the level of the animals. 'Such a lack of education, Stranger, is
both unseemly and dangerous.'
Wrestling is to be pursued as a military exercise, but the meaning of
this, and the nature of the art, can only be explained when action
is combined with words. Next follows dancing, which is of two kinds;
imitative, first, of the serious and beautiful; and, secondly, of the
ludicrous and grotesque. The first kind may be further divided into the
dance of war and the dance of peace. The former is called the Pyrrhic;
in this the movements of attack and defence are imitated in a direct and
manly style, which indicates strength and sufficiency of body and mind.
The latter of the two, the dance of peace, is suitable to orderly and
law-abiding men. These must be distinguished from the Bacchic dances
which imitate drunken revelry, and also from the dances by which
purifications are effected and mysteries celebrated. Such dances cannot
be characterized either as warlike or peaceful, and are unsuited to a
civilized state. Now the dances of peace are of two classes:--the first
of them is the more violent, being an expression of joy and triumph
after toil and danger; the other is more tranquil, symbolizing the
continuance and preservation of good. In speaking or singing we
naturally move our bodies, and as we have more or less courage or
self-control we become less or more violent and excited. Thus from the
imitation of words in gestures the art of dancing arises. Now one man
imitates in an orderly, another in a disorderly manner: and so the
peaceful kinds of dance have been appropriately called Emmeleiai, or
dances of order, as the warlike have been called Pyrrhic. In the latter
a man imitates all sorts of blows and the hurling of weapons and the
avoiding of them; in the former he learns to bear himself gracefully
and like a gentleman. The types of these dances are to be fixed by the
legislator, and when the guardians of the law have assigned them to the
several festivals, and consecrated them in due order, no further change
shall be allowed.
Thus much of the dances which are appropriate to fair forms and noble
souls. Comedy, which is the opposite of them, remains to be considered.
For the serious implies the ludicrous, and opposites cannot be
understood without opposites. But a man of repute will desire to
avoid doing what is ludicrous. He should leave such performances to
slaves,--they are not fit for freemen; and there should be some element
of novelty in them. Concerning tragedy, let our law be as follows: When
the inspired poet comes to us with a request to be admitted into our
state, we will reply in courteous words--We also are tragedians and your
rivals; and the drama which we enact is the best and noblest, being the
imitation of the truest and noblest life, with a view to which our state
is ordered. And we cannot allow you to pitch your stage in the agora,
and make your voices to be heard above ours, or suffer you to address
our women and children and the common people on opposite principles
to our own. Come then, ye children of the Lydian Muse, and present
yourselves first to the magistrates, and if they decide that your hymns
are as good or better than ours, you shall have your chorus; but if not,
not.
There remain three kinds of knowledge which should be learnt by
freemen--arithmetic, geometry of surfaces and of solids, and thirdly,
astronomy. Few need make an accurate study of such sciences; and of
special students we will speak at another time. But most persons must be
content with the study of them which is absolutely necessary, and may
be said to be a necessity of that nature against which God himself is
unable to contend. 'What are these divine necessities of knowledge?'
Necessities of a knowledge without which neither gods, nor demigods,
can govern mankind. And far is he from being a divine man who cannot
distinguish one, two, odd and even; who cannot number day and night, and
is ignorant of the revolutions of the sun and stars; for to every higher
knowledge a knowledge of number is necessary--a fool may see this; how
much, is a matter requiring more careful consideration. 'Very true.'
But the legislator cannot enter into such details, and therefore we
must defer the more careful consideration of these matters to another
occasion. 'You seem to fear our habitual want of training in these
subjects.' Still more do I fear the danger of bad training, which is
often worse than none at all. 'Very true.' I think that a gentleman
and a freeman may be expected to know as much as an Egyptian child.
In Egypt, arithmetic is taught to children in their sports by a
distribution of apples or garlands among a greater or less number of
people; or a calculation is made of the various combinations which are
possible among a set of boxers or wrestlers; or they distribute cups
among the children, sometimes of gold, brass, and silver intermingled,
sometimes of one metal only. The knowledge of arithmetic which is thus
acquired is a great help, either to the general or to the manager of
a household; wherever measure is employed, men are more wide-awake in
their dealings, and they get rid of their ridiculous ignorance. 'What do
you mean?' I have observed this ignorance among my countrymen--they are
like pigs--and I am heartily ashamed both on my own behalf and on that
of all the Hellenes. 'In what respect?' Let me ask you a question. You
know that there are such things as length, breadth, and depth?
'Yes.' And the Hellenes imagine that they are commensurable (1) with
themselves, and (2) with each other; whereas they are only commensurable
with themselves. But if this is true, then we are in an unfortunate
case, and may well say to our compatriots that not to possess necessary
knowledge is a disgrace, though to possess such knowledge is nothing
very grand. 'Certainly.' The discussion of arithmetical problems is a
much better amusement for old men than their favourite game of draughts.
'True.' Mathematics, then, will be one of the subjects in which youth
should be trained. They may be regarded as an amusement, as well as a
useful and innocent branch of knowledge;--I think that we may include
them provisionally. 'Yes; that will be the way.' The next question is,
whether astronomy shall be made a part of education. About the stars
there is a strange notion prevalent. Men often suppose that it is
impious to enquire into the nature of God and the world, whereas the
very reverse is the truth. 'How do you mean?' What I am going to say may
seem absurd and at variance with the usual language of age, and yet if
true and advantageous to the state, and pleasing to God, ought not to be
withheld. 'Let us hear.' My dear friend, how falsely do we and all the
Hellenes speak about the sun and moon! 'In what respect?' We are always
saying that they and certain of the other stars do not keep the same