Laws
cannot be quiet in their bodies or in their voices; they are always
wanting to move and cry out; some leaping and skipping, and overflowing
with sportiveness and delight at something, others uttering all sorts of
cries. But, whereas the animals have no perception of order or disorder
in their movements, that is, of rhythm or harmony, as they are
called, to us, the Gods, who, as we say, have been appointed to be our
companions in the dance, have given the pleasurable sense of harmony and
rhythm; and so they stir us into life, and we follow them, joining hands
together in dances and songs; and these they call choruses, which is a
term naturally expressive of cheerfulness. Shall we begin, then, with
the acknowledgment that education is first given through Apollo and the
Muses? What do you say?
CLEINIAS: I assent.
ATHENIAN: And the uneducated is he who has not been trained in the
chorus, and the educated is he who has been well trained?
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: And the chorus is made up of two parts, dance and song?
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: Then he who is well educated will be able to sing and dance
well?
CLEINIAS: I suppose that he will.
ATHENIAN: Let us see; what are we saying?
CLEINIAS: What?
ATHENIAN: He sings well and dances well; now must we add that he sings
what is good and dances what is good?
CLEINIAS: Let us make the addition.
ATHENIAN: We will suppose that he knows the good to be good, and the bad
to be bad, and makes use of them accordingly: which now is the better
trained in dancing and music--he who is able to move his body and to
use his voice in what is understood to be the right manner, but has no
delight in good or hatred of evil; or he who is incorrect in gesture and
voice, but is right in his sense of pleasure and pain, and welcomes what
is good, and is offended at what is evil?
CLEINIAS: There is a great difference, Stranger, in the two kinds of
education.
ATHENIAN: If we three know what is good in song and dance, then we truly
know also who is educated and who is uneducated; but if not, then we
certainly shall not know wherein lies the safeguard of education, and
whether there is any or not.
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: Let us follow the scent like hounds, and go in pursuit of
beauty of figure, and melody, and song, and dance; if these escape us,
there will be no use in talking about true education, whether Hellenic
or barbarian.
CLEINIAS: Yes.
ATHENIAN: And what is beauty of figure, or beautiful melody? When a
manly soul is in trouble, and when a cowardly soul is in similar
case, are they likely to use the same figures and gestures, or to give
utterance to the same sounds?
CLEINIAS: How can they, when the very colours of their faces differ?
ATHENIAN: Good, my friend; I may observe, however, in passing, that in
music there certainly are figures and there are melodies: and music is
concerned with harmony and rhythm, so that you may speak of a melody or
figure having good rhythm or good harmony--the term is correct enough;
but to speak metaphorically of a melody or figure having a 'good
colour,' as the masters of choruses do, is not allowable, although
you can speak of the melodies or figures of the brave and the coward,
praising the one and censuring the other. And not to be tedious, let us
say that the figures and melodies which are expressive of virtue of soul
or body, or of images of virtue, are without exception good, and those
which are expressive of vice are the reverse of good.
CLEINIAS: Your suggestion is excellent; and let us answer that these
things are so.
ATHENIAN: Once more, are all of us equally delighted with every sort of
dance?
CLEINIAS: Far otherwise.
ATHENIAN: What, then, leads us astray? Are beautiful things not the same
to us all, or are they the same in themselves, but not in our opinion
of them? For no one will admit that forms of vice in the dance are more
beautiful than forms of virtue, or that he himself delights in the forms
of vice, and others in a muse of another character. And yet most persons
say, that the excellence of music is to give pleasure to our souls.
But this is intolerable and blasphemous; there is, however, a much more
plausible account of the delusion.
CLEINIAS: What?
ATHENIAN: The adaptation of art to the characters of men. Choric
movements are imitations of manners occurring in various actions,
fortunes, dispositions,--each particular is imitated, and those to whom
the words, or songs, or dances are suited, either by nature or habit
or both, cannot help feeling pleasure in them and applauding them, and
calling them beautiful. But those whose natures, or ways, or habits are
unsuited to them, cannot delight in them or applaud them, and they call
them base. There are others, again, whose natures are right and their
habits wrong, or whose habits are right and their natures wrong, and
they praise one thing, but are pleased at another. For they say that
all these imitations are pleasant, but not good. And in the presence of
those whom they think wise, they are ashamed of dancing and singing in
the baser manner, or of deliberately lending any countenance to such
proceedings; and yet, they have a secret pleasure in them.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: And is any harm done to the lover of vicious dances or songs,
or any good done to the approver of the opposite sort of pleasure?
CLEINIAS: I think that there is.
ATHENIAN: 'I think' is not the word, but I would say, rather, 'I
am certain.' For must they not have the same effect as when a man
associates with bad characters, whom he likes and approves rather than
dislikes, and only censures playfully because he has a suspicion of his
own badness? In that case, he who takes pleasure in them will surely
become like those in whom he takes pleasure, even though he be ashamed
to praise them. And what greater good or evil can any destiny ever make
us undergo?
CLEINIAS: I know of none.
ATHENIAN: Then in a city which has good laws, or in future ages is to
have them, bearing in mind the instruction and amusement which are given
by music, can we suppose that the poets are to be allowed to teach in
the dance anything which they themselves like, in the way of rhythm, or
melody, or words, to the young children of any well-conditioned parents?
Is the poet to train his choruses as he pleases, without reference to
virtue or vice?
CLEINIAS: That is surely quite unreasonable, and is not to be thought
of.
ATHENIAN: And yet he may do this in almost any state with the exception
of Egypt.
CLEINIAS: And what are the laws about music and dancing in Egypt?
ATHENIAN: You will wonder when I tell you: Long ago they appear to have
recognized the very principle of which we are now speaking--that their
young citizens must be habituated to forms and strains of virtue. These
they fixed, and exhibited the patterns of them in their temples; and
no painter or artist is allowed to innovate upon them, or to leave the
traditional forms and invent new ones. To this day, no alteration is
allowed either in these arts, or in music at all. And you will find that
their works of art are painted or moulded in the same forms which
they had ten thousand years ago;--this is literally true and no
exaggeration,--their ancient paintings and sculptures are not a whit
better or worse than the work of to-day, but are made with just the same
skill.
CLEINIAS: How extraordinary!
ATHENIAN: I should rather say, How statesmanlike, how worthy of a
legislator! I know that other things in Egypt are not so well. But what
I am telling you about music is true and deserving of consideration,
because showing that a lawgiver may institute melodies which have a
natural truth and correctness without any fear of failure. To do this,
however, must be the work of God, or of a divine person; in Egypt they
have a tradition that their ancient chants which have been preserved for
so many ages are the composition of the Goddess Isis. And therefore, as
I was saying, if a person can only find in any way the natural melodies,
he may confidently embody them in a fixed and legal form. For the love
of novelty which arises out of pleasure in the new and weariness of the
old, has not strength enough to corrupt the consecrated song and dance,
under the plea that they have become antiquated. At any rate, they are
far from being corrupted in Egypt.
CLEINIAS: Your arguments seem to prove your point.
ATHENIAN: May we not confidently say that the true use of music and
of choral festivities is as follows: We rejoice when we think that we
prosper, and again we think that we prosper when we rejoice?
CLEINIAS: Exactly.
ATHENIAN: And when rejoicing in our good fortune, we are unable to be
still?
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: Our young men break forth into dancing and singing, and we who
are their elders deem that we are fulfilling our part in life when we
look on at them. Having lost our agility, we delight in their sports and
merry-making, because we love to think of our former selves; and gladly
institute contests for those who are able to awaken in us the memory of
our youth.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: Is it altogether unmeaning to say, as the common people do
about festivals, that he should be adjudged the wisest of men, and the
winner of the palm, who gives us the greatest amount of pleasure and
mirth? For on such occasions, and when mirth is the order of the day,
ought not he to be honoured most, and, as I was saying, bear the palm,
who gives most mirth to the greatest number? Now is this a true way of
speaking or of acting?
CLEINIAS: Possibly.
ATHENIAN: But, my dear friend, let us distinguish between different
cases, and not be hasty in forming a judgment: One way of considering
the question will be to imagine a festival at which there are
entertainments of all sorts, including gymnastic, musical, and
equestrian contests: the citizens are assembled; prizes are offered,
and proclamation is made that any one who likes may enter the lists,
and that he is to bear the palm who gives the most pleasure to the
spectators--there is to be no regulation about the manner how; but he
who is most successful in giving pleasure is to be crowned victor, and
deemed to be the pleasantest of the candidates: What is likely to be the
result of such a proclamation?
CLEINIAS: In what respect?
ATHENIAN: There would be various exhibitions: one man, like Homer, will
exhibit a rhapsody, another a performance on the lute; one will have a
tragedy, and another a comedy. Nor would there be anything astonishing
in some one imagining that he could gain the prize by exhibiting a
puppet-show. Suppose these competitors to meet, and not these only, but
innumerable others as well--can you tell me who ought to be the victor?
CLEINIAS: I do not see how any one can answer you, or pretend to know,
unless he has heard with his own ears the several competitors; the
question is absurd.
ATHENIAN: Well, then, if neither of you can answer, shall I answer this
question which you deem so absurd?
CLEINIAS: By all means.
ATHENIAN: If very small children are to determine the question, they
will decide for the puppet show.
CLEINIAS: Of course.
ATHENIAN: The older children will be advocates of comedy; educated
women, and young men, and people in general, will favour tragedy.
CLEINIAS: Very likely.
ATHENIAN: And I believe that we old men would have the greatest pleasure
in hearing a rhapsodist recite well the Iliad and Odyssey, or one of
the Hesiodic poems, and would award the victory to him. But, who would
really be the victor?--that is the question.
CLEINIAS: Yes.
ATHENIAN: Clearly you and I will have to declare that those whom we old