Laws
ATHENIAN: A point arising out of our previous discussion, which comes
into my mind in some mysterious way. All this time, from early dawn
until noon, have we been talking about laws in this charming retreat:
now we are going to promulgate our laws, and what has preceded was only
the prelude of them. Why do I mention this? For this reason:--Because
all discourses and vocal exercises have preludes and overtures, which
are a sort of artistic beginnings intended to help the strain which
is to be performed; lyric measures and music of every other kind have
preludes framed with wonderful care. But of the truer and higher
strain of law and politics, no one has ever yet uttered any prelude, or
composed or published any, as though there was no such thing in
nature. Whereas our present discussion seems to me to imply that there
is;--these double laws, of which we were speaking, are not exactly
double, but they are in two parts, the law and the prelude of the law.
The arbitrary command, which was compared to the commands of doctors,
whom we described as of the meaner sort, was the law pure and simple;
and that which preceded, and was described by our friend here as
being hortatory only, was, although in fact, an exhortation, likewise
analogous to the preamble of a discourse. For I imagine that all this
language of conciliation, which the legislator has been uttering in the
preface of the law, was intended to create good-will in the person whom
he addressed, in order that, by reason of this good-will, he might
more intelligently receive his command, that is to say, the law. And
therefore, in my way of speaking, this is more rightly described as the
preamble than as the matter of the law. And I must further proceed to
observe, that to all his laws, and to each separately, the legislator
should prefix a preamble; he should remember how great will be the
difference between them, according as they have, or have not, such
preambles, as in the case already given.
CLEINIAS: The lawgiver, if he asks my opinion, will certainly legislate
in the form which you advise.
ATHENIAN: I think that you are right, Cleinias, in affirming that all
laws have preambles, and that throughout the whole of this work of
legislation every single law should have a suitable preamble at the
beginning; for that which is to follow is most important, and it makes
all the difference whether we clearly remember the preambles or not. Yet
we should be wrong in requiring that all laws, small and great alike,
should have preambles of the same kind, any more than all songs or
speeches; although they may be natural to all, they are not always
necessary, and whether they are to be employed or not has in each case
to be left to the judgment of the speaker or the musician, or, in the
present instance, of the lawgiver.
CLEINIAS: That I think is most true. And now, Stranger, without delay
let us return to the argument, and, as people say in play, make a second
and better beginning, if you please, with the principles which we have
been laying down, which we never thought of regarding as a preamble
before, but of which we may now make a preamble, and not merely consider
them to be chance topics of discourse. Let us acknowledge, then, that
we have a preamble. About the honour of the Gods and the respect of
parents, enough has been already said; and we may proceed to the topics
which follow next in order, until the preamble is deemed by you to be
complete; and after that you shall go through the laws themselves.
ATHENIAN: I understand you to mean that we have made a sufficient
preamble about Gods and demigods, and about parents living or dead; and
now you would have us bring the rest of the subject into the light of
day?
CLEINIAS: Exactly.
ATHENIAN: After this, as is meet and for the interest of us all, I the
speaker, and you the listeners, will try to estimate all that relates
to the souls and bodies and properties of the citizens, as regards both
their occupations and amusements, and thus arrive, as far as in us lies,
at the nature of education. These then are the topics which follow next
in order.
CLEINIAS: Very good.
BOOK V.
ATHENIAN: Listen, all ye who have just now heard the laws about Gods,
and about our dear forefathers:--Of all the things which a man has, next
to the Gods, his soul is the most divine and most truly his own. Now in
every man there are two parts: the better and superior, which rules,
and the worse and inferior, which serves; and the ruling part of him is
always to be preferred to the subject. Wherefore I am right in bidding
every one next to the Gods, who are our masters, and those who in order
follow them (i.e. the demons), to honour his own soul, which every one
seems to honour, but no one honours as he ought; for honour is a divine
good, and no evil thing is honourable; and he who thinks that he can
honour the soul by word or gift, or any sort of compliance, without
making her in any way better, seems to honour her, but honours her not
at all. For example, every man, from his very boyhood, fancies that
he is able to know everything, and thinks that he honours his soul by
praising her, and he is very ready to let her do whatever she may like.
But I mean to say that in acting thus he injures his soul, and is far
from honouring her; whereas, in our opinion, he ought to honour her as
second only to the Gods. Again, when a man thinks that others are to be
blamed, and not himself, for the errors which he has committed from time
to time, and the many and great evils which befell him in consequence,
and is always fancying himself to be exempt and innocent, he is under
the idea that he is honouring his soul; whereas the very reverse is the
fact, for he is really injuring her. And when, disregarding the word and
approval of the legislator, he indulges in pleasure, then again he is
far from honouring her; he only dishonours her, and fills her full of
evil and remorse; or when he does not endure to the end the labours and
fears and sorrows and pains which the legislator approves, but gives way
before them, then, by yielding, he does not honour the soul, but by all
such conduct he makes her to be dishonourable; nor when he thinks that
life at any price is a good, does he honour her, but yet once more he
dishonours her; for the soul having a notion that the world below is all
evil, he yields to her, and does not resist and teach or convince her
that, for aught she knows, the world of the Gods below, instead of being
evil, may be the greatest of all goods. Again, when any one prefers
beauty to virtue, what is this but the real and utter dishonour of the
soul? For such a preference implies that the body is more honourable
than the soul; and this is false, for there is nothing of earthly birth
which is more honourable than the heavenly, and he who thinks otherwise
of the soul has no idea how greatly he undervalues this wonderful
possession; nor, again, when a person is willing, or not unwilling, to
acquire dishonest gains, does he then honour his soul with gifts--far
otherwise; he sells her glory and honour for a small piece of gold; but
all the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in
exchange for virtue. In a word, I may say that he who does not estimate
the base and evil, the good and noble, according to the standard of the
legislator, and abstain in every possible way from the one and practise
the other to the utmost of his power, does not know that in all these
respects he is most foully and disgracefully abusing his soul, which is
the divinest part of man; for no one, as I may say, ever considers that
which is declared to be the greatest penalty of evil-doing--namely, to
grow into the likeness of bad men, and growing like them to fly from the
conversation of the good, and be cut off from them, and cleave to and
follow after the company of the bad. And he who is joined to them must
do and suffer what such men by nature do and say to one another,--a
suffering which is not justice but retribution; for justice and the
just are noble, whereas retribution is the suffering which waits upon
injustice; and whether a man escape or endure this, he is miserable,--in
the former case, because he is not cured; while in the latter, he
perishes in order that the rest of mankind may be saved.
Speaking generally, our glory is to follow the better and improve
the inferior, which is susceptible of improvement, as far as this is
possible. And of all human possessions, the soul is by nature most
inclined to avoid the evil, and track out and find the chief good; which
when a man has found, he should take up his abode with it during the
remainder of his life. Wherefore the soul also is second (or next to
God) in honour; and third, as every one will perceive, comes the honour
of the body in natural order. Having determined this, we have next to
consider that there is a natural honour of the body, and that of honours
some are true and some are counterfeit. To decide which are which is the
business of the legislator; and he, I suspect, would intimate that they
are as follows:--Honour is not to be given to the fair body, or to the
strong or the swift or the tall, or to the healthy body (although many
may think otherwise), any more than to their opposites; but the mean
states of all these habits are by far the safest and most moderate; for
the one extreme makes the soul braggart and insolent, and the other,
illiberal and base; and money, and property, and distinction all go to
the same tune. The excess of any of these things is apt to be a source
of hatreds and divisions among states and individuals; and the defect
of them is commonly a cause of slavery. And, therefore, I would not have
any one fond of heaping up riches for the sake of his children, in order
that he may leave them as rich as possible. For the possession of great
wealth is of no use, either to them or to the state. The condition of
youth which is free from flattery, and at the same time not in need of
the necessaries of life, is the best and most harmonious of all, being
in accord and agreement with our nature, and making life to be most
entirely free from sorrow. Let parents, then, bequeath to their children
not a heap of riches, but the spirit of reverence. We, indeed, fancy
that they will inherit reverence from us, if we rebuke them when they
show a want of reverence. But this quality is not really imparted to
them by the present style of admonition, which only tells them that the
young ought always to be reverential. A sensible legislator will rather
exhort the elders to reverence the younger, and above all to take
heed that no young man sees or hears one of themselves doing or saying
anything disgraceful; for where old men have no shame, there young men
will most certainly be devoid of reverence. The best way of training the
young is to train yourself at the same time; not to admonish them,
but to be always carrying out your own admonitions in practice. He who
honours his kindred, and reveres those who share in the same Gods and
are of the same blood and family, may fairly expect that the Gods who
preside over generation will be propitious to him, and will quicken his
seed. And he who deems the services which his friends and acquaintances
do for him, greater and more important than they themselves deem them,
and his own favours to them less than theirs to him, will have their
good-will in the intercourse of life. And surely in his relations to the
state and his fellow citizens, he is by far the best, who rather than
the Olympic or any other victory of peace or war, desires to win the
palm of obedience to the laws of his country, and who, of all mankind,
is the person reputed to have obeyed them best through life. In his