Page - 808 - in The Complete Plato

comparison we spoke of manufacturers, or sellers for themselves, and of retailers,—seeing, too, that the class of supreme rulers, or rulers for themselves, is almost nameless—shall we make a word following the same analogy, and refer kings to a supreme or ruling-for-self science, leaving the rest to receive a name from some one else? For we are seeking the ruler; and our enquiry is not concerned with him who is not a ruler. YOUNG SOCRATES: Very good. STRANGER: Thus a very fair distinction has been attained between the man who gives his own commands, and him who gives another’s. And now let us see if the supreme power allows of any further division. YOUNG SOCRATES: By all means. STRANGER: I think that it does; and please to assist me in making the division. YOUNG SOCRATES: At what point? STRANGER: May not all rulers be supposed to command for the sake of producing something? YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly. STRANGER: Nor is there any difficulty in dividing the things produced into two classes. YOUNG SOCRATES: How would you divide them? STRANGER: Of the whole class, some have life and some are without life. YOUNG SOCRATES: True. STRANGER: And by the help of this distinction we may make, if we please, a subdivision of the section of knowledge which commands. YOUNG SOCRATES: At what point? STRANGER: One part may be set over the production of lifeless, the other of living objects; and in this way the whole will be divided. YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly. STRANGER: That division, then, is complete; and now we may leave one half, and take up the other; which may also be divided into two. YOUNG SOCRATES: Which of the two halves do you mean? STRANGER: Of course that which exercises command about animals. For, surely, the royal science is not like that of a master-workman, a science presiding over lifeless objects;—the king has a nobler function, which is the 808