Page - 859 - in The Complete Plato

have no authority over themselves or one another, but are each of them concerned with some special action of their own, have, as they ought to have, special names corresponding to their several actions. YOUNG SOCRATES: I agree. STRANGER: And the science which is over them all, and has charge of the laws, and of all matters affecting the State, and truly weaves them all into one, if we would describe under a name characteristic of their common nature, most truly we may call politics. YOUNG SOCRATES: Exactly so. STRANGER: Then, now that we have discovered the various classes in a State, shall I analyse politics after the pattern which weaving supplied? YOUNG SOCRATES: I greatly wish that you would. STRANGER: Then I must describe the nature of the royal web, and show how the various threads are woven into one piece. YOUNG SOCRATES: Clearly. STRANGER: A task has to be accomplished, which, although difficult, appears to be necessary. YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly the attempt must be made. STRANGER: To assume that one part of virtue differs in kind from another, is a position easily assailable by contentious disputants, who appeal to popular opinion. YOUNG SOCRATES: I do not understand. STRANGER: Let me put the matter in another way: I suppose that you would consider courage to be a part of virtue? YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly I should. STRANGER: And you would think temperance to be different from courage; and likewise to be a part of virtue? YOUNG SOCRATES: True. STRANGER: I shall venture to put forward a strange theory about them. YOUNG SOCRATES: What is it? STRANGER: That they are two principles which thoroughly hate one another and are antagonistic throughout a great part of nature. YOUNG SOCRATES: How singular! 859