Page - 1076 - in The Complete Plato

should meddle with anything of the kind; and although the rulers have this privilege, for a private man to lie to them in return is to be deemed a more heinous fault than for the patient or the pupil of a gymnasium not to speak the truth about his own bodily illnesses to the physician or to the trainer, or for a sailor not to tell the captain what is happening about the ship and the rest of the crew, and how things are going with himself or his fellow-sailors. Most true, he said. If, then, the ruler catches anybody beside himself lying in the State, “Any of the craftsmen, whether he be priest or physician or carpenter,” he will punish him for introducing a practice which is equally subversive and destructive of ship or State. Most certainly, he said, if our idea of the State is ever carried out. In the next place our youth must be temperate? Certainly. Are not the chief elements of temperance, speaking generally, obedience to commanders and self-control in sensual pleasures? True. Then we shall approve such language as that of Diomede in Homer, “Friend sit still and obey my word,” and the verses which follow, “The Greeks marched breathing prowess,” “… in silent awe of their leaders.” and other sentiments of the same kind. We shall. What of this line, “O heavy with wine, who hast the eyes of a dog and the heart of a stag,” and of the words which follow? Would you say that these, or any similar impertinences which private individuals are supposed to address to their rulers, whether in verse or prose, are well or ill spoken? They are ill spoken. They may very possibly afford some amusement, but they do not conduce to temperance. And therefore they are likely to do harm to our young men— you would agree with me there? 1076