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to preserve the friendly feelings which exist among the company at the time,
and to increase them for the future by his use of the occasion.
Cleinias. Very true.
Athenian. Must we not appoint a sober man and a wise to be our master of
the revels? For if the ruler of drinkers be himself young and drunken, and not
over–wise, only by some special good fortune will he be saved from doing
some great evil.
Cleinias. It will be by a singular good fortune that he is saved.
Athenian. Now suppose such associations to be framed in the best way
possible in states, and that some one blames the very fact of their existence—
he may very likely be right. But if he blames a practice which he only sees
very much mismanaged, he shows in the first place that he is not aware of the
mismanagement, and also not aware that everything done in this way will turn
out to be wrong, because done without the superintendence of a sober ruler.
Do you not see that a drunken pilot or a drunken ruler of any sort will ruin
ship, chariot, army—anything, in short, of which he has the direction?
Cleinias. The last remark is very true, Stranger; and I see quite clearly the
advantage of an army having a good leader—he will give victory in war to his
followers, which is a very great advantage; and so of other things. But I do
not see any similar advantage which either individuals or states gain from the
good management of a feast; and I want you to tell me what great good will
be effected, supposing that this drinking ordinance is duly established.
Athenian. If you mean to ask what great good accrues to the state from the
right training of a single youth, or of a single chorus—when the question is
put in that form, we cannot deny that the good is not very great in any
particular instance. But if you ask what is the good of education in general,
the answer is easy—that education makes good men, and that good men act
nobly, and conquer their enemies in battle, because they are good. Education
certainly gives victory, although victory sometimes produces forgetfulness of
education; for many have grown insolent from victory in war, and this
insolence has engendered in them innumerable evils; and many a victory has
been and will be suicidal to the victors; but education is never suicidal.
Cleinias. You seem to imply, my friend, that convivial meetings, when
rightly ordered, are an important element of education.
Athenian. Certainly I do.
Cleinias. And can you show that what you have been saying is true?
Athenian. To be absolutely sure of the truth of matters concerning which
1336
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book The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Title
- The Complete Plato
- Author
- Plato
- Date
- ~347 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 1612
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International