Page - 1343 - in The Complete Plato

Cleinias. Certainly. Athenian. And when we want to make any one fearless, we and the law bring him face to face with many fears. Cleinias. Clearly. Athenian. And when we want to make him rightly fearful, must we not introduce him to shameless pleasures, and train him to take up arms against them, and to overcome them? Or does this principle apply to courage only, and must he who would be perfect in valour fight against and overcome his own natural character—since if he be unpractised and inexperienced in such conflicts, he will not be half the man which he might have been—and are we to suppose, that with temperance it is otherwise, and that he who has never fought with the shameless and unrighteous temptations of his pleasures and lusts, and conquered them, in earnest and in play, by word, deed, and act, will still be perfectly temperate? Cleinias. A most unlikely supposition. Athenian. Suppose that some God had given a fear–potion to men, and that the more a man drank of this the more he regarded himself at every draught as a child of misfortune, and that he feared everything happening or about to happen to him; and that at last the most courageous of men utterly lost his presence of mind for a time, and only came to himself again when he had slept off the influence of the draught. Cleinias. But has such a draught, Stranger, ever really been known among men? Athenian. No; but, if there had been, might not such a draught have been of use to the legislator as a test of courage? Might we not go and say to him, “O legislator, whether you are legislating for the Cretan, or for any other state, would you not like to have a touchstone of the courage and cowardice of your citizens?” Cleinias. “I should,” will be the answer of every one. Athenian. “And you would rather have a touchstone in which there is no risk and no great danger than the reverse?” Cleinias. In that proposition every one may safely agree. Athenian. “And in order to make use of the draught, you would lead them amid these imaginary terrors, and prove them, when the affection of fear was working upon them, and compel them to be fearless, exhorting and admonishing them; and also honouring them, but dishonouring any one who will not be persuaded by you to be in all respects such as you command him; 1343