Most true, he replied.
And the only life which looks down upon the life of political
ambition is that of true philosophy. Do you know of any other?
Indeed, I do not, he said.
And those who govern ought not to be lovers of the task?
For, if they are, there will be rival lovers, and they will fight.
No question.
Who then are those whom we shall compel to be guardians?
Surely they will be the men who are wisest about affairs of State,
and by whom the State is best administered, and who at the same
time have other honours and another and a better life than that
of politics?
They are the men, and I will choose them, he replied.
And now shall we consider in what way such guardians will be produced,
and how they are to be brought from darkness to light,--as some are
said to have ascended from the world below to the gods?
By all means, he replied.
The process, I said, is not the turning over of an oyster-shell,
but the turning round of a soul passing from a day which is little
better than night to the true day of being, that is, the ascent
from below, which we affirm to be true philosophy?
Quite so.
And should we not enquire what sort of knowledge has the power
of effecting such a change?
Certainly.
What sort of knowledge is there which would draw the soul from becoming
to being? And another consideration has just occurred to me:
You will remember that our young men are to be warrior athletes
Yes, that was said.
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