f carefulness to execute your wishes, is a person
so qualified to be regarded as fit at once to be your bailiff? or is
there aught else which he must learn in order to play the part of an
efficient bailiff?

[1] Breit. cf. "Pol. Lac." xv. 8. Holden cf. Plat. "Rep." 600 C.

Most certainly there is (he answered): it still remains for him to learn
particulars--to know, that is, what things he has to do, and when and
how to do them; or else, if ignorant of these details, the profit of
this bailiff in the abstract may prove no greater than the doctor's
who pays a most precise attention to a sick man, visiting him late and
early, but what will serve to ease his patient's pains [2] he knows not.

[2] Lit. "what it is to the advantage of his patient to do, is beyond
his ken."

Soc. But suppose him to have learnt the whole routine of business, will
he need aught else, or have we found at last your bailiff absolute? [3]

[3] Cf. Plat. "Rep." 566 D. Or, "the perfect and consummate type of
bailiff."

Isch. He must learn at any rate, I think, to rule his fellow-workmen.

What! (I exclaimed): you mean to say you educate your bailiffs to that
extent? Actually you make them capable of rule?

At any rate I try to do so (he replied).

And how, in Heaven's name (I asked), do you contrive to educate another
in the skill to govern human beings?

Isch. I have a very simple system, Socrates; so simple, I daresay, you
will simply laugh at me.

Soc. The matter, I protest, is hardly one for laughter. The man who
can make another capable of rule, clearly can teach him how to play the
master; and if can make him play the master, he can make him what is
grander still, a kingly being. [4] Once more, therefore, I protest: A
man possessed of such creative power is worthy, not of ridicule, far
from it, but of the highest praise.

[4] i.e. {arkhikos} includes (1) {despotikos}, i.e. an arbitrary head
of any sort, from the master of one's own family to the {turannos
kai despotes} (Plat. "Laws," 859 A), despotic lord or owner; (2)
{basilikos}, the king or monarch gifted with regal qualities.

Thus, then, I reason, [5] Socrates (he answered): The lower animals are
taught obedience by two methods chiefly, partly through being punished
when they make attempts to disobey, partly by experiencing some kindness
when they cheerfully submit. This is the principle at any rate adopted
in the breaking of young horses. The animal