eemed to
be undergoing their education they were really being fashioned in the
earth, who sent them up when they were ready; and that they must protect
and cherish her whose children they are, and regard each other as
brothers and sisters. 'I do not wonder at your being ashamed to propound
such a fiction.' There is more behind. These brothers and sisters
have different natures, and some of them God framed to rule, whom he
fashioned of gold; others he made of silver, to be auxiliaries; others
again to be husbandmen and craftsmen, and these were formed by him of
brass and iron. But as they are all sprung from a common stock, a golden
parent may have a silver son, or a silver parent a golden son, and then
there must be a change of rank; the son of the rich must descend, and
the child of the artisan rise, in the social scale; for an oracle says
'that the State will come to an end if governed by a man of brass or
iron.' Will our citizens ever believe all this? 'Not in the present
generation, but in the next, perhaps, Yes.'

Now let the earthborn men go forth under the command of their rulers,
and look about and pitch their camp in a high place, which will be safe
against enemies from without, and likewise against insurrections from
within. There let them sacrifice and set up their tents; for soldiers
they are to be and not shopkeepers, the watchdogs and guardians of the
sheep; and luxury and avarice will turn them into wolves and tyrants.
Their habits and their dwellings should correspond to their education.
They should have no property; their pay should only meet their expenses;
and they should have common meals. Gold and silver we will tell them
that they have from God, and this divine gift in their souls they must
not alloy with that earthly dross which passes under the name of gold.
They only of the citizens may not touch it, or be under the same roof
with it, or drink from it; it is the accursed thing. Should they
ever acquire houses or lands or money of their own, they will become
householders and tradesmen instead of guardians, enemies and tyrants
instead of helpers, and the hour of ruin, both to themselves and the
rest of the State, will be at hand.

The religious and ethical aspect of Plato's education will hereafter
be considered under a separate head. Some lesser points may be more
conveniently noticed in this place.

1. The constant appeal to the authority of Homer, whom, with grave
irony, Plato, after the man