ung man compares this
spirit with his father's words and ways, and as he is naturally well
disposed, although he has suffered from evil influences, he rests at a
middle point and becomes ambitious and a lover of honour.

And now let us set another city over against another man. The next form
of government is oligarchy, in which the rule is of the rich only; nor
is it difficult to see how such a State arises. The decline begins with
the possession of gold and silver; illegal modes of expenditure are
invented; one draws another on, and the multitude are infected; riches
outweigh virtue; lovers of money take the place of lovers of honour;
misers of politicians; and, in time, political privileges are confined
by law to the rich, who do not shrink from violence in order to effect
their purposes.

Thus much of the origin,--let us next consider the evils of oligarchy.
Would a man who wanted to be safe on a voyage take a bad pilot because
he was rich, or refuse a good one because he was poor? And does not the
analogy apply still more to the State? And there are yet greater evils:
two nations are struggling together in one--the rich and the poor; and
the rich dare not put arms into the hands of the poor, and are unwilling
to pay for defenders out of their own money. And have we not already
condemned that State in which the same persons are warriors as well
as shopkeepers? The greatest evil of all is that a man may sell his
property and have no place in the State; while there is one class which
has enormous wealth, the other is entirely destitute. But observe that
these destitutes had not really any more of the governing nature in them
when they were rich than now that they are poor; they were miserable
spendthrifts always. They are the drones of the hive; only whereas the
actual drone is unprovided by nature with a sting, the two-legged things
whom we call drones are some of them without stings and some of them
have dreadful stings; in other words, there are paupers and there are
rogues. These are never far apart; and in oligarchical cities, where
nearly everybody is a pauper who is not a ruler, you will find abundance
of both. And this evil state of society originates in bad education and
bad government.

Like State, like man,--the change in the latter begins with the
representative of timocracy; he walks at first in the ways of his
father, who may have been a statesman, or general, perhaps; and
presently he sees him 'fallen