he gentle principle within him, and making an
alliance with the lion heart, in order that he may be able to keep down
the many-headed hydra, and bring all into unity with each other and
with themselves. Thus in every point of view, whether in relation to
pleasure, honour, or advantage, the just man is right, and the unjust
wrong.
But now, let us reason with the unjust, who is not intentionally in
error. Is not the noble that which subjects the beast to the man, or
rather to the God in man; the ignoble, that which subjects the man to
the beast? And if so, who would receive gold on condition that he was to
degrade the noblest part of himself under the worst?--who would sell his
son or daughter into the hands of brutal and evil men, for any amount
of money? And will he sell his own fairer and diviner part without any
compunction to the most godless and foul? Would he not be worse than
Eriphyle, who sold her husband's life for a necklace? And intemperance
is the letting loose of the multiform monster, and pride and sullenness
are the growth and increase of the lion and serpent element, while
luxury and effeminacy are caused by a too great relaxation of spirit.
Flattery and meanness again arise when the spirited element is subjected
to avarice, and the lion is habituated to become a monkey. The real
disgrace of handicraft arts is, that those who are engaged in them have
to flatter, instead of mastering their desires; therefore we say that
they should be placed under the control of the better principle in
another because they have none in themselves; not, as Thrasymachus
imagined, to the injury of the subjects, but for their good. And our
intention in educating the young, is to give them self-control; the
law desires to nurse up in them a higher principle, and when they have
acquired this, they may go their ways.
'What, then, shall a man profit, if he gain the whole world' and become
more and more wicked? Or what shall he profit by escaping discovery, if
the concealment of evil prevents the cure? If he had been punished,
the brute within him would have been silenced, and the gentler element
liberated; and he would have united temperance, justice, and wisdom in
his soul--a union better far than any combination of bodily gifts. The
man of understanding will honour knowledge above all; in the next
place he will keep under his body, not only for the sake of health and
strength, but in order to attain the most perfect harmony o
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