beautiful parts of the body--the eyes ought to be purple, but you have
made them black--to him we might fairly answer, Sir, you would not
surely have us beautify the eyes to such a degree that they are no
longer eyes; consider rather whether, by giving this and the other
features their due proportion, we make the whole beautiful. And so I say
to you, do not compel us to assign to the guardians a sort of happiness
which will make them anything but guardians; for we too can clothe our
husbandmen in royal apparel, and set crowns of gold on their heads, and
bid them till the ground as much as they like, and no more. Our potters
also might be allowed to repose on couches, and feast by the fireside,
passing round the winecup, while their wheel is conveniently at hand,
and working at pottery only as much as they like; in this way we might
make every class happy--and then, as you imagine, the whole State would
be happy. But do not put this idea into our heads; for, if we listen
to you, the husbandman will be no longer a husbandman, the potter will
cease to be a potter, and no one will have the character of any distinct
class in the State. Now this is not of much consequence where the
corruption of society, and pretension to be what you are not, is
confined to cobblers; but when the guardians of the laws and of the
government are only seeming and not real guardians, then see how they
turn the State upside down; and on the other hand they alone have the
power of giving order and happiness to the State. We mean our guardians
to be true saviours and not the destroyers of the State, whereas our
opponent is thinking of peasants at a festival, who are enjoying a life
of revelry, not of citizens who are doing their duty to the State. But,
if so, we mean different things, and he is speaking of something which
is not a State. And therefore we must consider whether in appointing
our guardians we would look to their greatest happiness individually, or
whether this principle of happiness does not rather reside in the State
as a whole. But if the latter be the truth, then the guardians and
auxiliaries, and all others equally with them, must be compelled or
induced to do their own work in the best way. And thus the whole State
will grow up in a noble order, and the several classes will receive the
proportion of happiness which nature assigns to them.

I think that you are quite right.

I wonder whether you will agree with another remark whi