erer, whether other
people like or not--the possibility of this union of authority with the
steerer's art has never seriously entered into their thoughts or been
made part of their calling. Now in vessels which are in a state of
mutiny and by sailors who are mutineers, how will the true pilot be
regarded? Will he not be called by them a prater, a star-gazer, a
good-for-nothing?

Of course, said Adeimantus.

Then you will hardly need, I said, to hear the interpretation of the
figure, which describes the true philosopher in his relation to the
State; for you understand already.

Certainly.

Then suppose you now take this parable to the gentleman who is surprised
at finding that philosophers have no honour in their cities; explain
it to him and try to convince him that their having honour would be far
more extraordinary.

I will.

Say to him, that, in deeming the best votaries of philosophy to be
useless to the rest of the world, he is right; but also tell him to
attribute their uselessness to the fault of those who will not use them,
and not to themselves. The pilot should not humbly beg the sailors to be
commanded by him--that is not the order of nature; neither are 'the wise
to go to the doors of the rich'--the ingenious author of this saying
told a lie--but the truth is, that, when a man is ill, whether he
be rich or poor, to the physician he must go, and he who wants to
be governed, to him who is able to govern. The ruler who is good for
anything ought not to beg his subjects to be ruled by him; although
the present governors of mankind are of a different stamp; they may be
justly compared to the mutinous sailors, and the true helmsmen to those
who are called by them good-for-nothings and star-gazers.

Precisely so, he said.

For these reasons, and among men like these, philosophy, the noblest
pursuit of all, is not likely to be much esteemed by those of the
opposite faction; not that the greatest and most lasting injury is done
to her by her opponents, but by her own professing followers, the same
of whom you suppose the accuser to say, that the greater number of them
are arrant rogues, and the best are useless; in which opinion I agreed.

Yes.

And the reason why the good are useless has now been explained?

True.

Then shall we proceed to show that the corruption of the majority is
also unavoidable, and that this is not to be laid to the charge of
philosophy any more than the other?

By all means