Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/446

416 416 ΡΣΛ TO

Then, I said, the business of us who are the found- ers of the State will be to compel the best minds to attain that knowledge which we have already shown to be the greatest of all — they must continue to as- cend until they arrive at the good ; but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they do now.

What do you mean ?

I mean that they remain in the upper world ; but this must not be allowed ; they must be made to de- scend again among the prisoners in the den, and par- take of their labors and honors, whether they are worth having or not.

But is not this unjust ? he said ; ought we to give them a worse life, when they might have a better ?

You have again forgotten, my friend, I said, the in- tention of the legislator, who did not aim at making any one class in the State happy above the rest ; the happiness was to be in the whole State, and he held the citizens together by persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State, and therefore benefactors of one another ; to this end he created them, not to please themselves, but to be his instru- ments in binding up the State.