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loves.
As we have said, then, he who is to be good must be well nurtured and trained, and
thereafter must continue in a like excellent way of life, and must never, either
voluntarily or involuntarily, do anything vile; and this can only be effected if men live
subject to some kind of reason and proper regimen, backed by force.
Now, the paternal rule has not the requisite force or power of compulsion, nor has the
rule of any individual, unless he be a king or something like one; but the law has a
compulsory power, and at the same time is a rational ordinance proceeding from a
kind of prudence or reason.* And whereas we take offence at individuals who oppose
our inclinations, even though their opposition is right, we do not feel aggrieved when
the law bids us do what is right.
But Sparta is the only, or almost the only, state where the legislator seems to have
paid attention to the nurture and mode of life of the citizens. In most states these
matters are entirely neglected, and each man lives as he likes, ruling wife and children
in Cyclopean fashion.
It would be best, then, that the regulation of these matters should be undertaken and
properly carried out by the state; but as the state neglects it, it would seem that we
should each individually help our own children or friends on the road to virtue, and
should have the power or at least the will to do this.!
Now, it would seem from what has been said that to enable one to do this the best
plan would be to learn how to legislate. For state training is carried on by means of
laws, and is good when the laws are good; but it would seem to make no difference
whether the laws be written or unwritten, nor whether they regulate the education of
one person or many, any more than it does in the case of music, or gymnastics, or any
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other course of training. For as in the state that prevails which is ordained by law and
morality, so in the household that which is ordained by the word of the father of the
family and by custom prevails no less, or even more, because of the ties of kinship
and of obligation; for affection and obedience are already implanted by nature in the
members of the family.
Moreover, in spite of what has just been said, individual treatment is better than
treatment by masses, in education no less than in medicine. As a general rule, repose
and fasting are good for a fever patient, but in a particular case they may not be good.
A teacher of boxing, I suppose, does not recommend every one to adopt the same
style. It would seem, then, that individuals are educated more perfectly under a system
of private education; for then each gets more precisely what he needs.
But you will best be able to treat an individual case (whether you are a doctor, or a
trainer, or anything else) when you know the general rule, Such and such a thing is
good for all men, or for all of a certain temperament; for science is said to deal,
and does deal, with that which is common to a number of individuals.
I do not mean to deny that it may be quite possible to treat an individual well, even
without any scientific knowledge, if you know precisely by experience the effect of
particular causes upon him, just as some men seem to be able to treat themselves
better than any doctor, though they would be quite unable to prescribe for another
person.
But, nevertheless, I venture to say that if a man wishes to master any art, or to gain a
scientific knowledge of it, he must advance to its general principles, and make himself
acquainted with them in the proper method; for, as we have said, it is with universal
propositions that the sciences deal.
And so I think that he who wishes to make men better by training (whether many or
few) should try to acquire the art or science of legislation, supposing that men may be
made good by the agency of law. For fairly to mould the character of any person that
may present himself is not a thing that can be done by anybody, but (if at all) only by
him who has knowledge, just as is the case in medicine and other professions where
careful treatment and prudence are required.
Our next business, then, I think, is to inquire from whom or by what means we are to
learn the science or art of legislation.
As we learn the other arts, it will be said, i.e. from the politicians who practise it:
for we found that legislation is a part of politics.
But I think the case is not quite the same with politics as with the other sciences and
arts. For in other cases it is plain that the same people communicate the art and
practise it, as physicians and painters do. But in the case of politics, while the sophists
profess to teach the art, it is never they that practise it, but the statesmen. And the
statesmen would seem to act by some instinctive faculty, proceeding empirically
rather than by reasoning. For it is plain that they never write or speak about these
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matters (though perhaps that were better than making speeches in the courts or the
assembly), and have never communicated the art to their sons or to any of their
friends. And yet we might expect that they would have done so if they could; for they
could have left no better legacy to their country, nor have chosen anything more
precious than this power as a possession for themselves, and, therefore, for those
dearest to them.
Experience, however, seems, we must allow, to be of great service here; for otherwise
people would never become statesmen by familiarity with politics. Those who wish
for a knowledge of statesmanship, then, seem to need experience [as well as theory].
But those sophists who profess to teach statesmanship seem to be ludicrously
incapable of fulfilling their promises: for, to speak roundly, they do not even know
what it is or what it deals with. If they did know, they would not make it identical
with rhetoric, or inferior to it, nor would they think it was easy to frame a system of
laws when you had made a collection of the most approved of existing laws. It is but
a matter of picking out the best, they say, ignoring the fact that this selection requires
understanding, and that to judge correctly is a matter of the greatest difficulty here, as
in music. Those who have special experience in any department can pass a correct
judgment upon the result, and understand how and by what means it is produced, and
what combinations are harmonious; but those who have no special experience must be
content if they are able to say whether the result is good or bad as, for instance, in
the case of painting. Now, laws are the work or result, so to speak, of statesmanship.
How then could a collection of laws make a man able to legislate, or to pick out the
best of the collection?
Even the art of healing, it seems, can not be taught by compendia. And yet the
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