STRANGER: Then while we are at unity among STRANGER: Why, does not the retailer receive and ourselves, we need not mind about the fancies of sell over again the productions of others, which have others?
been sold before?
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly not.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly he does.
STRANGER: And now, in which of these divisions STRANGER: And is not the herald under command, shall we place the king?—Is he a judge and a kind and does he not receive orders, and in his turn give of spectator? Or shall we assign to him the art of them to others?
command—for he is a ruler?
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very true.
YOUNG SOCRATES: The latter, clearly.
STRANGER: Then shall we mingle the kingly art STRANGER: Then we must see whether there is in the same class with the art of the herald, the any mark of division in the art of command too. I interpreter, the boatswain, the prophet, and the am inclined to think that there is a distinction simi-numerous kindred arts which exercise command; lar to that of manufacturer and retail dealer, which or, as in the preceding comparison we spoke of parts off the king from the herald.
manufacturers, or sellers for themselves, and of retailers,—seeing, too, that the class of supreme rul-YOUNG SOCRATES: How is this?
ers, or rulers for themselves, is almost nameless—
shall we make a word following the same analogy, 55
Statesman
and refer kings to a supreme or ruling-for-self sci-command for the sake of producing something?
ence, leaving the rest to receive a name from some one else? For we are seeking the ruler; and our en-YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly.
quiry is not concerned with him who is not a ruler.
STRANGER: Nor is there any difficulty in divid-YOUNG SOCRATES: Very good.
ing the things produced into two classes.
STRANGER: Thus a very fair distinction has been YOUNG SOCRATES: How would you divide them?
attained between the man who gives his own commands, and him who gives another’s. And now let STRANGER: Of the whole class, some have life and us see if the supreme power allows of any further some are without life.
division.
YOUNG SOCRATES: True.
YOUNG SOCRATES: By all means.
STRANGER: And by the help of this distinction STRANGER: I think that it does; and please to as-we may make, if we please, a subdivision of the sist me in making the division.
section of knowledge which commands.
YOUNG SOCRATES: At what point?
YOUNG SOCRATES: At what point?
STRANGER: May not all rulers be supposed to STRANGER: One part may be set over the produc-56
Plato
tion of lifeless, the other of living objects; and in STRANGER: And the breeding and tending of liv-this way the whole will be divided.
ing beings may be observed to be sometimes a tending of the individual; in other cases, a common care YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly.
of creatures in flocks?
STRANGER: That division, then, is complete; and YOUNG SOCRATES: True.
now we may leave one half, and take up the other; which may also be divided into two.
STRANGER: But the statesman is not a tender of individuals—not like the driver or groom of a single YOUNG SOCRATES: Which of the two halves do ox or horse; he is rather to be compared with the you mean?
keeper of a drove of horses or oxen.
STRANGER: Of course that which exercises com-YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes, I see, thanks to you.
mand about animals. For, surely, the royal science is not like that of a master-workman, a science pre-STRANGER: Shall we call this art of tending many siding over lifeless objects;—the king has a nobler animals together, the art of managing a herd, or the function, which is the management and control of art of collective management?
living beings.
YOUNG SOCRATES: No matter;—whichever sug-YOUNG SOCRATES: True.
gests itself to us in the course of conversation.