Athenian Stranger. And now we have to consider whether the insightinto human nature is the only benefit derived from well orderedpotations, or whether there are not other advantages great and much tobe desired. The argument seems to imply that there are. But how and inwhat way these are to be attained, will have to be consideredattentively, or we may be entangled in error.
Cleinias. Proceed.
Ath. Let me once more recall our doctrine of right education; which,if I am not mistaken, depends on the due regulation of convivialintercourse.
Cle. You talk rather grandly.
Ath. Pleasure and pain I maintain to be the first perceptions ofchildren, and I say that they are the forms under which virtue andvice are originally present to them. As to wisdom and true and fixedopinions, happy is the man who acquires them, even when declining inyears; and we may say that he who possesses them, and the blessingswhich are contained in them, is a perfect man. Now I mean by educationthat training which is given by suitable habits to the first instinctsof virtue in children;-when pleasure, and friendship, and pain, andhatred, are rightly implanted in souls not yet capable ofunderstanding the nature of them, and who find them, after they haveattained reason, to be in harmony with her. This harmony of thesoul, taken as a whole, is virtue; but the particular training inrespect of pleasure and pain, which leads you always to hate whatyou ought to hate, and love what you ought to love from thebeginning of life to the end, may be separated off; and, in my view,will be rightly called education.
Cle. I think, Stranger, that you are quite right in all that youhave said and are saying about education.
Ath. I am glad to hear that you agree with me; for, indeed, thediscipline of pleasure and pain which, when rightly ordered, is aprinciple of education, has been often relaxed and corrupted inhuman life. And the Gods, pitying the toils which our race is bornto undergo, have appointed holy festivals, wherein men alternaterest with labour; and have given them the Muses and Apollo, the leaderof the Muses, and Dionysus, to be companions in their revels, thatthey may improve their education by taking part in the festivals ofthe Gods, and with their help. I should like to know whether acommon saying is in our opinion true to nature or not. For men saythat the young of all creatures cannot be quiet in their bodies orin their voices; they are always wanting to move and cry out; someleaping and skipping, and overflowing with sportiveness and delight atsomething, others uttering all sorts of cries. But, whereas theanimals have no perception of order or disorder in their movements,that is, of rhythm or harmony, as they are called, to us, the Gods,who, as we say, have been appointed to be our companions in the dance,have given the pleasurable sense of harmony and rhythm; and so theystir us into life, and we follow them, joining hands together indances and songs; and these they call choruses, which is a termnaturally expressive of cheerfulness. Shall we begin, then, with theacknowledgment that education is first given through Apollo and theMuses? What do you say?
Cle. I assent.
Ath. And the uneducated is he who has not been trained in thechorus, and the educated is he who has been well trained?
Cle. Certainly.
Ath. And the chorus is made up of two parts, dance and song?
Cle. True.
Ath. Then he who is well educated will be able to sing and dancewell?
Cle. I suppose that he will.
Ath. Let us see; what are we saying?
Cle. What?
Ath. He sings well and dances well; now must we add that he singswhat is good and dances what is good?
Cle. Let us make the addition.
Ath. We will suppose that he knows the good to be good, and thebad to be bad, and makes use of them accordingly: which now is thebetter trained in dancing and music-he who is able to move his bodyand to use his voice in what is understood to be the right manner, buthas no delight in good or hatred of evil; or he who is incorrect ingesture and voice, but is right in his sense of pleasure and pain, andwelcomes what is good, and is offended at what is evil?
Cle. There is a great difference, Stranger, in the two kinds ofeducation.
Ath. If we three know what is good in song and dance, then wetruly know also who is educated and who is uneducated; but if not,then we certainly shall not know wherein lies the safeguard ofeducation, and whether there is any or not.
Cle. True.
Ath. Let us follow the scent like hounds, and go in pursuit ofbeauty of figure, and melody, and song, and dance; if these escape us,there will be no use in talking about true education, whether Hellenicor barbarian.
Cle. Yes.
Ath. And what is beauty of figure, or beautiful melody? When a manlysoul is in trouble, and when a cowardly soul is in similar case, arethey likely to use the same figures and gestures, or to give utteranceto the same sounds?
Cle. How can they, when the very colours of their faces differ?
Ath. Good, my friend; I may observe, however, in passing, that inmusic there certainly are figures and there are melodies: and music isconcerned with harmony and rhythm, so that you may speak of a melodyor figure having good rhythm or good harmony-the term is correctenough; but to speak metaphorically of a melody or figure having a"good colour," as the masters of choruses do, is not allowable,although you can speak of the melodies or figures of the brave and thecoward, praising the one and censuring the other. And not to betedious, let us say that the figures and melodies which are expressiveof virtue of soul or body, or of images of virtue, are withoutexception good, and those which are expressive of vice are the reverseof good.
Cle. Your suggestion is excellent; and let us answer that thesethings are so.
Ath. Once more, are all of us equally delighted with every sort ofdance?
Cle. Far otherwise.