understanding the nature of them, and who find them, after they have
attained reason, to be in harmony with her. This harmony of the
soul, taken as a whole, is virtue; but the particular training in
respect of pleasure and pain, which leads you always to hate what
you ought to hate, and love what you ought to love from the
beginning 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 you
have said and are saying about education.

  Ath. I am glad to hear that you agree with me; for, indeed, the
discipline of pleasure and pain which, when rightly ordered, is a
principle of education, has been often relaxed and corrupted in
human life. And the Gods, pitying the toils which our race is born
to undergo, have appointed holy festivals, wherein men alternate
rest with labour; and have given them the Muses and Apollo, the leader
of the Muses, and Dionysus, to be companions in their revels, that
they may improve their education by taking part in the festivals of
the Gods, and with their help. I should like to know whether a
common saying is in our opinion true to nature or not. For men say
that the young of all creatures cannot be quiet in their bodies or
in their voices; they are always wanting to move and cry out; some
leaping and skipping, and overflowing with sportiveness and delight at
something, others uttering all sorts of cries. But, whereas the
animals 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 they
stir us into life, and we follow them, joining hands together in
dances and songs; and these they call choruses, which is a term
naturally expressive of cheerfulness. Shall we begin, then, with the
acknowledgment that education is first given through Apollo and the
Muses? What do you say?

  Cle. I assent.

  Ath. And the uneducated is he who has not been trained in the
chorus, 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 dance
well?

  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 sings
what 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 the
bad to be bad, and makes use of them accordingly: which now is the
better trained in dancing and music-he who is able to move his body
and to use his voice in what is understood to be the right manner, but
has no delight in good or hatred of evil; or he who is incorrect in
gesture and voice, but is right in his sense of pleasure and pain, and
welcomes what is good, and is offended at what is evil?

  Cle. There is a great difference, Stranger, in the two kinds of
education.

  Ath. If we three know what is good in song and dance, then we
truly know also who is educated and who is uneducated; but if not,
then we certainly shall not know wherein lies the safeguard of
education, and whether there is any or not.

  Cle. True.

  Ath. Let us follow the scent like hounds, and go in pursuit of
beauty of figure, and melody, and song, and dance; if these escape us,
there will be no use in talking about true education, whether Hellenic
or barbarian.

  Cle. Yes.

  Ath. And what is beauty of figure, or beautiful melody? When a manly
soul is in trouble, and when a cowardly soul is in similar case, are
they likely to use the same figures and gestures, or to give utterance
to 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 in
music there certainly are figures and there are melodies: and music is
concerned with harmony and rhythm, so that you may speak of a melody
or figure having good rhythm or good harmony-the term is correct
enough; 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 the
coward, praising the one and censuring the other. And not to be