REPUBLIC(BOOKV) 107
“Then do you breed from all of them alike, or are you eager to breed as much as
possible from the best ones?”
“From the best ones.”
“And then what? From the youngest, or from the oldest, or as much as possible
from those in their prime?”
“From those in their prime.”
“And if they weren’t bred that way, do you expect the race of birds or of dogs
would be much worse?”
“I do,” he said.
“And what do you suppose about horses,” I said, “and the rest of the animals?
That it would be any different?”
“That would certainly be strange,” he said.
“Ayayay, dear comrade,” I said, “how greatly in need we are, then, of top-notch
rulers if it’s also the same way with the human race.”
“Well it is the same way,” he said, “but what does that have to do with the rulers?”
“There’ll be a necessity,” I said, “for them to use a lot of medicines. Presumably
we believe that for bodies that don’t need medicines, those of people willing to follow a
prescribed way of life, even a rather ordinary doctor is sufficient; but when there’s a
need to use medicine, we know that a more courageous doctor is needed.”
“True, but what point are you making?”
“This one,” I said: “our rulers are liable to need to use falsehood and deception in
abundance for the benefit of those they rule. And we claimed, of course, that all that sort
of thing is useful in the form of medicine.”
“And rightly so,” he said.
“Well, it seems like it’s not least in the marriages and procreation that this right-
ness comes into play.”
“How so?”
“It follows from the things that have been agreed to,” I said, “that as often as pos-
sible the best men ought to have sex with the best women, and the worst on the contrary
with the worst, and the offspring of the former ought to be reared, but not those of the
latter, if the flock is going to be of top quality to the highest degree possible. And all
these things ought to happen without the notice of anyone except the rulers themselves,
if the guardians’ herd is also going to be as free as possible of internal conflict.”
“With the utmost rightness,” he said.
“Then don’t some sort of festivals and sacrifices need to be set up by law, in
which we’ll bring together the brides and grooms, and suitable hymns need to be made
by our poets for the marriages that take place? We’ll make the number of marriages be
up to the rulers, in order that they might preserve the same number of men as much as
they can, having regard to wars, diseases, and everything of the sort, and in order that,
as far as possible, our city might not become either big or little.”
“Rightly,” he said.
“I imagine some ingenious lotteries need to be made up, so that the ordinary man
mentioned before will blame chance and not the rulers for each marriage pairing.”
“Very much so,” he said.
“And presumably those among the young men who are good in war or anywhere
else need to be given special honors and prizes, and among other things a more unre-
stricted privilege to sleep with the women, so that on this pretext, as great a number of
children as possible would also at the same time be begotten by such people.”
“Rightly so.”
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