is a further lesson
taught by this parable of ours. Some persons fancy that instruction is
like giving eyes to the blind, but we say that the faculty of sight was
always there, and that the soul only requires to be turned round towards
the light. And this is conversion; other virtues are almost like bodily
habits, and may be acquired in the same manner, but intelligence has
a diviner life, and is indestructible, turning either to good or evil
according to the direction given. Did you never observe how the mind of
a clever rogue peers out of his eyes, and the more clearly he sees, the
more evil he does? Now if you take such an one, and cut away from him
those leaden weights of pleasure and desire which bind his soul to
earth, his intelligence will be turned round, and he will behold the
truth as clearly as he now discerns his meaner ends. And have we not
decided that our rulers must neither be so uneducated as to have no
fixed rule of life, nor so over-educated as to be unwilling to leave
their paradise for the business of the world? We must choose out
therefore the natures who are most likely to ascend to the light and
knowledge of the good; but we must not allow them to remain in the
region of light; they must be forced down again among the captives in
the den to partake of their labours and honours. 'Will they not think
this a hardship?' You should remember that our purpose in framing the
State was not that our citizens should do what they like, but that they
should serve the State for the common good of all. May we not fairly
say to our philosopher,--Friend, we do you no wrong; for in other States
philosophy grows wild, and a wild plant owes nothing to the gardener,
but you have been trained by us to be the rulers and kings of our hive,
and therefore we must insist on your descending into the den. You must,
each of you, take your turn, and become able to use your eyes in the
dark, and with a little practice you will see far better than those who
quarrel about the shadows, whose knowledge is a dream only, whilst yours
is a waking reality. It may be that the saint or philosopher who is best
fitted, may also be the least inclined to rule, but necessity is laid
upon him, and he must no longer live in the heaven of ideas. And this
will be the salvation of the State. For those who rule must not be those
who are desirous to rule; and, if you can offer to our citizens a better
life than that of rulers generally is, there will