Athenian Stranger.And now we have to consider whether the insight into human nature is the only benefit derived from well ordered potations,or whether there are not other advantages great and much to be desired.The argument seems to imply that there are.But how and in what way these are to be attained,will have to be considered attentively,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 convivial intercourse.
Cle.You talk rather grandly.
Ath.Pleasure and pain I maintain to be the first perceptions of children,and I say that they are the forms under which virtue and vice are originally present to them.As to wisdom and true and fixed opinions,happy is the man who acquires them,even when declining in years;and we may say that he who possesses them,and the blessings which are contained in them,is a perfect man.Now I mean by education that training which is given by suitable habits to the first instincts of virtue in children;-when pleasure,and friendship,and pain,and hatred,are rightly implanted in souls not yet capable of 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 tedious,let us say that the figures and melodies which are expressive of virtue of soul or body,or of images of virtue,are without exception good,and those which are expressive of vice are the reverse of good.
Cle.Your suggestion is excellent;and let us answer that these things are so.
Ath.Once more,are all of us equally delighted with every sort of dance?