صفحة 133 من 1391

The next question is, Who are to be our rulers? First, the elder

must rule the younger; and the best of the elders will be the

best guardians. Now they will be the best who love their subjects

most, and think that they have a common interest with them in the

welfare of the state. These we must select; but they must be

watched at every epoch of life to see whether they have retained

the same opinions and held out against force and enchantment. For

time and persuasion and the love of pleasure may enchant a man

into a change of purpose, and the force of grief and pain may

compel him. And therefore our guardians must be men who have been

tried by many tests, like gold in the refiner's fire, and have

been passed first through danger, then through pleasure, and at

every age have come out of such trials victorious and without

stain, in full command of themselves and their principles; having

all their faculties in harmonious exercise for their country's

good.