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Then to sum up: This is the point to which, above all, the

attention of our rulers should be directed,-that music and

gymnastic be preserved in their original form, and no innovation

made. They must do their utmost to maintain them intact. And when

any one says that mankind most regard

'The newest song which the singers have,'

they will be afraid that he may be praising, not new songs, but a

new kind of song; and this ought not to be praised, or conceived

to be the meaning of the poet; for any musical innovation is full

of danger to the whole State, and ought to be prohibited. So

Damon tells me, and I can quite believe him;-he says that when

modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always

change with them.

Yes, said Adeimantus; and you may add my suffrage to Damon's and

your own.

Then, I said, our guardians must lay the foundations of their

fortress in music?

Yes, he said; the lawlessness of which you speak too easily

steals in.