Pagina 343 de 1391

Observe, too, how grandly Democracy sets her foot upon all our

fine theories of education,-how little she cares for the training

of her statesmen! The only qualification which she demands is the

profession of patriotism. Such is democracy;-a pleasing, lawless,

various sort of government, distributing equality to equals and

unequals alike.

Let us now inspect the individual democrat; and first, as in the

case of the State, we will trace his antecedents. He is the son

of a miserly oligarch, and has been taught by him to restrain the

love of unnecessary pleasures. Perhaps I ought to explain this

latter term:-Necessary pleasures are those which are good, and

which we cannot do without; unnecessary pleasures are those which

do no good, and of which the desire might be eradicated by early

training. For example, the pleasures of eating and drinking are

necessary and healthy, up to a certain point; beyond that point

they are alike hurtful to body and mind, and the excess may be

avoided. When in excess, they may be rightly called expensive

pleasures, in opposition to the useful ones. And the drone, as we

called him, is the slave of these unnecessary pleasures and

desires, whereas the miserly oligarch is subject only to the

necessary.