Pagina 890 de 1391

Suppose that we were painting a statue, and some one came up to

us and said, Why do you not put the most beautiful colours on the

most beautiful parts of the body-the eyes ought to be purple, but

you have made them black-to him we might fairly answer, Sir, you

would not surely have us beautify the eyes to such a degree that

they are no longer eyes; consider rather whether, by giving this

and the other features their due proportion, we make the whole

beautiful. And so I say to you, do not compel us to assign to the

guardians a sort of happiness which will make them anything but

guardians; for we too can clothe our husbandmen in royal apparel,

and set crowns of gold on their heads, and bid them till the

ground as much as they like, and no more.