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The subject is then changed and the old quarrel of poetry and

philosophy which had been more lightly treated in the earlier

books of the Republic is now resumed and fought out to a

conclusion. Poetry is discovered to be an imitation thrice

removed from the truth, and Homer, as well as the dramatic poets,

having been condemned as an imitator, is sent into banishment

along with them. And the idea of the State is supplemented by the

revelation of a future life.