Pagina 438 van 1391

He then placed on the ground before them the samples of lives,

many more than the souls present; and there were all sorts of

lives, of men and of animals. There were tyrannies ending in

misery and exile, and lives of men and women famous for their

different qualities; and also mixed lives, made up of wealth and

poverty, sickness and health. Here, Glaucon, is the great risk of

human life, and therefore the whole of education should be

directed to the acquisition of such a knowledge as will teach a

man to refuse the evil and choose the good. He should know all

the combinations which occur in life-of beauty with poverty or

with wealth,-of knowledge with external goods,-and at last choose

with reference to the nature of the soul, regarding that only as

the better life which makes men better, and leaving the rest.