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True, I replied, but there is more coming; I have only told you

half. Citizens, we shall say to them in our tale, you are

brothers, yet God has framed you differently. Some of you have

the power of command, and in the composition of these he has

mingled gold, wherefore also they have the greatest honour;

others he has made of silver, to be auxiliaries; others again who

are to be husbandmen and craftsmen he has composed of brass and

iron; and the species will generally be preserved in the

children. But as all are of the same original stock, a golden

parent will sometimes have a silver son, or a silver parent a

golden son. And God proclaims as a first principle to the rulers,

and above all else, that there is nothing which they should so

anxiously guard, or of which they are to be such good guardians,

as of the purity of the race.