Young Socrates: Yes.
Stranger: The division made no difference when we were looking for the perfect State, as we showed before. But now that this has been separated off, and, as we said, the others alone are left for us, the principle of law and the absence of law will bisect them all.
Young Socrates: That would seem to follow, from what has been said.
Stranger: Then monarchy, when bound by good prescriptions or laws, is the best of all the six, and when lawless is the most bitter and oppressive to the subject.
Young Socrates: True.
Stranger: The government of the few, which is intermediate between that of the one and many, is also intermediate in good and evil; but the government of the many is in every respect weak and unable to do either any great good or any great evil, when compared with the others, because the offices are too minutely subdivided and too many hold them. And this therefore is the worst of all lawful governments, and the best of all lawless ones. If they are all without the restraints of law, democracy is the form in which to live is best; if they are well ordered, then this is the last which you should choose, as royalty, the first form, is the best, with the exception of the seventh, for that excels them all, and is among States what God is among men.
Young Socrates: You are quite right, and we should choose that above all.
Stranger: The members of all these States, with the exception of the one which has knowledge, may be set aside as being not Statesmen but partisans—upholders of the most monstrous idols, and themselves idols; and, being the greatest imitators and magicians, they are also the greatest of Sophists.
Young Socrates: The name of Sophist after many windings in the argument appears to have been most justly fixed upon the politicians, as they are termed.
Stranger: And so our satyric drama has been played out; and the troop of Centaurs and Satyrs, however unwilling to leave the stage, have at last been separated from the political science.
Young Socrates: So I perceive.
Stranger: There remain, however, natures still more troublesome, because they are more nearly akin to the king, and more difficult to discern; the examination of them may be compared to the process of refining gold.
Young Socrates: What is your meaning?
Stranger: The workmen begin by sifting away the earth and stones and the like; there remain in a confused mass the valuable elements akin to gold, which can only be separated by fire—copper, silver, and other precious metal; these are at last refined away by the use of tests, until the gold is left quite pure.
Young Socrates: Yes, that is the way in which these things are said to be done.
Stranger: In like manner, all alien and uncongenial matter has been separated from political science, and what is precious and of a kindred nature has been left; there remain the nobler arts of the general and the judge, and the higher sort of oratory which is an ally of the royal art, and persuades men to do justice, and assists in guiding the helm of States:—How can we best clear away all these, leaving him whom we seek alone and unalloyed?
Young Socrates: That is obviously what has in some way to be attempted.
Stranger: If the attempt is all that is wanting, he shall certainly be brought to light; and I think that the illustration of music may assist in exhibiting him. Please to answer me a question.
Young Socrates: What question?
Stranger: There is such a thing as learning music or handicraft arts in general?
Young Socrates: There is.
Stranger: And is there any higher art or science, having power to decide which of these arts are and are not to be learned;—what do you say?
Young Socrates: I should answer that there is.
Stranger: And do we acknowledge this science to be different from the others?
Young Socrates: Yes.