this and the neglect of other things, introduces the change in democracy, which occasions a demand for tyranny.

How is that?

When a democracy which is thirsting for freedom has evil cup-bearers presiding over the feast, and has drunk too deeply of the strong wine of freedom, then, unless her rulers are very amenable and give a plentiful draught, she calls them to account and punishes them, and says that they are cursed oligarchs.

Yes, he replied, that is a very common thing.

Yes, I said; and loyal citizens are insulted by her as lovers of slavery and men of naught; she would have subjects who are like rulers, and rulers who are like subjects: these are men after her own heart, whom she praises and honors both in private and public. Now, in such a State, can liberty have any limit?

Certainly not.

Nay, I said, the anarchy grows and finds a way into private houses, and ends by getting among the animals and infecting them.

How do you mean?

I mean that the father gets accustomed to descend to the level of his sons and to fear them, and the son to be on a level with his father, he having no shame or fear of either of his parents; and this is his freedom, and the metic 18 is equal with the citizen and the citizen with the metic, and the stranger on a level with either.

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Yes, he said, that is true.

That is true, I said; and, moreover, little things of this sort happen: the master fears and flatters his scholars, and the scholars despise their masters and tutors; and, in general, young and old are alike, and the young man is on a level with the old, and is ready to compete with him in word or deed; and old men condescend to the young, and are full of pleasantry and gayety; they do not like to be thought morose and authoritative, and therefore they imitate the young.

Quite true, he said.

The last extreme of popular liberty is when the slave bought with money, whether male or female, is just as free as his or

18 Metic (metic): In Athens, a resident alien who paid a certain tax but had no civic rights. (L. and S.)

her purchaser; nor must I forget to tell of the liberty and equality of the two sexes in relation to each other.

Why not, he said, as Eschylus remarks, utter the word which rises to our lips?

Yes, I replied; that is what I am now doing; and I must say that no one who does not know would believe, how much greater is the liberty which animals who are under the dominion of men have in a democracy than in any other State: for truly, the she-dogs, as the proverb says, are as good as their she-mistresses, and the horses and asses come to have a way of marching along with all the rights and dignities of freemen; and they will run at anybody whom they meet in the street if he does not get out of their way: and all things are just ready to burst with liberty.

You tell me, he said, my own dream; for that which you describe often happens to me when I am taking a country walk.

And above all, I said, and as the result of all, see how sensitive the citizens become; they chafe impatiently at the least touch of authority, and at length, as you know, they cease to care even for the laws, written or unwritten; for they will have no one over them.

Yes, he said, that I know quite well.

And this, my friend, I said, is the fair and glorious beginning out of which springs tyranny.

Glorious indeed, he said. But what is the next step?

The ruin of oligarchy is the ruin of democracy; the same disorder intensified by liberty dominates over democracy, the truth being that the excessive increase of anything often causes a reaction in the opposite direction; and this is the case not only in the seasons and in vegetable and animal forms, but above all in forms of government.

That is very likely.

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For excess of liberty, whether in States or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.

Yes, that is the natural order.

Then tyranny naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme form of liberty.

Yes, he said, there is reason in all that.

That, however, was not, as I believe, your question,-you

rather desired to know what is that disorder which is generated alike in oligarchy and democracy, and enslaves both? True, he replied.

Well, I said, I meant to refer to the class of idle spendthrifts, of whom the more courageous are the leaders and the more timid the followers, the same whom we were comparing to drones, some stingless, and others having stings.

A very just comparison, he said.

These two classes are the plagues of every city in which ✔ they are generated, being what phlegm and bile are to the body. And the good physician and lawgiver of the State ought, like the wise bee-master, to keep them at a distance and prevent, if possible, their ever coming in; and if they have anyhow found a way in, then he should have them and their cells cut out as speedily as possible.

Yes, indeed, he said, that he should.

Then, in order that we may see more clearly what we are doing, let us imagine democracy to be divided into three classes, which also exist in fact; for liberty creates drones quite as much in the democratic as in the oligarchical State.

That is true.

But in the democracy they are more intensified.

How is that?

The reason is, that in the oligarchical State, as they are disqualified and driven from power, they cannot train or gather strength; whereas in a democracy they are almost the entire ruling power, and the keener sort speak and act, while the rest sit buzzing about the bema 19 and will not suffer a word to be said on the other side; and hence there is hardly anything in these States which is not their doing.

Very true, he said.

Then there is another class which is divided from the multitude.

What is that?

The richest class, which in a nation of traders is generally the most orderly.

That may be assumed.

They are the most squeezable persons and yield the largest amount of honey to the drones.

19 The platform from which a speaker addressed an assembly.

Why, he said, there is little to be squeezed out of people who have little.

And this is called the wealthy class, and the drones feed upon them.

That is pretty much the case, he said.

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There is also a third class, consisting of working men, who' are not politicians, and have little to live upon. And this, when assembled, is the largest and most powerful class in a democracy. Why, that is true, he said; but then the multitude is seldom willing to meet unless they get a little honey.

And do they not share? I said. Do not their leaders take the estates of the rich, and give to the people as much of them as they can, consistently with keeping the greater part themselves? Why, yes, he said, to that extent the people do share.

And the persons whose property is taken from them are compelled to defend themselves as they best can.

Of course.

And then, although they may have no desire of change, the others charge them with plotting against the State and being friends of oligarchy?

True.

And the end is that when they see the people, not of their own accord, but through ignorance, and because they are deceived by slanderers, seeking to do them wrong, then at last they are forced to become oligarchs in reality, and this is occasioned by the stings of the drones goading them?

Exactly.

Then come impeachments and judgments and trials of one another.

True.

The people have always some one as a champion whom they nurse into greatness.

Yes, that is their way.

And this is the very root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears above ground he is a protector.

Yes, that is quite clear.

How then does a protector begin to change into a tyrant? Clearly when he does what the man is said to do in the tale of the Arcadian temple of Lycæan Zeus.∞

20 Lycæus (ly-se'us): a lofty mountain of Arcadia in southern Greece, was one of the chief seats of the worship of Zeus.

What tale?

The tale is that he who has tasted the entrails of a single human victim minced up with the entrails of other victims is destined to become a wolf. Did you never hear. that ?

O yes.

And the protector of the people is like him, having a mob entirely at his disposal, he is not restrained from shedding the blood of kinsmen; by the favorite method of false accusation he brings them into court and murders them, making the life of man to disappear, and with unholy tongue and lips tasting the blood of kindred; some he kills and others he banishes, at the same time proclaiming abolition of debts and parti566 tion of lands: and after this, what can be his destiny but either to perish at the hands of his enemies, or from being a man to become a wolf-that is a "tyrant?"

That is inevitable.

This, I said, is he who begins to make a party against the rich.

The same.

And then he is driven out, and comes back, in spite of his enemies, a tyrant full made.

That is clear.

And if they are unable to drive him out, or get him condemned to death by public opinion, they form the design of putting him out of the way secretly.

Yes, he said, that is the usual plan.

"Let

Then comes the famous request of a body-guard, which is made by all those who have got thus far in their career, not the people's friend," as they say, "be lost to them." Exactly.

This the people readily grant; all their fears are for himthey have no fear for themselves.

Very true.

And when a man who is wealthy and is also accused of being an enemy of the people sees this, then, my friend, as the oracle said to Croesus,

By pebbly Hermas' shore he flees and rests not, and is not ashamed to be a coward."

21 Part of the reply made by the oracle of Apollo at Delphi to Croesus, king of Lydia, when he inquired of the god whether he should go to war with Cyrus, king of Persia.