Laws eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 837 pages of information about Laws.

Laws eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 837 pages of information about Laws.
as they are called, to us, the Gods, who, as we say, have been appointed to be our companions in the dance, have given the pleasurable sense of harmony and rhythm; and so they stir us into life, and we follow them, joining hands together in dances and songs; and these they call choruses, which is a term naturally expressive of cheerfulness.  Shall we begin, then, with the acknowledgment that education is first given through Apollo and the Muses?  What do you say?

Cleinias:  I assent.

Athenian:  And the uneducated is he who has not been trained in the chorus, and the educated is he who has been well trained?

Cleinias:  Certainly.

Athenian:  And the chorus is made up of two parts, dance and song?

Cleinias:  True.

Athenian:  Then he who is well educated will be able to sing and dance well?

Cleinias:  I suppose that he will.

Athenian:  Let us see; what are we saying?

Cleinias:  What?

Athenian:  He sings well and dances well; now must we add that he sings what is good and dances what is good?

Cleinias:  Let us make the addition.

Athenian:  We will suppose that he knows the good to be good, and the bad to be bad, and makes use of them accordingly:  which now is the better trained in dancing and music—­he who is able to move his body and to use his voice in what is understood to be the right manner, but has no delight in good or hatred of evil; or he who is incorrect in gesture and voice, but is right in his sense of pleasure and pain, and welcomes what is good, and is offended at what is evil?

Cleinias:  There is a great difference, Stranger, in the two kinds of education.

Athenian:  If we three know what is good in song and dance, then we truly know also who is educated and who is uneducated; but if not, then we certainly shall not know wherein lies the safeguard of education, and whether there is any or not.

Cleinias:  True.

Athenian:  Let us follow the scent like hounds, and go in pursuit of beauty of figure, and melody, and song, and dance; if these escape us, there will be no use in talking about true education, whether Hellenic or barbarian.

Cleinias:  Yes.

Athenian:  And what is beauty of figure, or beautiful melody?  When a manly soul is in trouble, and when a cowardly soul is in similar case, are they likely to use the same figures and gestures, or to give utterance to the same sounds?

Cleinias:  How can they, when the very colours of their faces differ?

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Laws from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.