No Response<br><br>-
The next question is, Who are to be our rulers? First, the elder must
rule the younger; and the best of the elders will be the best guardians.
Now they will be the best who love their subjects most, and think that
they have a common interest with them in the welfare of the state. These
we must select; but they must be watched at every epoch of life to see
whether they have retained the same opinions and held out against force
and enchantment. For time and persuasion and the love of pleasure may
enchant a man into a change of purpose, and the force of grief and pain
may compel him. And therefore our guardians must be men who have been
tried by many tests, like gold in the refiner's fire, and have been
passed first through danger, then through pleasure, and at every age
have come out of such trials victorious and without stain, in full
command of themselves and their principles; having all their faculties
in harmonious exercise for their country's good. These shall receive the
highest honours both in life and death. (It would perhaps be better to
confine the term 'guardians' to this select class: the younger men may
be called 'auxiliaries.')