[519d]
to scale that ascent, and when they have reached
the heights and taken an adequate view, we must not allow what is now
permitted.” “What is that?” “That they
should linger there,” I said, “and refuse to go down
again1 among those bondsmen and share
their labors and honors, whether they are of less or of greater
worth.” “Do you mean to say that we must do them this wrong,
and compel them to live an inferior life when the better is in their
power?”
1 Cf. 539 E and Laws 803 B-C, and on 520 C, Huxley, Evolution and Ethics, p. 53 “the hero of our story descended the bean-stalk and came back to the common world,” etc.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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