[501a]
he said,
“if they perceive that. But tell me, what is the manner of that
sketch you have in mind?” “They will take the city and
the characters of men, as they might a tablet, and first wipe it
clean—1 no easy task. But at any rate you know that
this would be their first point of difference from ordinary reformers, that
they would refuse to take in hand either individual or state or to legislate
before they either received a clean slate or themselves made it
clean.” “And they would be right,” he said.
“And thereafter, do you not think that they would sketch the
figure of the constitution?” “Surely.”
“And then,
1 Cf. Vol. I. on 426 B. This is one of the passages that may be used or misused to class Plato with the radicaIs. Cf. Laws 736 A-B, Polit. 293 D, Euthyphro 2 D-3 A. H. W. Schneider, The Puritan Mind, p. 36, says, “Plato claimed that before his Republic could be established the adult population must be killed off.” Cf. however Vol. I. Introd. p. xxxix, What Plato Said, p. 83, and infra, p. 76, note a on 502 B.
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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