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ποικιλία. II 378 C note 401A - 403C To these canons not only poets but all other artists must conform. We shall admit no artists save only those who are able to track out the nature of the beautiful, and beguile our children even in their earliest years into unconscious harmony with the beauty of reason. The value of a musical training lies in its peculiar power of imparting grace and beauty to the soul. It enables the learner to discriminate between the fair and the foul in other spheres, admitting only that which is beautiful and fair, at first instinctively, but afterwards, when reason comes, with fullest consciousness, and joyful recognition of the beauty to which he is himself akin. No one is truly imbued with musical culture until he can recognise the originals of virtue wherever they are found, as well as their copies everywhere. Such an one will love supremely the union of a beautiful soul with physical beauty, but will let inner beauty atone in part for outward defect, and his passion will be pure from sensual taint. Our account of Music is now ended: for the end of Music is the love of Beauty.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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