Such, my friend, I said, is the fair and glorious beginning out of which springs tyranny.

Glorious indeed, he said. But what is the next step

The ruin of oligarchy is the ruin of democracy; the same disorder intensified by liberty dominates over democracy, the truth being that the excessive increase of anything often causes 564 a reaction in the opposite direction; and this is the case not only in the seasons and in vegetable and animal forms, but above all in forms of government.

True.

For the excess of liberty, whether in States or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.

Yes, the natural order.

Then tyranny naturally arises out of democracy, and a most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme form of liberty.

As we might expect.

That, however, was not, as I believe, your question-you rather desired to know what is that disorder which is generated alike in oligarchy and democracy, and is the ruin of both?

True, he replied.

Well, I said, I meant to refer to the class of idle spendthrifts, of whom the more courageous are the leaders and the more timid the followers, the same whom we were comparing to drones, some stingless, and others having stings.

A very just comparison.

These two classes are the plagues of every city in which they are generated, being what phlegm and bile are to the body. And the good physician and lawgiver of the State ought, like the wise bee-master, to keep them at a distance and prevent, if possible, their ever coming in; and if they have anyhow found a way in, then he should have them and their cells cut out as speedily as possible.

Yes, indeed, he should.

Then, in order that we may see clearly what we are doing, let us imagine democracy to be divided into three classes, which exist in fact; for in the first place freedom creates rather more drones in the democratic than there were in the oligarchical State. That is true.

But in the democracy they are more intensified.
How so?

Because in the oligarchical State they are disqualified and driven from power, and therefore they cannot train or gather strength; whereas in a democracy they are almost the entire ruling power, and the keener sort speak and act, while the rest sit buzzing about the bema and will not suffer a word to be said on the other side; and hence there is hardly anything in these States which is not their doing.

Very true, he said.

Then there is another class which is always being severed from the mass.

What is that?

2. They are the orderly class, which in a nation of traders is sure to be the richest.

3.

Naturally so.

They are the most squeezable persons and yield the largest amount of honey to the drones.

Why, he said, there is little to be squeezed out of people who have little.

And this is called the wealthy class, and the drones feed upon them.

That is pretty much the case, he said.

There is also a third class of men who work for themselves, not politicians, and having little to live upon. And this, when assembled, is the largest and most powerful class in a democracy. True, he said; but then the multitude is seldom willing to meet unless they get a little honey.

And do they not share? I said. Do not their leaders take as much as they can of the estates of the rich, and give to the people as much as they can consistently with keeping the greater part themselves?

Why, yes, he said, to that extent the people do share.

And the persons whose property is taken from them are compelled to defend themselves before the people as they best can? Of course.

And then, although they may have no desire of change, the others charge them with plotting against the State and being friends of oligarchy?

565

True.

And the end is that when they see the people, not of their own accord, but through ignorance, and because they are deceived by slanderers, seeking to do them wrong, then at last they are forced to become oligarchs in reality whether they wish or no; they are driven to it by the stings of the drones goading them?

Exactly.

Then come impeachments and judgments and trials of one another.

True.

The people have always some champion whom they nurse into greatness.

Yes, that is their way.

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears above ground he is a protector.

Yes, that is quite clear.

How then does a protector begin to change into a tyrant? Clearly when he does what the man is said to do in the tale of the Arcadian temple of Lycaean Zeus.

What tale?

The tale is that he who has tasted the entrails of a single human victim minced up with the entrails of other victims is destined to become a wolf. Did you never hear it?

O yes.

And the protector of the people is like him; having a mob entirely at his disposal, he is not restrained from shedding the blood of kinsmen; by the favourite method of false accusation he brings them into court and murders them, making the life of man to disappear, and with unholy tongue and lips tasting the blood of his fellow citizens; some of whom he kills and others he banishes, at the same time proclaiming abolition of debts and partition of lands: and after this, what can be his 566 destiny but either to perish at the hands of his enemies, or from being a man to become a wolf-that is, a tyrant?

Inevitably.

This, I said, is he who begins to make a party against the rich.

The same.

And then he is driven out and comes back, in spite of his enemies, a tyrant full grown.

That is clear.

And if they are unable to drive him out, or get him condemned to death by public opinion, they form the design of putting him out of the way secretly.

Yes, he said, their usual way.

Then comes the famous request of a body-guard, which is made by all those who have got thus far in their career-'Let not the people's friend,' as they say, 'be lost to them.'

Exactly.

The people readily assent; all their fears are for him-they have no fear for themselves.

Very true.

And when a man who is wealthy and is also accused of being an enemy of the people sees this, then, my friend, as the oracle said to Croesus,

'By pebbly Hermus' shore he flees and rests not, and is not ashamed to be a coward.'

And quite right too, said he, for if he were, he would never be ashamed again.

But if he is caught he dies.

Of course.

And he, the protector of whom we spoke, is not fallen in his might, but himself the overthrower of many, is to be seen standing up in the chariot of State with the reins in his hand, no longer protector, but tyrant absolute.

No doubt, he said.

And now let us talk of the happiness of the man, and also of the State, in which a creature like him is generated.

Yes, he said, let us talk of that.

At first, in the early days of his power, he smiles upon every one and salutes every one;-he to be called a tyrant, who is making promises in public and also in private! liberating debtors, and distributing land to the people and to his followers, and wanting to be kind and good to every one.

Of course, he said.

But when he has disposed of foreign enemies, having reconciled himself with some of them and having destroyed others,

567 and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

To be sure.

Has he not also another object, which is that they may be impoverished by payment of taxes, and thus compelled to devote themselves to their daily wants and therefore less likely to plot against him?

Clearly.

Yes, and if he suspects any of them of having notions of freedom, and of being disloyal to him, he will have a good pretext for destroying them by giving them up to the enemy; and for all these reasons the tyrant must be always getting up a war. He must.

Now he begins to grow unpopular.

A necessary result.

Then some of those who joined in setting him up, and who are in power-that is to say, the most courageous of them— speak their minds to him and to one another, and cast in his teeth the things which are being done.

Yes, that may be expected.

And the tyrant, if he means to rule, must get rid of them; he cannot stop while he has a friend or an enemy who is good for anything.

He cannot.

And therefore he must use his eyes and see who is valiant, who is high-minded, who is wise, who is wealthy; happy man, he is the enemy of them all, and must seek occasion against them whether he will or no, until he has made a purgation of the State.

Yes, he said, and a rare purgation.

Yes, I said, not the sort of purgation which the physicians make of the body; for they take away the worse and leave the better part, but he does the opposite.

If he is to rule, I suppose that he cannot help himself,

What a blessed alternative, I said, to be compelled to dwell only with the many bad, and hated by them, or not to live at all.

Yes, that is the alternative.