May 25

Our citizenship is in Heaven.

Socrates: THE man of understanding . . . will look at the city which is within him, and take heed that no disorder occur in it, such as might arise either from superfluity or from want; and upon this principle he will regulate his property, and gain or spend according to his means. . . .

And for the same reason, he will gladly accept and enjoy such honours as he deems likely to make him a better man; but those, whether private or public, which are likely to disorder his life, he will avoid?

Glaucon: Then if that be his motive, he will not be a statesman.

Socrates: By the dog of Egypt, he will! in the city which is his own he certainly will, though in the land of his birth perhaps not, unless he have a divine call.

Glaucon: I understand; you mean that he will be a ruler in the city of which we are the founders, and which exists in idea only, for I do not believe there is such an one anywhere on earth?

Socrates: In heaven, I replied, there is laid up a pattern of it, methinks, which he who desires may behold, and beholding, may take up his abode there. But whether such an one exists or ever will exist in fact is no matter; for he will live after the manner of that city, having nothing to do with any other.

Glaucon: I think so, he said.

The Republic of Plato, trans. by Benjamin Jowett

THE IDEAL CITY