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nydus/The Republic of PlatoPublic
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Table of Contents

E.

he includes literature (λόγοι), i.e. humane culture as distinguished from scientific knowledge. Music precedes gymnastic; both are not to be learned together; only the simpler kinds of either are tolerated [ cp. Laws Book VII, passim ]. Boys and girls share equally in both [ cp. Laws 7. 794 D]. The greatest attention must be paid to good surroundings; nothing mean or vile must meet the eye or strike the ear of the young scholar. The fairy tales of childhood and the fictions of the poets are alike placed under censorship [ cp. Laws Book X, and see s. v. Poetry]. Gentleness is to be united with manliness; beauty of form and activity of mind are to mingle in perfect and harmonious accord. —(ii) The special education commences at twenty by the selection of the most promising students. These spend ten years in the acquisition of the higher branches of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, harmony [ cp. Laws 7. 817 E], which are not to be pursued in a scientific spirit or for utility only, but rather with a

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