THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO - Studyplace

PREFACE
Here, even if the double question-'renders what to what'-were
reduced to normal English, the repetitions would still sound pedantic
and clumsy; and the reader, as he toiled along, might well
wonder why Plato has been upheld, in every age, as a master of
elegant prose. 1
It is a curious fact that in parts of the dialogue where the thought
is most difficult-notably in chapter xxiv (the Line)-it is packed
into the smallest number of words, so that some expansion is required.
But in the main bulk of the work the style is (as the
ancients said) 'copious'; and, since often a single Greek word can
only be represented by two or three in English, the literal translator
may easily find that the number of words he has used exceeds
Plato's by 20 or 25 per cent. I have tried, by various means, to keep
down this version to nearly the same length as the text. Only a
few passages, chiefly in the earlier books, have been omitted altogether,
for reasons given in the notes. Much more space has been
saved by leaving out many of the formal expressions of assent
interjected by Glaucon and Adeimantus, and thus allowing Socrates
to advance one step in his argument in a single connected
speech. This liberty has been taken sparingly in the first Part,
where the company join in a genuine conversation; but, from the
moment when the two brothers have opened their case against
Justice in chapter v and Socrates begins his reply, the dialogue is
in substance a continuous discourse, to which Glaucon and Adeimantus
contribute very little. The convention of question and
answer becomes formal and frequently tedious. Plato himself came
near to abandoning it in his latest work, the Laws, where the
Athenian lectures for pages together without interruption. I have
not hesitated to spare the reader time and effort by omissions which
the following passage (421 c, p. 112 of this version) may serve to
illustrate :
'I wonder whether you will agree on another point closely connected
with that and concerned with the craftsmen. Is it not true that they
also are spoilt,and turned into bad workmen by wealth and poverty
alike
1 It is fair to add that I have constantly consulted the Locb translation as a
valuable clue to the construction of the Greek.
vii