Chapter XLVI. Further Concerning the Same

THE prophet Ezekiel said: ‘And the hand of the Lord came upon me, and I saw, and, behold, an uplifting wind came from the north.’[1] And presently he said: ‘And in the midst was the likeness as of four living creatures. And the appearance of them was as the likeness of a man upon them, and each one had four faces. And the likeness of their faces was as the face of a man: and they four had the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of a calf on the left side; they four had also the face of an eagle.’ Hear now what Plato also says in like manner:

[P] [2]’Now then, said I, let us discuss it with him, since we have come to an agreement as to the effect of a course of injustice and a course of justice respectively.

‘How discuss it? said he.

‘By forming in words an image of the soul, that the author of those remarks may know how he described it.

‘What sort of image? said he.

‘One of such a kind, said I, as the creatures which, according to the legend, were naturally produced in old times, the Chimaera and Scylla and Cerberus, and many others in which several forms are said to have grown together into one.

‘So they say, said he.

‘Mould then, first, a single form of a motley many-headed beast, having a ring of heads of tame and wild beasts, and able to change all these and to produce them out of itself.

‘The task, said he, needs a cunning artist: but nevertheless, since language is more easily moulded than wax and substances of that kind, suppose the model made.

‘Now then model a second form of a lion, and a third of a man: but let the first be far the greatest, and the second next to it.

‘These, said he, are easier, and are already done.

‘Well, then, join the three in one, so that they may in a manner be grown together.

‘They are so joined, said he.

‘Now mould around them on the outside a likeness of ‘one of them, that of the man, so that to one who cannot see the inside, but only the outer cover, there may appear to be one single animal, a man.

‘The cover is moulded, said he.

‘To the man, then, who says that it is profitable for this human creature to do wrong and not for his interest to do right, let us reply, that his assertion can only mean, that it is profitable for him by feeding the multiform beast well to strengthen both the lion and the lion’s members, but to starve and weaken the man, so that he may be dragged whichever way either of the others draws him. and not to familiarize them at all or make them friendly one to another, but leave them to bite and struggle among themselves and devour one another.

‘Certainly, said he, this is what the eulogist of injustice must say.

‘On the other hand, then, would not he who says that justice is profitable assert that the creature ought so to act and speak, that his inner man shall have the chief control over the whole man, and take charge of the many-headed beast like a husbandman, nourishing and taming the gentle parts and hindering the growth of the wild, having taken the lion’s nature for his ally, and by his common care for all make them friendly to each other and to himself, and so train them?

‘Yes, this again is quite what the advocate of justice has to say.’