Is not the noble that which subjects the beast to the man, or rather to the God in man; the ignoble, that which subjects the man to the beast?
And if so, who would receive gold on condition that he was to degrade the noblest part of himself under the worst ?--who would sell his son or daughter into the hands of brutal and evil men, for any amount of money?
And will he sell his own fairer and diviner part without any compunction to the most godless and foul?
Would he not be worse than Eriphyle, who sold her husband's life for a necklace?
And intemperance is the letting loose of the multiform monster, and pride and sullenness are the growth and increase of the lion and serpent element, while luxury and effeminacy are caused by a too great relaxation of spirit.
Flattery and meanness again arise when the spirited element is subjected to avarice, and the lion is habituated to become a monkey.

The real disgrace of handicraft arts is, that those who are engaged in them have to flatter, instead of mastering their desires; therefore we say that they should be placed under the control of the better principle in another because they have none in themselves; not, as Thrasymachus imagined, to the injury of the subjects, but for their good.

And our intention in educating the young, is to give them self-control; the law desires to nurse up in them a higher principle, and when they have acquired this, they may go their ways.
'What, then, shall a man profit, if he gain the whole world' and become more and more wicked?
Or what shall he profit by escaping discovery, if the concealment of evil prevents the cure?
If he had been punished, the brute within him would have been silenced, and the gentler element liberated; and he would have united temperance, justice, and wisdom in his soul--a union better far than any combination of bodily gifts.

The man of understanding will honour knowledge above all; in the next place he will keep under his body, not only for the sake of health and strength, but in order to attain the most perfect harmony of body and soul.

In the acquisition of riches, too, he will aim at order and harmony; he will not desire to heap up wealth without measure, but he will fear that the increase of wealth will disturb the constitution of his own soul.