The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: any longer be allowed to exercise absolute control either over freemen or
over slaves, but that we will summon an assembly either of all the people,
or of the rich only, that anybody who likes, whatever may be his calling,
or even if he have no calling, may offer an opinion either about seamanship
or about diseases--whether as to the manner in which physic or surgical
instruments are to be applied to the patient, or again about the vessels
and the nautical implements which are required in navigation, and how to
meet the dangers of winds and waves which are incidental to the voyage, how
to behave when encountering pirates, and what is to be done with the old-
fashioned galleys, if they have to fight with others of a similar build--
and that, whatever shall be decreed by the multitude on these points, upon
 Statesman |