Cleinias:  Truth, Stranger, is a noble thing and a lasting, but a thing of which men are hard to be persuaded.

Athenian:  And yet the story of the Sidonian Cadmus, which is so improbable, has been readily believed, and also innumerable other tales.

Cleinias:  What is that story?

Athenian:  The story of armed men springing up after the sowing of teeth, which the legislator may take as a proof that he can persuade the minds of the young of anything; so that he has only to reflect and find out what belief will be of the greatest public advantage, and then use all his efforts to make the whole community utter one and the same word in their songs and tales and discourses all their life long.  But if you do not agree with me, there is no reason why you should not argue on the other side.

Cleinias:  I do not see that any argument can fairly be raised by either of us against what you are now saying.

Athenian:  The next suggestion which I have to offer is, that all our three choruses shall sing to the young and tender souls of children, reciting in their strains all the noble thoughts of which we have already spoken, or are about to speak; and the sum of them shall be, that the life which is by the Gods deemed to be the happiest is also the best;—­we shall affirm this to be a most certain truth; and the minds of our young disciples will be more likely to receive these words of ours than any others which we might address to them.

Cleinias:  I assent to what you say.

Athenian:  First will enter in their natural order the sacred choir composed of children, which is to sing lustily the heaven-taught lay to the whole city.  Next will follow the choir of young men under the age of thirty, who will call upon the God Paean to testify to the truth of their words, and will pray him to be gracious to the youth and to turn their hearts.  Thirdly, the choir of elder men, who are from thirty to sixty years of age, will also sing.  There remain those who are too old to sing, and they will tell stories, illustrating the same virtues, as with the voice of an oracle.

Cleinias:  Who are those who compose the third choir, Stranger? for I do not clearly understand what you mean to say about them.

Athenian:  And yet almost all that I have been saying has been said with a view to them.

Cleinias:  Will you try to be a little plainer?

Athenian:  I was speaking at the commencement of our discourse, as you will remember, of the fiery nature of young creatures:  I said that they were unable to keep quiet either in limb or voice, and that they called out and jumped about in a disorderly manner; and that no other animal attained to any perception of order, but man only.  Now the order of motion is called rhythm, and the order of the voice, in which high and low are duly mingled, is called harmony; and both together are termed choric song.  And I said that the Gods had pity on us, and gave us Apollo and the Muses to be our playfellows and leaders in the dance; and Dionysus, as I dare say that you will remember, was the third.