Cleinias:  Yes.

Athenian:  And does not a like principle apply to legislation as well as to other things:  even supposing all the conditions to be favourable which are needed for the happiness of the state, yet the true legislator must from time to time appear on the scene?

Cleinias:  Most true.

Athenian:  In each case the artist would be able to pray rightly for certain conditions, and if these were granted by fortune, he would then only require to exercise his art?

Cleinias:  Certainly.

Athenian:  And all the other artists just now mentioned, if they were bidden to offer up each their special prayer, would do so?

Cleinias:  Of course.

Athenian:  And the legislator would do likewise?

Cleinias:  I believe that he would.

Athenian:  ‘Come, legislator,’ we will say to him; ’what are the conditions which you require in a state before you can organize it?’ How ought he to answer this question?  Shall I give his answer?

Cleinias:  Yes.

Athenian:  He will say—­’Give me a state which is governed by a tyrant, and let the tyrant be young and have a good memory; let him be quick at learning, and of a courageous and noble nature; let him have that quality which, as I said before, is the inseparable companion of all the other parts of virtue, if there is to be any good in them.’

Cleinias:  I suppose, Megillus, that this companion virtue of which the
Stranger speaks, must be temperance?

Athenian:  Yes, Cleinias, temperance in the vulgar sense; not that which in the forced and exaggerated language of some philosophers is called prudence, but that which is the natural gift of children and animals, of whom some live continently and others incontinently, but when isolated, was, as we said, hardly worth reckoning in the catalogue of goods.  I think that you must understand my meaning.

Cleinias:  Certainly.

Athenian:  Then our tyrant must have this as well as the other qualities, if the state is to acquire in the best manner and in the shortest time the form of government which is most conducive to happiness; for there neither is nor ever will be a better or speedier way of establishing a polity than by a tyranny.

Cleinias:  By what possible arguments, Stranger, can any man persuade himself of such a monstrous doctrine?

Athenian:  There is surely no difficulty in seeing, Cleinias, what is in accordance with the order of nature?

Cleinias:  You would assume, as you say, a tyrant who was young, temperate, quick at learning, having a good memory, courageous, of a noble nature?

Athenian:  Yes; and you must add fortunate; and his good fortune must be that he is the contemporary of a great legislator, and that some happy chance brings them together.  When this has been accomplished, God has done all that he ever does for a state which he desires to be eminently prosperous; He has done second best for a state in which there are two such rulers, and third best for a state in which there are three.  The difficulty increases with the increase, and diminishes with the diminution of the number.