Cleinias:  What do you mean?

Athenian:  Now is the time for me to speak the truth in all earnestness.

Cleinias:  Well said, and I hope that you will fulfil your intention.

Athenian:  Know, Cleinias, that everything, in all that it does, has a natural saviour, as of an animal the soul and the head are the chief saviours.

Cleinias:  Once more, what do you mean?

Athenian:  The well-being of those two is obviously the preservation of every living thing.

Cleinias:  How is that?

Athenian:  The soul, besides other things, contains mind, and the head, besides other things, contains sight and hearing; and the mind, mingling with the noblest of the senses, and becoming one with them, may be truly called the salvation of all.

Cleinias:  Yes, quite so.

Athenian:  Yes, indeed; but with what is that intellect concerned which, mingling with the senses, is the salvation of ships in storms as well as in fair weather?  In a ship, when the pilot and the sailors unite their perceptions with the piloting mind, do they not save both themselves and their craft?

Cleinias:  Very true.

Athenian:  We do not want many illustrations about such matters:  What aim would the general of an army, or what aim would a physician propose to himself, if he were seeking to attain salvation?

Cleinias:  Very good.

Athenian:  Does not the general aim at victory and superiority in war, and do not the physician and his assistants aim at producing health in the body?

Cleinias:  Certainly.

Athenian:  And a physician who is ignorant about the body, that is to say, who knows not that which we just now called health, or a general who knows not victory, or any others who are ignorant of the particulars of the arts which we mentioned, cannot be said to have understanding about any of these matters.

Cleinias:  They cannot.

Athenian:  And what would you say of the state?  If a person proves to be ignorant of the aim to which the statesman should look, ought he, in the first place, to be called a ruler at all; and further, will he ever be able to preserve that of which he does not even know the aim?

Cleinias:  Impossible.

Athenian:  And therefore, if our settlement of the country is to be perfect, we ought to have some institution, which, as I was saying, will tell what is the aim of the state, and will inform us how we are to attain this, and what law or what man will advise us to that end.  Any state which has no such institution is likely to be devoid of mind and sense, and in all her actions will proceed by mere chance.

Cleinias:  Very true.

Athenian:  In which, then, of the parts or institutions of the state is any such guardian power to be found?  Can we say?