STRANGER: There were many arts of shepherding, and one of them was the

political, which had the charge of one particular herd?

YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes.

STRANGER: And this the argument defined to be the art of rearing, not

horses or other brutes, but the art of rearing man collectively?

YOUNG SOCRATES: True.

STRANGER: Note, however, a difference which distinguishes the king from

all other shepherds.

YOUNG SOCRATES: To what do you refer?

STRANGER: I want to ask, whether any one of the other herdsmen has a

rival who professes and claims to share with him in the management of

the herd?

YOUNG SOCRATES: What do you mean?

STRANGER: I mean to say that merchants, husbandmen, providers of food,

and also training-masters and physicians, will all contend with the

herdsmen of humanity, whom we call Statesmen, declaring that they

themselves have the care of rearing or managing mankind, and that they

rear not only the common herd, but also the rulers themselves.

Statesman