Ath. The whole choral art is also in our view the whole ofeducation; and of this art, rhythms and harmonies form the partwhich has to do with the voice.
Cle. Yes.
Ath. The movement of the body has rhythm in common with the movementof the voice, but gesture is peculiar to it, whereas song is simplythe movement of the voice.
Cle. Most true.
Ath. And the sound of the voice which reaches and educates the soul,we have ventured to term music.
Cle. We were right.
Ath. And the movement of the body, when regarded as an amusement, wetermed dancing; but when extended and pursued with a view to theexcellence of the body, this scientific training may be calledgymnastic.
Cle. Exactly.
Ath. Music, which was one half of the choral art, may be said tohave been completely discussed. Shall we proceed to the other halfor not? What would you like?
Cle. My good friend, when you are talking with a Cretan andLacedaemonian, and we have discussed music and not gymnastic, whatanswer are either of us likely to make to such an enquiry?
Ath. An answer is contained in your question; and I understand andaccept what you say not only as an answer, but also as a command toproceed with gymnastic.
Cle. You quite understand me; do as you say.
Ath. I will; and there will not be any difficulty in speakingintelligibly to you about a subject with which both of you are farmore familiar than with music.
Cle. There will not.
Ath. Is not the origin of gymnastics, too, to be sought in thetendency to rapid motion which exists in all animals; man, as wewere saying, having attained the sense of rhythm, created and inventeddancing; and melody arousing and awakening rhythm, both unitedformed the choral art?
Cle. Very true.
Ath. And one part of this subject has been already discussed byus, and there still remains another to be discussed?
Cle. Exactly.
Ath. I have first a final word to add to my discourse about drink,if you will allow me to do so.
Cle. What more have you to say?
Ath. I should say that if a city seriously means to adopt thepractice of drinking under due regulation and with a view to theenforcement of temperance, and in like manner, and on the sameprinciple, will allow of other pleasures, designing to gain thevictory over them in this way all of them may be used. But if theState makes drinking an amusement only, and whoever likes may drinkwhenever he likes, and with whom he likes, and add to this any otherindulgences, I shall never agree or allow that this city or this manshould practise drinking. I would go further than the Cretans andLacedaemonians, and am disposed rather to the law of theCarthaginians, that no one while he is on a campaign should be allowedto taste wine at all, but that he should drink water during all thattime, and that in the city no slave, male or female, should ever drinkwine; and that no magistrates should drink during their year ofoffice, nor should pilots of vessels or judges while on duty tastewine at all, nor any one who is going to hold a consultation about anymatter of importance; nor in the daytime at all, unless in consequenceof exercise or as medicine; nor again at night, when any one, eitherman or woman, is minded to get children. There are numberless othercases also in which those who have good sense and good laws oughtnot to drink wine, so that if what I say is true, no city will needmany vineyards. Their husbandry and their way of life in generalwill follow an appointed order, and their cultivation of the vine willbe the most limited and the least common of their employments. Andthis, Stranger, shall be the crown of my discourse about wine, ifyou agree.
Cle. Excellent: we agree.
