751–752
Athenian
Ath. Let us then, my friend, mark this result in dealing now with your polity and State. You see that it is necessary, in the first place, that those who rightly undertake official functions should in every case have been fully tested— both themselves and their families— from their earliest years up to the time of their selection; and, secondly, that those who are to be the selectors should have been reared in law-abiding habits, and be well trained for the task of rightly rejecting or accepting those candidates who deserve their approval or disapproval. Yet as regards this point, can we suppose that men who have but recently come together, with no knowledge of one another and with no training, could ever possibly select their officials in a faultless manner?
Clinias
Clin. It is practically impossible.
Athenian
Ath. Yet, with the hand on the plough, as they say, there is no looking back.Literally, a contest does not at all admit excuses; i.e. once engaged in it, you cannot draw back. And so it must be now with you and me; for you, as you tell me,Plat. Laws 702b, Plat. Laws 702c. have given your pledge to the Cretan nation that you, with your nine colleagues, will devote yourself to the founding of that State; and I, for my part, have promised to lend you aid in the course of our present imaginative sketch.
Ath. And indeed I should be loth to leave our sketch headless;Cp.Plat. Gorg. 505d ff. for it would look entirely shapeless if it wandered about in that guise.