The Original:
Cicero - The Ideal Statesman
Scipio: Why, he should have virtually no duty apart from this, for it embraces all the rest — namely that he should never cease inspecting and examining himself, challenging others to imitate him, and by the splendour of his mind and conduct offering himself as a mirror to his fellow-citizens. Just as with string instruments* or pipes or in singers’ voices a certain harmony of different sounds must be maintained (and trained ears cannot bear the effect if that harmony is thrown out or becomes discordant), and as that harmony though arising from the management of very different notes, produces a pleasing and agreeable sound, so a state, by adjusting the proportions between the highest, lowest, and intermediate classes, as if they were musical notes, achieves harmony. What, in the case of singing, musicians call harmony is, in the state, concord; it constitutes the tightest and most effective bond of security; and such concord cannot exist at all without justice.
[About a dozen leaves are missing. Augistine (De Civitate Dei 2. 21) says that Philus asked for a fuller discussion of justice in view of the common opinion that no state could be governed without injustice.]
Scipio: I do agree, and I would stress that what we think has been established so far about the government of the state amounts to nothing, and that we have no basis for further progress, unless we refute the contention that government cannot be carried on without injustice, and, more than that, prove conclusively that it cannot be carried on without the highest degree of justice.
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The Re-Write
The ideal statesman has qualities that should be embraced,
a rational model of intellectual conduct and of natural grace.
Harmonious are his thoughts and actions which shall govern sound,
constantly seeking wholeness, while being order-bound.
A musical conductor of life, striving for melodious consonance with each class,
whether strings, or pipes, or voices gathered to join together amass.
Each role has a part to play, whether performance or to sing,
no greater than each other, proportional equality each role shall bring.
Security is sought from these notes, and justice from its voice,
Melodious is its overture, bringing good government by our choice.
Sing out to all who hear our words, and let the bells ring tried and true,
for injustice shall not tarry here, where justice constitutes anew.
stepwinder
