THE idea of writing a 'Companion to Plato's Republic
for English Readers' was suggested to me by the
appearance of Mr. Walter Leaf's Companion to the
Iliad, combined with my own experience of the intense
desire for a closer knowledge of Plato, felt by many
students who could read him in a translation only. Philo-
sophy loses sorely by translation, but less than poetry;
and perhaps a commentator can do more to restore its
real meaning. And, indeed, as not all scholars have been
trained in philosophy, 'I may perhaps hope,' to quote
Mr. Leaf, 'that even those who have a knowledge of
the language may find something to help them' in
my work.
Whether I have succeeded well or ill, I
have at least spared no pains to ascertain and express
the real import of Plato's ideas; and this I take to be
the true duty of a commentator, especially in dealing
with a philosophical genius of the first rank. I ought
to say that I have made no attempt at textual criticism.
I do not flatter myself that I have propounded anything new; on the contrary, my task has presented itself to me rather as an endeavour to bring home to English readers or to novices in Greek the sort of interpretation which a tutor at Oxford or Cambridge would probably