virtue of a state. Political justice is embodied and shown forth.
41. Now, answering to these three orders in the state, there are in the soul of man three distinct faculties. 1. Appetite or desire, i.e., the concupiscible faculty; 2. Spirit or indignation, i.e., the irascible faculty; 3. Reason or the rational faculty. The first of these, the concupiscible faculty, in Greek, ἐπιθυμία, corresponds to the operative or quæstuary or chrematistic class in the state. Just as this class aims at the attainment of wealth, so does that faculty pursue pleasure as its end. The second of these, the irascible faculty, in Greek, θυμὸς, a term which, perhaps, might be tolerably well translated by our common word pluck—this faculty comprises the more heroic principles and impulses of our nature; and it corresponds to the military or auxiliary order in the state. Just as the military are called in to aid the legislative authority in putting down mob insurrections, so the irascible faculty, that is, the nobler passions, and the reason, unite in resisting the solicitations of the lower appetites. The third of these is the rational faculty, in Greek, νοῦς. This is the governing principle in the mind, τὸ ἡγεμονικόν, just as the legislative is the governing power in the state.
42. Such is the way in which Plato works out the analogy between the soul of man and the constitution
