# A pre-Christian argument for reluctant rulers

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH07.P030](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH07.P030/#char=444,488): "Whatever else is Christian, this is heathen."

The contrast has a significant ancient counterexample. In Plato's *Republic*, Book I, 347b–d (fourth century BCE; inspected in David Horan's online English translation), Socrates argues that good people avoid government for money or honour and accept it to escape being governed by worse people. A city of good people would compete to avoid office; genuine rule serves the governed. [Plato, 347b–d](https://www.platonicfoundation.org/translation/republic/).

This resembles Chesterton's suspicion of political eagerness, but differs from declaring oneself incapable: Plato's unwilling rulers need not doubt their qualifications. Nor does the resemblance establish a democratic conclusion. It shows that reluctance to govern is not exclusively Christian, while leaving Chesterton's more specific emphasis on self-distrust open for assessment. The passage works better as a polemic against confidence as a title to power than as a complete division of Christian and pre-Christian political thought. No direct influence from this Platonic passage is established.

## Sources

- [Plato, Republic, translated by David Horan](https://www.platonicfoundation.org/translation/republic/), Book I, 347b–d; continuation at 347e rejects justice as merely the stronger's advantage

Revision 1 · 2026-11-07 · https://glosses.org/a/a_orshrvr7/