 However, Plato also holds that the musical imitation of some human emotions may be ethically beneficial, especially at the stage when children are too young to be responsive to ethical education that relies on a discursive and rational basis. Plato first describes the emotions in question indirectly, one as the emotion of a person who is steadfast and resolute in misfortune or while fighting, the other as the state of “someone engaged in a peaceful, unforced, voluntary action” (Republic, 3.399b). Plato holds that these emotions, which he then refers to explicitly as courage and moderation, are best imitated through the Dorian and Phrygian modes, which