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gold from heaven, it would be both useless and sacrilegious in them to aspire after the corrupt coin which circulates on earth. (p. 124.) Nor ought they even to touch or drink out of gold or silver. On the nonpossession of individual property Plato lays such stress, that if this regulation were once overleaped, the military class would (he says) infallibly degenerate from their character of protectors, and become the tyrants and the worst enemies of their fellow-citizens.*

Adimantus, at this point, objects to Socrates, that from these severe regulations the situation of the military caste would become worse than that of any other citizens, and stript of every thing which is usually supposed to render life valuable. Socrates fully admits that the duty exacted of them would be hard, and their privations numerous; but in spite of all this, he thinks they might probably enjoy great happiness. Yet even if the case were otherwise, his scheme is directed to ensure the happiness of the whole, and that of any particular part must be surrendered without reserve, if required. (pp. 125-128.) Those rules must be adopted and enforced, upon every man, which may best qualify him for discharging his stated service to the community. But of all those circumstances which disqualify a man for the performance of his duty, great wealth or great poverty are the most important and operative. The governing caste, therefore, is to prevent most watch

Οποτε δὲ αὐτοὶ γῆν τε ἰδίαν καὶ νομίσματα κτήσονται, οἰκόνομοι μὲν καὶ γεωργοὶ ἀντὶ φυλάκων ἔσονται, δεσπόται δ ̓ ἐχθροὶ, ἀντὶ συμμάχων τῶν ἄλλων πολιτῶν γενήσονται μισεντές τε δὴ καὶ μισέμενοι, καὶ ἐπιβελεύοντες καὶ ἐπιβελευόμενοι, διάξεσι πάντα τὸν βίον, πόλυ πλείω καὶ μᾶλλον δεδιότες τὰς ἔνδον ἢ τὰς ἔξωθεν πολεμίες, θέοντες ἤδη τότε ἐγγύτατα ὀλέθρω, αὐτοί τε καὶ ἡ ἄλλη πόλις. p. 124.

These plans for remodelling the temper and dispositions of the governing caste, will hardly fail to strike the reader as singularly insufficient, and even puerile, particularly the fiction which he designs to impress upon them. Plato himself avows that he knows not how to realize such a stratagem; and this confession attests his good faith, as unequivocally as the singularity of his provisions evinces his deep sense of the end to be secured. To intrust a particular class with irresponsible power, and then to insure their proper application of it, was the important problem. Plato saw that any man, or any class, if suffered to retain the usual propensities of their nature, and to contract the current associations, would be irresistibly tempted to abuse their power. He saw that this temptation could only be effaced by a system of education so thorough and searching as to monopolise the whole man, and to transmute effectually the governing principles of human conduct; by stifling all the separate ties of property and kindred; and by associating, somehow or other, the well-being of their fellow-citizens with their own sense of superior origin and merit. In short, unless the ruling class could be artificially elevated to the level of demigods, they would infallibly abuse an irresponsible power.

If Plato has been unsuccessful in solving this grand problem, he cannot at least be accused of glossing over the difficulty, and deceiving mankind into a belief that it is a point easily accomplished, and requiring little provision or contrivance, which is the usual method with modern political writers. According to these latter, the all-sufficient security against any misapplication of power is, to place it in the hands of men of high birth and large property. Such persons are, by an aristocratical thinker, represented as exempt by inheritance from the weaknesses of average humanity, and free from all temptation to maltreat others. Thus to frame a principle, merely for the purpose of sanctioning an established usurpation, does indeed facilitate the task of invention, because it leaves the difficulty unconquered and the end unattained. Plato will not condescend to this flattery of birth and opulence, nor can he stoop to impose upon mankind, by telling them that the person who has a great deal of property, will for that reason cease to desire any more, and will become not only innoxious, but even earnest and laborious (without any assignable motive) in acquiring the talents essentially requisite to a good ruler.

fully the growth either of one or the other. (p. 128.)

"But if a state

of war should arise, will not the energies of the state be crippled, without some superfluous wealth?" Plato replies, that if his state was engaged in hostility with two others, it could easily buy off and ally itself with one of its enemies against the other, by promising as a reward the whole booty to be captured. And even if its enemy were at the outset only a single city, yet that city would certainly be divided into parties, which would interrupt its unity, and these internal divisions would render it weaker than the well-arranged and harmonious republic of Plato. A city governed in the vulgar manner, scarcely. appears to Plato worthy of the appellation of one whole.. It is many cities, not one city.* Nor would he permit his own republic to increase farther than is consistent with the entire preservation of its unity.

Having indicated the general arrangements and education of his republic, Plato thinks it unnecessary to specify the particular laws relative to matters of detail. Men thus trained and relatively situated would, he says, readily discover the best modes of proceeding. Could the system of education be once successfully realized, and produce one set of human beings such as he conceives, all the ulterior perfections of polity and legislation could not fail to branch out. But the strictest caution would be necessary to prevent this plan of education from degenerating. Were the judicious mixture of music and gymnastics intermitted, or were music of a different character allowed, a complete alteration in the sentiments of individuals, and thence a subversion of the state, might result.† (pp. 129-133.) There are some excellent remarks on the little benefit produced by improvement in regulations of detail, while the general system of government and education remains unsound; and on the folly evinced by ill-governed cities, who rejected with abomination any proposal of reform, and clung to those statesmen whose fame depended upon the preservation of the vicious system. (pp. 134-5.)

For the establishment of temples and religious rites, as well as those ceremonies which propitiate the dead, Plato refers to the authority of Apollo, whom he would consult upon the subject. (p. 136.)

Wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice, would, in Plato's opinion, be the result of such a system throughout his republic. The two former qualities belong exclusively to the governors and the military caste; the two latter to every citizen. Temperance teaches every individual to recognize a limit to his appetites, and brings about an unanimous feeling as to the propriety of submission on the part of the subject, and supremacy on that of the governor. (pp. 142, 143.) Courage (belonging exclusively to the military) consists in a right and rational comparative estimate of the objects of human apprehension. (p. 140.) Justice consists in the performance of a single and exclusive duty by each individual; and it prohibits any one man from assuming a business which another is better qualified to exercise. The rules of justice are observed when the three sections of the city, the governors, their

Εκάςη αὐτῶν πόλεις εἰσὶ πάμπολλαι, ἀλλ' ἐ πόλις. p. 130.

† Οὐδαμῶ γὰρ κινῶνται μεσικῆς τρόποι ἄνευ πολιτικῶν νόμων τῶν μεγίσων, ὡς φησί το Δίων καὶ ἐγὼ πείθομαι. p. 132.

* Τὰ αὐτῷ πράττειν, καὶ μὴ πολυπραγμονεῖν, δικαιοσύνη ἐστίν. p. 144.

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military assistants, and the productive classes, (φυλακικὸν, ἐπικερικών, and xonμariotikov) each perform their distinct services without clashing or interference. (p. 146.)

To these three sections of the community, Plato assimilates three parts of the mind of an individual-reason, passion or heat, and appetite. Reason is the guardian or governor-passion, its ally or assistant (ÉTIKUρikov), though not always faithful-the ministration of the rest belongs to appetite (επιθυμητικόν in the individual, χρηματιστικὸν in the community.) Justice in an individual, like justice in a community, consists in a proper adjustment of these three principles; when each performs its own function, and does not encroach upon the province of the rest. So also temperance in an individual is like temperance in a community, consisting in a due subordination of the inferior appetite to the bridle and sovereignty of reason. (p. 157.)

At the beginning of the fifth book, Plato treats of the education and condition of females in his republic. Whether any peculiar business shall be assigned exclusively to women, as distinguished from men, or whether individuals of either sex shall indiscriminately exercise and be distributed through all the separate callings, is the question which first comes under his consideration. His decision is, that women, as well as men, shall exercise all the different employments in the state. Because the superiority of men over women is perfectly universal, nor is there any field of action in which a woman can display equal aptitude with a man: it will not be prudent, therefore, to commit any particular pursuit exclusively to females. But as some women undoubtedly manifest greater ingenuity and aptitude than others, the proper course will be to distribute them throughout the different professions, as inferior functionaries and assistants to men, according to the talents with which they appear to be endowed. (p. 172.) If they are to be employed in the same functions as men, the same education will be demanded for them as for the male sex. (p. 167.) Women, therefore, of the finest endowments and disposition will be selected, to associate themselves with the class and in the function of guardians. Their minds and bodies will be trained in exactly the same manner as those of the male guardians. They will be subjected to the same musical and gymnastical education, and will be co-operating, though less efficient, ministers of the very same services. (pp. 172-3.)

The male and female guardians will live and eat constantly together in the encampment appropriated to them. Their intercourse, however, will not be promiscuous, but regulated under the superintendence of the magistrate, one of the most difficult and delicate tasks (as Plato admits) which could possibly be imposed upon him. (p. 177.) He is to pair together the finest couples of men and women, consecrating the time of their union by certain feasts and sacred rites. Inferior pairs are to come together by lot, in order to remove the appearance of responsibility from the magistrate in cases where he could have no means of forming a conclusion. From the age of 30 to 55 in males, from 20 to 40 in females, the breeding powers are thus considered as under the appropriation and superintendence of the magistrate, for the purpose of improving the breed. Should any individual thwart this purpose by intercourse either illicit or unsanctioned by the magistrate, such a proceeding is stigmatised as iniquitous and unholy, as tending to introduce

into the state (had it remained undiscovered) an inauspicious issue, which had not been ushered in by the established religious prayers and observances, Should any young man discover signal proofs of merit, a more abundant range of sexual intercourse is to be conferred upon him, partly as a reward, partly ἵνα καὶ ἅμα μετὰ προφάσεως ὡς πλεῖστοι τῶν παίδων ἐκ τῶν τοιύτων σπειρῶνται. (p. 178.)

The issue of the superior pairs, who have been coupled under the express direction of the magistrate, are to be taken from their mothers as soon as born, and brought up by the public and authorized nurses. The mother is to suckle it for a short time; but the greatest pains are to be taken that no father or mother may know their own child, nor any child his own father or mother. (p. 175.) A man is to call every child born in the tenth or seventh month after his marriage by the title of son or daughter; all persons born at the same time with himself, by the name of brother and sister. (p. 180.)

The issue of the inferior pairs are to be taken by the public nurses, and concealed in some obscure and unknown spot.* It is probably meant that they are to be destroyed, as no subsequent mention is made of them. The same fate also awaits the offspring of the superior pairs, if they should turn out deformed, (avárnрov.) Men and women who have passed beyond the regulated period of breeding, are no longer restricted by the magistrate in their intercourse, (except mothers and fathers with daughters and sons, known and defined as I have stated above.) But these women are to take especial care either to bring no offspring into the world, or, if any should be born, to expose it; inasmuch as it cannot be received into the community.†

Such are the remarkable regulations by which Plato altogether extinguishes the ties of kindred, and merges them in the corporate and patriotic affections. His object is to introduce an entire community of pleasure and pain among the governing class, and to prevent the objects of their love and hatred from becoming at all separated and individualized. Property and kindred are the two grand circumstances which narrow and isolate the feelings and wishes of a man.

Another benefit which Plato remarks as emanating from this extinction of individual interest, is the removal of almost all the cause for litigation, except personal injuries. And with regard to these latter, he seems to think it advisable that every one should rely upon his own strength for his own protection, in order to render perfection in the gymnastic exercises still more indispensably requisite. (p. 185.)

Some regulations next follow respecting the conduct of these military guardians in a war. The male and female guardians are both to take part in warlike expeditions. They are also to take the children with

* Ἐν ἀπορρήτῳ τε καὶ ἀδήλῳ κατακρύψεσιν, ὡς πρέπει. p. 179.

† Μάλισα μὲν μήδ ̓ εἰς φῶς ἐκφέρειν κύημα μηδὲν, ἐὰν γένηται ἐὰν δέ τι βιάσηται, ἔτω ἐκτιθέναι ὡς ἐκ ἔσης τροφῆς τῷ τούτῳ. p. 180.

* Αρ ̓ ὧν ἐ τά τε πρόσθεν εἰρημένα (the absence of private property) καὶ τὰ νῦν λεγόμενα ἔτι μᾶλλον, ἀπεργάζεται αὐτὲς ἀληθινὸς φύλακας, καὶ ποιεῖ μὴ διασπᾷν τὴν πόλιν, τὸ ἐμὸν ὀνομάζοντας μὴ τὸ αὐτὸ, ἀλλ ̓ ἄλλον ἄλλο; τὸν μὲν εἰς τὴν ἑαυτῷ οἰκίαν ἕλκοντα ὅ,τι ἂν δύναιτο χωρὶς τῶν ἄλλων κτήσασθαι τὸν δὲ εἰς τὴν ἑαυτῶ, ἑτέραν ἦσαν; καὶ γυναῖκά τε καὶ παῖδας ἑτέρος, ἡδονάς τε καὶ ἀλγηδόνας ἐμποιῶντας, ἰδίων ὄντων ἰδίας ; ἀλλ ̓ ἵνι δόγματι τῇ οἰκεία πέρι, ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ τείνοντας πάντας εἰς τὸ δυνατὸν, ὁμοπαθεῖς λύπης τε καὶ ἡδονῆς εἶναι, p. 184.

them, wherever it is practicable to place them on a secure spot near the field of battle, partly that they may gain experience, partly to whet the valour of the fathers and mothers. (p. 188.) In case of cowardice, a warrior is to be degraded to the post of an artificer. On the other hand, the man of distinguished bravery is to be crowned by the youth who accompany the expedition; he is to be celebrated in songs, and to enjoy the most conspicuous place at feasts and other ceremonies; any person to whom he is attached is not permitted to refuse a return of his affection; and he is to be worshipped as a god after death. (pp. 189— 190.) The conduct of the warriors towards their enemies, particularly towards Grecian enemies, is to be more humane than that usually practised in the time of Plato. They are never to enslave, or to inflict general ravage upon another Greek nation; nor are they to strip the dead bodies of their enemies. (pp. 191-3.)

At this point, Plato causes Socrates to be interrupted by Glaucon, who expresses a doubt concerning the practicability of the scheme which he has been sketching. Socrates, after saying that an exact copy of the scheme would not be required, but merely an approximation to it in spirit and principle, proceeds to touch on the causes which opposed its introduction. He perfectly and heartily admits the magnitude of these causes, and represents the plan as difficult in the highest degree, though certainly not altogether unattainable. (p. 228.)

The leading and indispensable requisite to the application of his principles is contained in the following remarkable sentence: "Unless (he says) either philosophers shall rule in the cities, or those who are now styled kings and governors (dvvdora) shall become genuine and complete philosophers-so that political power and philosophy may in this manner coincide, and the numbers who now pursue each of them separately may be of necessity excluded-there exists not any respite of misery for states, nor (as I think) for the human race. This condition is absolutely necessary for the establishment of his republic (he continues).

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The definition which follows of the character of a real philosopher, embraces almost the whole sum of moral and intellectual excellence. His thirst for knowledge is universal and insatiate, and this ensures his acquisition of the practical experience necessary for government, inasmuch as there is no branch of information which he is content to abandon. (p. 209.) But yet there is one unvarying standard, which serves as the guide, the measure, and the connecting link of his researches, and to which all the particular facts that he acquires become subservient. This constant search after general principles constitutes an important distinction between him and other men, who never ascend above the fact of the moment, nor submit their opinions to any test or comparison. (p. 206.) Indeed (as Plato remarks) it is merely the presence or absence of a standard of reference which constitutes the difference between knowledge and conjecture (¿wiorýμŋ and dóža). ibid. Besides this, the philosopher is quick in acquiring instruction, and tenacious in retaining it; his attachment to truth is ardent and inviolable, and maintains such complete supremacy in his mind, as to allay the thirst for

Οὐκ ἔστι κακῶν παῦλα ταῖς πόλεσι δοκῶ δὲ, ἐδὲ τῷ ἀνθρωπίνῳ γένει. p. 197.

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