                                     360 BC
                                      LAWS
                                    by Plato
                         translated by Benjamin Jowett
  BOOK I

  PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: An ATHENIAN STRANGER; CLEINIAS, a
Cretan; MEGILLUS, a Lacedaemonian

  Athenian Stranger. Tell me, Strangers, is a God or some man supposed
to be the author of your laws?
  Cleinias. A God, Stranger; in very truth a, God: among us Cretans he
is said to have been Zeus, but in Lacedaemon, whence our friend here
comes, I believe they would say that Apollo is their lawgiver: would
they not, Megillus?
  Megillus. Certainly.
  Ath. And do you, Cleinias, believe, as Homer tells, that every ninth
year Minos went to converse with his Olympian sire, and was inspired
by him to make laws for your cities?
  Cle. Yes, that is our tradition; and there was Rhadamanthus, a
brother of his, with whose name you are familiar; he is reputed to
have been the justest of men, and we Cretans are of opinion that he
earned this reputation from his righteous administration of justice
when he was alive.
  Ath. Yes, and a noble reputation it was, worthy of a son of Zeus. As
you and Megillus have been trained in these institutions, I dare say
that you will not be unwilling to give an account of your government
and laws; on our way we can pass the time pleasantly in about them,
for I am told that the distance from Cnosus to the cave and temple
of Zeus is considerable; and doubtless there are shady places under
the lofty trees, which will protect us from this scorching sun.
Being no longer young, we may often stop to rest beneath them, and get
over the whole journey without difficulty, beguiling the time by
conversation.
  Cle. Yes, Stranger, and if we proceed onward we shall come to groves
of cypresses, which are of rare height and beauty, and there are green
meadows, in which we may repose and converse.
  Ath. Very good.
  Cle. Very good, indeed; and still better when we see them; let us
move on cheerily.
  Ath. I am willing-And first, I want to know why the law has ordained
that you shall have common meals and gymnastic exercises, and wear
arms.
  Cle. I think, Stranger, that the aim of our institutions is easily
intelligible to any one. Look at the character of our country: Crete
is not like Thessaly, a large plain; and for this reason they have
horsemen in Thessaly, and we have runners-the inequality of the ground
in our country is more adapted to locomotion on foot; but then, if you
have runners you must have light arms-no one can carry a heavy
weight when running, and bows and arrows are convenient because they
are light. Now all these regulations have been made with a view to
war, and the legislator appears to me to have looked to this in all
his arrangements:-the common meals, if I am not mistaken, were
instituted by him for a similar reason, because he saw that while they
are in the field the citizens are by the nature of the case
compelled to take their meals together for the sake of mutual
protection. He seems to me to have thought the world foolish in not
understanding that all are always at war with one another; and if in
war there ought to be common meals and certain persons regularly
appointed under others to protect an army, they should be continued in
peace. For what men in general term peace would be said by him to be
only a name; in reality every city is in a natural state of war with
every other, not indeed proclaimed by heralds, but everlasting. And if
you look closely, you will find that this was the intention of the
Cretan legislator; all institutions, private as well as public, were
arranged by him with a view to war; in giving them he was under the
impression that no possessions or institutions are of any value to him
who is defeated in battle; for all the good things of the conquered
pass into the hands of the conquerors.
  Ath. You appear to me, Stranger, to have been thoroughly trained
in the Cretan institutions, and to be well informed about them; will
you tell me a little more explicitly what is the principle of
government which you would lay down? You seem to imagine that a well
governed state ought to be so ordered as to conquer all other states
in war: am I right in supposing this to be your meaning?
  Cle. Certainly; and our Lacedaemonian friend, if I am not
mistaken, will agree with me.
  Meg. Why, my good friend, how could any Lacedaemonian say anything
else?
  Ath. And is what you say applicable only to states, or also to
villages?
  Cle. To both alike.
  Ath. The case is the same?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. And in the village will there be the same war of family against
family, and of individual against individual?
  Cle. The same.
  Ath. And should each man conceive himself to be his own
enemy:-what shall we say?
  Cle. O Athenian Stranger-inhabitant of Attica I will not call you,
for you seem to deserve rather to be named after the goddess
herself, because you go back to first principles you have thrown a
light upon the argument, and will now be better able to understand
what I was just saying-that all men are publicly one another's
enemies, and each man privately his own.
  (Ath. My good sir, what do you mean?)--
  Cle..... Moreover, there is a victory and defeat-the first and
best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats-which each man
gains or sustains at the hands, not of another, but of himself; this
shows that there is a war against ourselves going on within every
one of us.
  Ath. Let us now reverse the order of the argument: Seeing that every
individual is either his own superior or his own inferior, may we
say that there is the same principle in the house, the village, and
the state?
  Cle. You mean that in each of them there is a principle of
superiority or inferiority to self?
  Ath. Yes.
  Cle. You are quite right in asking the question, for there certainly
is such a principle, and above all in states; and the state in which
the better citizens win a victory over the mob and over the inferior
classes may be truly said to be better than itself, and may be
justly praised, where such a victory is gained, or censured in the
opposite case.
   Ath. Whether the better is ever really conquered by the worse, is a
question which requires more discussion, and may be therefore left for
the present. But I now quite understand your meaning when you say that
citizens who are of the same race and live in the same cities may
unjustly conspire, and having the superiority in numbers may
overcome and enslave the few just; and when they prevail, the state
may be truly called its own inferior and therefore bad; and when
they are defeated, its own superior and therefore good.
  Cle. Your remark, Stranger, is a paradox, and yet we cannot possibly
deny it.
  Ath. Here is another case for consideration;-in a family there may
be several brothers, who are the offspring of a single pair; very
possibly the majority of them may be unjust, and the just may be in
a minority.
  Cle. Very possibly.
  Ath. And you and I ought not to raise a question of words as to
whether this family and household are rightly said to be superior when
they conquer, and inferior when they are conquered; for we are not now
considering what may or may not be the proper or customary way of
speaking, but we are considering the natural principles of right and
wrong in laws.
  Cle. What you say, Stranger, is most true.
  Meg. Quite excellent, in my opinion, as far as we have gone.
  Ath. Again; might there not be a judge over these brethren, of
whom we were speaking?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Now, which would be the better judge-one who destroyed the
bad and appointed the good to govern themselves; or one who, while
allowing the good to govern, let the bad live, and made them
voluntarily submit? Or third, I suppose, in the scale of excellence
might be placed a judge, who, finding the family distracted, not
only did not destroy any one, but reconciled them to one another for
ever after, and gave them laws which they mutually observed, and was
able to keep them friends.
  Cle. The last would be by far the best sort of judge and legislator.
  Ath. And yet the aim of all the laws which he gave would be the
reverse of war.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. And will he who constitutes the state and orders the life of
man have in view external war, or that kind of intestine war called
civil, which no one, if he could prevent, would like to have occurring
in his own state; and when occurring, every one would wish to be
quit of as soon as possible?
  Cle. He would have the latter chiefly in view.
  Ath. And would he prefer that this civil war should be terminated by
the destruction of one of the parties, and by the victory of the
other, or that peace and friendship should be re-established, and
that, being reconciled, they should give their attention to foreign
enemies?
  Cle. Every one would desire the latter in the case of his own state.
  Ath. And would not that also be the desire of the legislator?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And would not every one always make laws for the sake of the
best?
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. But war, whether external or civil, is not the best, and the
need of either is to be deprecated; but peace with one another, and
good will, are best. Nor is the victory of the state over itself to be
regarded as a really good thing, but as a necessity; a man might as
well say that the body was in the best state when sick and purged by
medicine, forgetting that there is also a state of the body which
needs no purge. And in like manner no one can be a true statesman,
whether he aims at the happiness of the individual or state, who looks
only, or first of all, to external warfare; nor will he ever be a
sound legislator who orders peace for the sake of war, and not war for
the sake of peace.
  Cle. I suppose that there is truth, Stranger, in that remark of
yours; and yet I am greatly mistaken if war is not the entire aim
and object of our own institutions, and also of the Lacedaemonian.
  Ath. I dare say; but there is no reason why we should rudely quarrel
with one another about your legislators, instead of gently questioning
them, seeing that both we and they are equally in earnest. Please
follow me and the argument closely:-And first I will put forward
Tyrtaeus, an Athenian by birth, but also a Spartan citizen, who of all
men was most eager about war: Well, he says, "I sing not, I care
not, about any man, even if he were the richest of men, and
possessed every good (and then he gives a whole list of them), if he
be not at all times a brave warrior." I imagine that you, too, must
have heard his poems; our Lacedaemonian friend has probably heard more
than enough of them.
  Meg. Very true.
  Cle. And they have found their way from Lacedaemon to Crete.
  Ath. Come now and let us all join in asking this question of
Tyrtaeus: O most divine poet, we will say to him, the excellent praise
which you have bestowed on those who excel in war sufficiently
proves that you are wise and good, and I and Megillus and Cleinias
of Cnosus do, as I believe, entirely agree with you. But we should
like to be quite sure that we are speaking of the same men; tell us,
then, do you agree with us in thinking that there are two kinds of
war; or what would you say? A far inferior man to Tyrtaeus would
have no difficulty in replying quite truly, that war is of two kinds
one which is universally called civil war, and is as we were just
now saying, of all wars the worst; the other, as we should all
admit, in which we fall out with other nations who are of a
different race, is a far milder form of warfare.
  Cle. Certainly, far milder.
  Ath. Well, now, when you praise and blame war in this high-flown
strain, whom are you praising or blaming, and to which kind of war are
you referring? I suppose that you must mean foreign war, if I am to
judge from expressions of yours in which you say that you abominate
those

  Who refuse to look upon fields of blood, and will not draw near
and strike at their enemies.

And we shall naturally go on to say to him-You, Tyrtaeus, as it seems,
praise those who distinguish themselves in external and foreign war;
and he must admit this.
  Cle. Evidently.
  Ath. They are good; but we say that there are still better men whose
virtue is displayed in the greatest of all battles. And we too have
a poet whom we summon as a witness, Theognis, citizen of Megara in
Sicily:

  Cyrnus, he who is faithful in a civil broil is worth his weight in
gold and silver.

And such an one is far better, as we affirm, than the other in a
more difficult kind of war, much in the same degree as justice and
temperance and wisdom, when united with courage, are better than
courage only; for a man cannot be faithful and good in civil strife
without having all virtue. But in the war of which Tyrtaeus speaks,
many a mercenary soldier will take his stand and be ready to die at
his post, and yet they are generally and almost without exception
insolent, unjust, violent men, and the most senseless of human beings.
You will ask what the conclusion is, and what I am seeking to prove: I
maintain that the divine legislator of Crete, like any other who is
worthy of consideration, will always and above all things in making
laws have regard to the greatest virtue; which, according to Theognis,
is loyalty in the hour of danger, and may be truly called perfect
justice. Whereas, that virtue which Tyrtaeus highly praises is well
enough, and was praised by the poet at the right time, yet in place
and dignity may be said to be only fourth rate.
  Cle. Stranger, we are degrading our inspired lawgiver to a rank
which is far beneath him.
  Ath. Nay, I think that we degrade not him but ourselves, if we
imagine that Lycurgus and Minos laid down laws both in Lacedaemon
and Crete mainly with a view to war.
  Cle. What ought we to say then?
  Ath. What truth and what justice require of us, if I am not
mistaken, when speaking in behalf of divine excellence;-at the
legislator when making his laws had in view not a part only, and
this the lowest part of virtue, but all virtue, and that he devised
classes of laws answering to the kinds of virtue; not in the way in
which modern inventors of laws make the classes, for they only
investigate and offer laws whenever a want is felt, and one man has
a class of laws about allotments and heiresses, another about
assaults; others about ten thousand other such matters. But we
maintain that the right way of examining into laws is to proceed as we
have now done, and I admired the spirit of your exposition; for you
were quite right in beginning with virtue, and saying that this was
the aim of the giver of the law, but I thought that you went wrong
when you added that all his legislation had a view only to a part, and
the least part of virtue, and this called forth my subsequent remarks.
Will you allow me then to explain how I should have liked to have
heard you expound the matter?
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. You ought to have said, Stranger-The Cretan laws are with
reason famous among the Hellenes; for they fulfil the object of
laws, which is to make those who use them happy; and they confer every
sort of good. Now goods are of two kinds: there are human and there
are divine goods, and the human hang upon the divine; and the state
which attains the greater, at the same time acquires the less, or, not
having the greater, has neither. Of the lesser goods the first is
health, the second beauty, the third strength, including swiftness
in running and bodily agility generally, and the fourth is wealth, not
the blind god [Pluto], but one who is keen of sight, if only he has
wisdom for his companion. For wisdom is chief and leader of the divine
dass of goods, and next follows temperance; and from the union of
these two with courage springs justice, and fourth in the scale of
virtue is courage. All these naturally take precedence of the other
goods, and this is the order in which the legislator must place
them, and after them he will enjoin the rest of his ordinances on
the citizens with a view to these, the human looking to the divine,
and the divine looking to their leader mind. Some of his ordinances
will relate to contracts of marriage which they make one with another,
and then to the procreation and education of children, both male and
female; the duty of the lawgiver will be to take charge of his
citizens, in youth and age, and at every time of life, and to give
them punishments and rewards; and in reference to all their
intercourse with one another, he ought to consider their pains and
pleasures and desires, and the vehemence of all their passions; he
should keep a watch over them, and blame and praise them rightly by
the mouth of the laws themselves. Also with regard to anger and
terror, and the other perturbations of the soul, which arise out of
misfortune, and the deliverances from them which prosperity brings,
and the experiences which come to men in diseases, or in war, or
poverty, or the opposite of these; in all these states he should
determine and teach what is the good and evil of the condition of
each. In the next place, the legislator has to be careful how the
citizens make their money and in what way they spend it, and to have
an eye to their mutual contracts and dissolutions of contracts,
whether voluntary or involuntary: he should see how they order all
this, and consider where justice as well as injustice is found or is
wanting in their several dealings with one another; and honour those
who obey the law, and impose fixed penalties on those who disobey,
until the round of civil life is ended, and the time has come for
the consideration of the proper funeral rites and honours of the dead.
And the lawgiver reviewing his work, will appoint guardians to preside
over these things-some who walk by intelligence, others by true
opinion only, and then mind will bind together all his ordinances
and show them to be in harmony with temperance and justice, and not
with wealth or ambition. This is the spirit, Stranger, in which I
was and am desirous that you should pursue the subject. And I want
to know the nature of all these things, and how they are arranged in
the laws of Zeus, as they are termed, and in those of the Pythian
Apollo, which Minos and Lycurgus gave; and how the order of them is
discovered to his eyes, who has experience in laws gained either by
study or habit, although they are far from being self-evident to the
rest of mankind like ourselves.
  Cle. How shall we proceed, Stranger?
  Ath. I think that we must begin again as before, and first
consider the habit of courage; and then we will go on and discuss
another and then another form of virtue, if you please. In this way we
shall have a model of the whole; and with these and similar discourses
we will beguile the way. And when we have gone through all the
virtues, we will show, by the grace of God, that the institutions of
which I was speaking look to virtue.
  Meg. Very good; and suppose that you first criticize this praiser of
Zeus and the laws of Crete.
  Ath. I will try to criticize you and myself, as well as him, for the
argument is a common concern. Tell me-were not first the syssitia, and
secondly the gymnasia, invented by your legislator with a view to war?
  Meg. Yes.
  Ath. And what comes third, and what fourth? For that, I think, is
the sort of enumeration which ought to be made of the remaining
parts of virtue, no matter whether you call them parts or what their
name is, provided the meaning is clear.
  Meg. Then I, or any other Lacedaemonian, would reply that hunting is
third in order.
  Ath. Let us see if we can discover what comes fourth and fifth.
  Meg. I think that I can get as far as the fouth head, which is the
frequent endurance of pain, exhibited among us Spartans in certain
hand-to-hand fights; also in stealing with the prospect of getting a
good beating; there is, too, the so-called Crypteia, or secret
service, in which wonderful endurance is shown-our people wander
over the whole country by day and by night, and even in winter have
not a shoe to their foot, and are without beds to lie upon, and have
to attend upon themselves. Marvellous, too, is the endurance which our
citizens show in their naked exercises, contending against the violent
summer heat; and there are many similar practices, to speak of which
in detail would be endless.
  Ath. Excellent, O Lacedaemonian Stranger. But how ought we to define
courage? Is it to be regarded only as a combat against fears and
pains, or also against desires and pleasures, and against
flatteries; which exercise such a tremendous power, that they make the
hearts even of respectable citizens to melt like wax?
  Meg. I should say the latter.
  Ath. In what preceded, as you will remember, our Cnosian friend
was speaking of a man or a city being inferior to themselves:-Were you
not, Cleinias?
  Cle. I was.
   Ath. Now, which is in the truest sense inferior, the man who is
overcome by pleasure or by pain?
  Cle. I should say the man who is overcome by pleasure; for all men
deem him to be inferior in a more disgraceful sense, than the other
who is overcome by pain.
  Ath. But surely the lawgivers of Crete and Lacedaemon have not
legislated for a courage which is lame of one leg, able only to meet
attacks which come from the left, but impotent against the insidious
flatteries which come from the right?
  Cle. Able to meet both, I should say.
  Ath. Then let me once more ask, what institutions have you in either
of your states which give a taste of pleasures, and do not avoid
them any more than they avoid pains; but which set a person in the
midst of them, and compel or induce him by the prospect of reward to
get the better of them? Where is an ordinance about pleasure similar
to that about pain to be found in your laws? Tell me what there is
of this nature among you:-What is there which makes your citizen
equally brave against pleasure and pain, conquering what they ought to
conquer, and superior to the enemies who are most dangerous and
nearest home?
  Meg. I was able to tell you, Stranger, many laws which were directed
against pain; but I do not know that I can point out any great or
obvious examples of similar institutions which are concerned with
pleasure; there are some lesser provisions, however, which I might
mention.
  Cle. Neither can I show anything of that sort which is at all
equally prominent in the Cretan laws.
  Ath. No wonder, my dear friends; and if, as is very likely, in our
search after the true and good, one of us may have to censure the laws
of the others, we must not be offended, but take kindly what another
says.
  Cle. You are quite right, Athenian Stranger, and we will do as you
say.
  Ath. At our time of life, Cleinias, there should be no feeling of
irritation.
  Cle. Certainly not.
  Ath. I will not at present determine whether he who censures the
Cretan or Lacedaemonian polities is right or wrong. But I believe that
I can tell better than either of you what the many say about them. For
assuming that you have reasonably good laws, one of the best of them
will be the law forbidding any young men to enquire which of them
are right or wrong; but with one mouth and one voice they must all
agree that the laws are all good, for they came from God; and any
one who says the contrary is not to be listened to. But an old man who
remarks any defect in your laws may communicate his observation to a
ruler or to an equal in years when no young man is present.
  Cle. Exactly so, Stranger; and like a diviner, although not there at
the time, you seem to me quite to have hit the meaning of the
legislator, and to say what is most true.
  Ath. As there are no young men present, and the legislator has given
old men free licence, there will be no impropriety in our discussing
these very matters now that we are alone.
  Cle. True. And therefore you may be as free as you like in your
censure of our laws, for there is no discredit in knowing what is
wrong; he who receives what is said in a generous and friendly
spirit will be all the better for it.
  Ath. Very good; however, I am not going to say anything against your
laws until to the best of my ability I have examined them, but I am
going to raise doubts about them. For you are the only people known to
us, whether Greek or barbarian, whom the legislator commanded to
eschew all great pleasures and amusements and never to touch them;
whereas in the matter of pains or fears which we have just been
discussing, he thought that they who from infancy had always avoided
pains and fears and sorrows, when they were compelled to face them
would run away from those who were hardened in them, and would
become their subjects. Now the legislator ought to have considered
that this was equally true of pleasure; he should have said to
himself, that if our citizens are from their youth upward unacquainted
with the greatest pleasures, and unused to endure amid the temptations
of pleasure, and are not disciplined to refrain from all things
evil, the sweet feeling of pleasure will overcome them just as fear
would overcome the former class; and in another, and even a worse
manner, they will be the slaves of those who are able to endure amid
pleasures, and have had the opportunity of enjoying them, they being
often the worst of mankind. One half of their souls will be a slave,
the other half free; and they will not be worthy to be called in the
true sense men and freemen. Tell me whether you assent to my words?
  Cle. On first hearing, what you say appears to be the truth; but
to be hasty in coming to a conclusion about such important matters
would be very childish and simple.
  Ath. Suppose, Cleinias and Megillus, that we consider the virtue
which follows next of those which we intended to discuss (for after
courage comes temperance), what institutions shall we find relating to
temperance, either in Crete or Lacedaemon, which, like your military
institutions, differ from those of any ordinary state.
  Meg. That is not an easy question to answer; still I should say that
the common meals and gymnastic exercises have been excellently devised
for the promotion both of temperance and courage.
  Ath. There seems to be a difficulty, Stranger, with regard to
states, in making words and facts coincide so that there can be no
dispute about them. As in the human body, the regimen which does
good in one way does harm in another; and we can hardly say that any
one course of treatment is adapted to a particular constitution. Now
the gymnasia and common meals do a great deal of good, and yet they
are a source of evil in civil troubles; as is shown in the case of the
Milesian, and Boeotian, and Thurian youth, among whom these
institutions seem always to have had a tendency to degrade the ancient
and natural custom of love below the level, not only of man, but of
the beasts. The charge may be fairly brought against your cities above
all others, and is true also of most other states which especially
cultivate gymnastics. Whether such matters are to be regarded
jestingly or seriously, I think that the pleasure is to be deemed
natural which arises out of the intercourse between men and women; but
that the intercourse of men with men, or of women with women, is
contrary to nature, and that the bold attempt was originally due to
unbridled lust. The Cretans are always accused of having invented
the story of Ganymede and Zeus because they wanted to justify
themselves in the enjoyment of unnatural pleasures by the practice
of the god whom they believe to have been their lawgiver. Leaving
the story, we may observe that any speculation about laws turns almost
entirely on pleasure and pain, both in states and in individuals:
these are two fountains which nature lets flow, and he who draws
from them where and when, and as much as he ought, is happy; and
this holds of men and animals-of individuals as well as states; and he
who indulges in them ignorantly and at the wrong time, is the
reverse of happy.
  Meg. I admit, Stranger, that your words are well spoken, and I
hardly know what to say in answer to you; but still I think that the
Spartan lawgiver was quite right in forbidding pleasure. Of the Cretan
laws, I shall leave the defence to my Cnosian friend. But the laws
of Sparta, in as far as they relate to pleasure, appear to me to be
the best in the world; for that which leads mankind in general into
the wildest pleasure and licence, and every other folly, the law has
clean driven out; and neither in the country nor in towns which are
under the control of Sparta, will you find revelries and the many
incitements of every kind of pleasure which accompany them; and any
one who meets a drunken and disorderly person, will immediately have
him most severely punished, and will not let him off on any
pretence, not even at the time of a Dionysiac festival; although I
have remarked that this may happen at your performances "on the cart,"
as they are called; and among our Tarentine colonists I have seen
the whole city drunk at a Dionysiac festival; but nothing of the
sort happens among us.
  Ath. O Lacedaemonian Stranger, these festivities are praiseworthy
where there is a spirit of endurance, but are very senseless when they
are under no regulations. In order to retaliate, an Athenian has
only to point out the licence which exists among your women. To all
such accusations, whether they are brought against the Tarentines,
or us, or you, there is one answer which exonerates the practice in
question from impropriety. When a stranger expresses wonder at the
singularity of what he sees, any inhabitant will naturally answer
him:-Wonder not, O stranger; this is our custom, and you may very
likely have some other custom about the same things. Now we are
speaking, my friends, not about men in general, but about the merits
and defects of the lawgivers themselves. Let us then discourse a
little more at length about intoxication, which is a very important
subject, and will seriously task the discrimination of the legislator.
I am not speaking of drinking, or not drinking, wine at all, but of
intoxication. Are we to follow the custom of the Scythians, and
Persians, and Carthaginians, and Celts, and Iberians, and Thracians,
who are all warlike nations, or that of your countrymen, for they,
as you say, altogether abstain? But the Scythians and Thracians,
both men and women, drink unmixed wine, which they pour on their
garments, and this they think a happy and glorious institution. The
Persians, again, are much given to other practices of luxury which you
reject, but they have more moderation in them than the Thracians and
Scythians.
  Meg. O best of men, we have only to take arms into our hands, and we
send all these nations flying before us.
  Ath. Nay, my good friend, do not say that; there have been, as there
always will be, flights and pursuits of which no account can be given,
and therefore we cannot say that victory or defeat in battle affords
more than a doubtful proof of the goodness or badness of institutions.
For when the greater states conquer and enslave the lesser, as the
Syracusans have done the Locrians, who appear to be the
best-governed people in their part of the world, or as the Athenians
have done the Ceans (and there are ten thousand other instances of the
same sort of thing), all this is not to the point; let us endeavour
rather to form a conclusion about each institution in itself and say
nothing, at present, of victories and defeats. Let us only say that
such and such a custom is honourable, and another not. And first
permit me to tell you how good and bad are to be estimated in
reference to these very matters.
  Meg. How do you mean?
  Ath. All those who are ready at a moment's notice to praise or
censure any practice which is matter of discussion, seem to me to
proceed in a wrong way. Let me give you an illustration of what I
mean:-You may suppose a person to be praising wheat as a good kind
of food, whereupon another person instantly blames wheat, without ever
enquiring into its effect or use, or in what way, or to whom, or
with what, or in what state and how, wheat is to be given. And that is
just what we are doing in this discussion. At the very mention of
the word intoxication, one side is ready with their praises and the
other with their censures; which is absurd. For either side adduce
their witnesses and approvers, and some of us think that we speak with
authority because we have many witnesses; and others because they
see those who abstain conquering in battle, and this again is disputed
by us. Now I cannot say that I shall be satisfied, if we go on
discussing each of the remaining laws in the same way. And about
this very point of intoxication I should like to speak in another way,
which I hold to be the right one; for if number is to be the
criterion, are there not myriads upon myriads of nations ready to
dispute the point with you, who are only two cities?
  Meg. I shall gladly welcome any method of enquiry which is right.
  Ath. Let me put the matter thus:-Suppose a person to praise the
keeping of goats, and the creatures themselves as capital things to
have, and then some one who had seen goats feeding without a
goatherd in cultivated spots, and doing mischief, were to censure a
goat or any other animal who has no keeper, or a bad keeper, would
there be any sense or justice in such censure?
  Meg. Certainly not.
  Ath. Does a captain require only to have nautical knowledge in order
to be a good captain, whether he is sea-sick or not? What do you say?
  Meg. I say that he is not a good captain if, although he have
nautical skill, he is liable to sea-sickness.
  Ath. And what would you say of the commander of an army? Will he
be able to command merely because he has military skill if he be a
coward, who, when danger comes, is sick and drunk with fear?
  Meg. Impossible.
  Ath. And what if besides being a coward he has no skill?
  Meg. He is a miserable fellow, not fit to be a commander of men, but
only of old women.
  Ath. And what would you say of some one who blames or praises any
sort of meeting which is intended by nature to have a ruler, and is
well enough when under his presidency? The critic, however, has
never seen the society meeting together at an orderly feast under
the control of a president, but always without a ruler or with a bad
one:-when observers of this class praise or blame such meetings, are
we to suppose that what they say is of any value?
  Meg. Certainly not, if they have never seen or been present at
such a meeting when rightly ordered.
  Ath. Reflect; may not banqueters and banquets be said to
constitute a kind of meeting?
  Meg. Of course.
  Ath. And did any one ever see this sort of convivial meeting rightly
ordered? Of course you two will answer that you have never seen them
at all, because they are not customary or lawful in your country;
but I have come across many of them in many different places, and
moreover I have made enquiries about them wherever I went, as I may
say, and never did I see or hear of anything of the kind which was
carried on altogether rightly; in some few particulars they might be
right, but in general they were utterly wrong.
  Cle. What do you mean, Stranger, by this remark? Explain; For we, as
you say, from our inexperience in such matters, might very likely
not know, even if they came in our way, what was right or wrong in
such societies.
  Ath. Likely enough; then let me try to be your instructor: You would
acknowledge, would you not, that in all gatherings of man, kind, of
whatever sort, there ought to be a leader?
  Cle. Certainly I should.
  Ath. And we were saying just now, that when men are at war the
leader ought to be a brave man?
  Cle. We were.
  Ath. The brave man is less likely than the coward to be disturbed by
fears?
  Cle. That again is true.
  Ath. And if there were a possibility of having a general of an
army who was absolutely fearless and imperturbable, should we not by
all means appoint him?
  Cle. Assuredly.
  Ath. Now, however, we are speaking not of a general who is to
command an army, when foe meets foe in time of war, but of one who
is to regulate meetings of another sort, when friend meets friend in
time of peace.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. And that sort of meeting, if attended with drunkenness, is
apt to be unquiet.
  Cle. Certainly; the reverse of quiet.
  Ath. In the first place, then, the revellers as well as the soldiers
will require a ruler?
  Cle. To be sure; no men more so.
  Ath. And we ought, if possible, to provide them with a quiet ruler?
  Cle. Of course.
  Ath. And he should be a man who understands society; for his duty is
to preserve the friendly feelings which exist among the company at the
time, and to increase them for the future by his use of the occasion.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Must we not appoint a sober man and a wise to be our master
of the revels? For if the ruler of drinkers be himself young and
drunken, and not over-wise, only by some special good fortune will
he be saved from doing some great evil.
  Cle. It will be by a singular good fortune that he is saved.
  Ath. Now suppose such associations to be framed in the best way
possible in states, and that some one blames the very fact of their
existence-he may very likely be right. But if he blames a practice
which he only sees very much mismanaged, he shows in the first place
that he is not aware of the mismanagement, and also not aware that
everything done in this way will turn out to be wrong, because done
without the superintendence of a sober ruler. Do you not see that a
drunken pilot or a drunken ruler of any sort will ruin ship,
chariot, army-anything, in short, of which he has the direction?
  Cle. The last remark is very true, Stranger; and I see quite clearly
the advantage of an army having a good leader-he will give victory
in war to his followers, which is a very great advantage; and so of
other things. But I do not see any similar advantage which either
individuals or states gain from the good management of a feast; and
I want you to tell me what great good will be effected, supposing that
this drinking ordinance is duly established.
  Ath. If you mean to ask what great good accrues to the state from
the right training of a single youth, or of a single chorus-when the
question is put in that form, we cannot deny that the good is not very
great in any particular instance. But if you ask what is the good of
education in general, the answer is easy-that education makes good
men, and that good men act nobly, and conquer their enemies in battle,
because they are good. Education certainly gives victory, although
victory sometimes produces forgetfulness of education; for many have
grown insolent from victory in war, and this insolence has
engendered in them innumerable evils; and many a victory has been
and will be suicidal to the victors; but education is never suicidal.
  Cle. You seem to imply, my friend, that convivial meetings, when
rightly ordered, are an important element of education.
  Ath. Certainly I do.
  Cle. And can you show that what you have been saying is true?
  Ath. To be absolutely sure of the truth of matters concerning
which there are many opinions, is an attribute of the Gods not given
to man, Stranger; but I shall be very happy to tell you what I
think, especially as we are now proposing to enter on a discussion
concerning laws and constitutions.
  Cle. Your opinion, Stranger, about the questions which are now being
raised, is precisely what we want to hear.
  Ath. Very good; I will try to find a way of explaining my meaning,
and you shall try to have the gift of understanding me. But first
let me make an apology. The Athenian citizen is reputed among all
the Hellenes to be a great talker, whereas Sparta is renowned for
brevity, and the Cretans have more wit than words. Now I am afraid
of appearing to elicit a very long discourse out of very small
materials. For drinking indeed may appear to be a slight matter, and
yet is one which cannot be rightly ordered according to nature,
without correct principles of music; these are necessary to any
clear or satisfactory treatment of the subject, and music again runs
up into education generally, and there is much to be said about all
this. What would you say then to leaving these matters for the
present, and passing on to some other question of law?
  Meg. O Athenian Stranger, let me tell you what perhaps you do not
know, that our family is the proxenus of your state. I imagine that
from their earliest youth all boys, when they are told that they are
the proxeni of a particular state, feel kindly towards their second
and this has certainly been my own feeling. I can well remember from
the days of my boyhood, how, when any Lacedaemonians praised or blamed
the Athenians, they used to say to me-"See, Megillus, how ill or how
well," as the case might be, "has your state treated us"; and having
always had to fight your battles against detractors when I heard you
assailed, I became warmly attached to you. And I always like to hear
the Athenian tongue spoken; the common saying is quite true, that a
good Athenian is more than ordinarily good, for he is the only man who
is freely and genuinely good by the divine inspiration of his own
nature, and is not manufactured. Therefore be assured that I shall
like to hear you say whatever you have to say.
  Cle. Yes, Stranger; and when you have heard me speak, say boldly
what is in your thoughts. Let me remind you of a tie which unites
you to Crete. You must have heard here the story of the prophet
Epimenides, who was of my family, and came to Athens ten years
before the Persian war, in accordance with the response of the Oracle,
and offered certain sacrifices which the God commanded. The
Athenians were at that time in dread of the Persian invasion; and he
said that for ten years they would not come, and that when they
came, they would go away again without accomplishing any of their
objects, and would suffer more evil than they inflicted. At that
time my forefathers formed ties of hospitality with you; thus
ancient is the friendship which I and my parents have had for you.
  Ath. You seem to be quite ready to listen; and I am also ready to
perform as much as I can of an almost impossible task, which I will
nevertheless attempt. At the outset of the discussion, let me define
the nature and power of education; for this is the way by which our
argument must travel onwards to the God Dionysus.
  Cle. Let us proceed, if you please.
  Ath. Well, then, if I tell you what are my notions of education,
will you consider whether they satisfy you?
  Cle. Let us hear.
  Ath. According to my view, any one who would be good at anything
must practise that thing from his youth upwards, both in sport and
earnest, in its several branches: for example, he who is to be a
good builder, should play at building children's houses; he who is
to be a good husbandman, at tilling the ground; and those who have the
care of their education should provide them when young with mimic
tools. They should learn beforehand the knowledge which they will
afterwards require for their art. For example, the future carpenter
should learn to measure or apply the line in play; and the future
warrior should learn riding, or some other exercise, for amusement,
and the teacher should endeavour to direct the children's inclinations
and pleasures, by the help of amusements, to their final aim in
life. The most important part of education is right training in the
nursery. The soul of the child in his play should be guided to the
love of that sort of excellence in which when he grows up to manhood
he will have to be perfected. Do you agree with me thus far?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Then let us not leave the meaning of education ambiguous or
ill-defined. At present, when we speak in terms of praise or blame
about the bringing-up of each person, we call one man educated and
another uneducated, although the uneducated man may be sometimes
very well educated for the calling of a retail trader, or of a captain
of a ship, and the like. For we are not speaking of education in
this narrower sense, but of that other education in virtue from
youth upwards, which makes a man eagerly pursue the ideal perfection
of citizenship, and teaches him how rightly to rule and how to obey.
This is the only education which, upon our view, deserves the name;
that other sort of training, which aims at the acquisition of wealth
or bodily strength, or mere cleverness apart from intelligence and
justice, is mean and illiberal, and is not worthy to be called
education at all. But let us not quarrel with one another about a
word, provided that the proposition which has just been granted hold
good: to wit, that those who are rightly educated generally become
good men. Neither must we cast a slight upon education, which is the
first and fairest thing that the best of men can ever have, and which,
though liable to take a wrong direction, is capable of reformation.
And this work of reformation is the great business of every man
while he lives.
  Cle. Very true; and we entirely agree with you.
  Ath. And we agreed before that they are good men who are able to
rule themselves, and bad men who are not.
  Cle. You are quite right.
  Ath. Let me now proceed, if I can, to clear up the subject a
little further by an illustration which I will offer you.
  Cle. Proceed.
  Ath. Do we not consider each of ourselves to be one?
  Cle. We do.
  Ath. And each one of us has in his bosom two counsellors, both
foolish and also antagonistic; of which we call the one pleasure,
and the other pain.
  Cle. Exactly.
  Ath. Also there are opinions about the future, which have the
general name of expectations; and the specific name of fear, when
the expectation is of pain; and of hope, when of pleasure; and
further, there is reflection about the good or evil of them, and this,
when embodied in a decree by the State, is called Law.
  Cle. I am hardly able to follow you; proceed, however, as if I were.
  Meg. I am in the like case.
  Ath. Let us look at the matter thus: May we not conceive each of
us living beings to be a puppet of the Gods, either their plaything
only, or created with a purpose-which of the two we cannot certainly
know? But we do know, that these affections in us are like cords and
strings, which pull us different and opposite ways, and to opposite
actions; and herein lies the difference between virtue and vice.
According to the argument there is one among these cords which every
man ought to grasp and never let go, but to pull with it against all
the rest; and this is the sacred and golden cord of reason, called
by us the common law of the State; there are others which are hard and
of iron, but this one is soft because golden; and there are several
other kinds. Now we ought always to cooperate with the lead of the
best, which is law. For inasmuch as reason is beautiful and gentle,
and not violent, her rule must needs have ministers in order to help
the golden principle in vanquishing the other principles. And thus the
moral of the tale about our being puppets will not have been lost, and
the meaning of the expression "superior or inferior to a man's self"
will become clearer; and the individual, attaining to right reason
in this matter of pulling the strings of the puppet, should live
according to its rule; while the city, receiving the same from some
god or from one who has knowledge of these things, should embody it in
a law, to be her guide in her dealings with herself and with other
states. In this way virtue and vice will be more clearly distinguished
by us. And when they have become clearer, education and other
institutions will in like manner become clearer; and in particular
that question of convivial entertainment, which may seem, perhaps,
to have been a very trifling matter, and to have taken a great many
more words than were necessary.
  Cle. Perhaps, however, the theme may turn out not to be unworthy
of the length of discourse.
  Ath. Very good; let us proceed with any enquiry which really bears
on our present object.
  Cle. Proceed.
  Ath. Suppose that we give this puppet of ours drink-what will be the
effect on him?
  Cle. Having what in view do you ask that question?
  Ath. Nothing as yet; but I ask generally, when the puppet is brought
to the drink, what sort of result is likely to follow. I will
endeavour to explain my meaning more clearly: what I am now asking
is this-Does the drinking of wine heighten and increase pleasures
and pains, and passions and loves?
  Cle. Very greatly.
  Ath. And are perception and memory, and opinion and prudence,
heightened and increased? Do not these qualities entirely desert a man
if he becomes saturated with drink?
  Cle. Yes, they entirely desert him.
  Ath. Does he not return to the state of soul in which he was when
a young child?
  Cle. He does.
  Ath. Then at that time he will have the least control over himself?
  Cle. The least.
  Ath. And will he not be in a most wretched plight?
  Cle. Most wretched.
  Ath. Then not only an old man but also a drunkard becomes a second
time a child?
  Cle. Well said, Stranger.
  Ath. Is there any argument which will prove to us that we ought to
encourage the taste for drinking instead of doing all we can to
avoid it?
  Cle. I suppose that there is; you at any rate, were just now
saying that you were ready to maintain such a doctrine.
  Ath. True, I was; and I am ready still, seeing that you have both
declared that you are anxious to hear me.
  Cle. To sure we are, if only for the strangeness of the paradox,
which asserts that a man ought of his own accord to plunge into
utter degradation.
  Ath. Are you speaking of the soul?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. And what would you say about the body, my friend? Are you not
surprised at any one of his own accord bringing upon himself
deformity, leanness, ugliness, decrepitude?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Yet when a man goes of his own accord to a doctor's shop, and
takes medicine, is he not aware that soon, and for many days
afterwards, he will be in a state of body which he would die rather
than accept as the permanent condition of his life? Are not those
who train in gymnasia, at first beginning reduced to a state of
weakness?
  Cle. Yes, all that is well known.
  Ath. Also that they go of their own accord for the sake of the
subsequent benefit?
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. And we may conceive this to be true in the same way of other
practices?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And the same view may be taken of the pastime of drinking wine,
if we are right in supposing that the same good effect follows?
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. If such convivialities should turn out to have any advantage
equal in importance to that of gymnastic, they are in their very
nature to be preferred to mere bodily exercise, inasmuch as they
have no accompaniment of pain.
  Cle. True; but I hardly think that we shall be able to discover
any such benefits to be derived from them.
  Ath. That is just what we must endeavour to show. And let me ask you
a question:-Do we not distinguish two kinds of fear, which are very
different?
  Cle. What are they?
  Ath. There is the fear of expected evil.
  Cle. Yes.
   Ath. And there is the fear of an evil reputation; we are afraid
of being thought evil, because we do or say some dishonourable
thing, which fear we and all men term shame.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. These are the two fears, as I called them; one of which is
the opposite of pain and other fears, and the opposite also of the
greatest and most numerous sort of pleasures.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. And does not the legislator and every one who is good for
anything, hold this fear in the greatest honour? This is what he terms
reverence, and the confidence which is the reverse of this he terms
insolence; and the latter he always deems to be a very great evil both
to individuals and to states.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Does not this kind of fear preserve us in many important
ways? What is there which so surely gives victory and safety in war?
For there are two things which give victory-confidence before enemies,
and fear of disgrace before friends.
  Cle. There are.
  Ath. Then each of us should be fearless and also fearful; and why we
should be either has now been determined.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And when we want to make any one fearless, we and the law bring
him face to face with many fears.
  Cle. Clearly.
  Ath. And when we want to make him rightly fearful, must we not
introduce him to shameless pleasures, and train him to take up arms
against them, and to overcome them? Or does this principle apply to
courage only, and must he who would be perfect in valour fight against
and overcome his own natural character-since if he be unpractised
and inexperienced in such conflicts, he will not be half the man which
he might have been-and are we to suppose, that with temperance it is
otherwise, and that he who has never fought with the shameless and
unrighteous temptations of his pleasures and lusts, and conquered
them, in earnest and in play, by word, deed, and act, will still be
perfectly temperate?
  Cle. A most unlikely supposition.
  Ath. Suppose that some God had given a fear-potion to men, and
that the more a man drank of this the more he regarded himself at
every draught as a child of misfortune, and that he feared
everything happening or about to happen to him; and that at last the
most courageous of men utterly lost his presence of mind for a time,
and only came to himself again when he had slept off the influence
of the draught.
  Cle. But has such a draught, Stranger, ever really been known
among men?
  Ath. No; but, if there had been, might not such a draught have
been of use to the legislator as a test of courage? Might we not go
and say to him, "O legislator, whether you are legislating for the
Cretan, or for any other state, would you not like to have a
touchstone of the courage and cowardice of your citizens?"
  Cle. "I should," will be the answer of every one.
  Ath. "And you would rather have a touchstone in which there is no
risk and no great danger than the reverse?"
  Cle. In that proposition every one may safely agree.
  Ath. "And in order to make use of the draught, you would lead them
amid these imaginary terrors, and prove them, when the affection of
fear was working upon them, and compel them to be fearless,
exhorting and admonishing them; and also honouring them, but
dishonouring any one who will not be persuaded by you to be in all
respects such as you command him; and if he underwent the trial well
and manfully, you would let him go unscathed; but if ill, you would
inflict a punishment upon him? Or would you abstain from using the
potion altogether, although you have no reason for abstaining?"
  Cle. He would be certain, Stranger, to use the potion.
  Ath. This would be a mode of testing and training which would be
wonderfully easy in comparison with those now in use, and might be
applied to a single person, or to a few, or indeed to any number;
and he would do well who provided himself with the potion only, rather
than with any number of other things, whether he preferred to be by
himself in solitude, and there contend with his fears, because he
was ashamed to be seen by the eye of man until he was perfect; or
trusting to the force of his own nature and habits, and believing that
he had been already disciplined sufficiently, he did not hesitate to
train himself in company with any number of others, and display his
power in conquering the irresistible change effected by the
draught-his virtue being such, that he never in any instance fell into
any great unseemliness, but was always himself, and left off before he
arrived at the last cup, fearing that he, like all other men, might be
overcome by the potion.
  Cle. Yes, Stranger, in that last case, too, he might equally show
his self-control.
  Ath. Let us return to the lawgiver, and say to him:-"Well, lawgiver,
there is certainly no such fear-potion which man has either received
from the Gods or himself discovered; for witchcraft has no place at
our board. But is there any potion which might serve as a test of
overboldness and excessive and indiscreet boasting?
  Cle. I suppose that he will say, Yes-meaning that wine is such a
potion.
  Ath. Is not the effect of this quite the opposite of the effect of
the other? When a man drinks wine he begins to be better pleased
with himself, and the more he drinks the more he is filled full of
brave hopes, and conceit of his power, and at last the string of his
tongue is loosened, and fancying himself wise, he is brimming over
with lawlessness, and has no more fear or respect, and is ready to
do or say anything.
  Cle. I think that every one will admit the truth of your
description.
  Meg. Certainly.
  Ath. Now, let us remember, as we were saying, that there are two
things which should be cultivated in the soul: first, the greatest
courage; secondly, the greatest fear-
  Cle. Which you said to be characteristic of reverence, if I am not
mistaken.
  Ath. Thank you for reminding me. But now, as the habit of courage
and fearlessness is to be trained amid fears, let us consider
whether the opposite quality is not also to be trained among
opposites.
  Cle. That is probably the case.
  Ath. There are times and seasons at which we are by nature more than
commonly valiant and bold; now we ought to train ourselves on these
occasions to be as free from impudence and shamelessness as
possible, and to be afraid to say or suffer or do anything that is
base.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Are not the moments in which we are apt to be bold and
shameless such as these?-when we are under the influence of anger,
love, pride, ignorance, avarice, cowardice? or when wealth, beauty,
strength, and all the intoxicating workings of pleasure madden us?
What is better adapted than the festive use of wine, in the first
place to test, and in the second place to train the character of a
man, if care be taken in the use of it? What is there cheaper, or more
innocent? For do but consider which is the greater risk:-Would you
rather test a man of a morose and savage nature, which is the source
of ten thousand acts of injustice, by making bargains with him at a
risk to yourself, or by having him as a companion at the festival of
Dionysus? Or would you, if you wanted to apply a touchstone to a man
who is prone to love, entrust your wife, or your sons, or daughters to
him, perilling your dearest interests in order to have a view of the
condition of his soul? I might mention numberless cases, in which
the advantage would be manifest of getting to know a character in
sport, and without paying dearly for experience. And I do not
believe that either a Cretan, or any other man, will doubt that such a
test is a fair test, and safer, cheaper, and speedier than any other.
  Cle. That is certainly true.
  Ath. And this knowledge of the natures and habits of men's souls
will be of the greatest use in that art which has the management of
them; and that art, if I am not mistaken, is politics.
  Cle. Exactly so.
  BOOK II

  Athenian Stranger. And now we have to consider whether the insight
into human nature is the only benefit derived from well ordered
potations, or whether there are not other advantages great and much to
be desired. The argument seems to imply that there are. But how and in
what way these are to be attained, will have to be considered
attentively, or we may be entangled in error.
  Cleinias. Proceed.
  Ath. Let me once more recall our doctrine of right education; which,
if I am not mistaken, depends on the due regulation of convivial
intercourse.
  Cle. You talk rather grandly.
  Ath. Pleasure and pain I maintain to be the first perceptions of
children, and I say that they are the forms under which virtue and
vice are originally present to them. As to wisdom and true and fixed
opinions, happy is the man who acquires them, even when declining in
years; and we may say that he who possesses them, and the blessings
which are contained in them, is a perfect man. Now I mean by education
that training which is given by suitable habits to the first instincts
of virtue in children;-when pleasure, and friendship, and pain, and
hatred, are rightly implanted in souls not yet capable of
understanding the nature of them, and who find them, after they have
attained reason, to be in harmony with her. This harmony of the
soul, taken as a whole, is virtue; but the particular training in
respect of pleasure and pain, which leads you always to hate what
you ought to hate, and love what you ought to love from the
beginning of life to the end, may be separated off; and, in my view,
will be rightly called education.
  Cle. I think, Stranger, that you are quite right in all that you
have said and are saying about education.
  Ath. I am glad to hear that you agree with me; for, indeed, the
discipline of pleasure and pain which, when rightly ordered, is a
principle of education, has been often relaxed and corrupted in
human life. And the Gods, pitying the toils which our race is born
to undergo, have appointed holy festivals, wherein men alternate
rest with labour; and have given them the Muses and Apollo, the leader
of the Muses, and Dionysus, to be companions in their revels, that
they may improve their education by taking part in the festivals of
the Gods, and with their help. I should like to know whether a
common saying is in our opinion true to nature or not. For men say
that the young of all creatures cannot be quiet in their bodies or
in their voices; they are always wanting to move and cry out; some
leaping and skipping, and overflowing with sportiveness and delight at
something, others uttering all sorts of cries. But, whereas the
animals have no perception of order or disorder in their movements,
that is, of rhythm or harmony, as they are called, to us, the Gods,
who, as we say, have been appointed to be our companions in the dance,
have given the pleasurable sense of harmony and rhythm; and so they
stir us into life, and we follow them, joining hands together in
dances and songs; and these they call choruses, which is a term
naturally expressive of cheerfulness. Shall we begin, then, with the
acknowledgment that education is first given through Apollo and the
Muses? What do you say?
  Cle. I assent.
  Ath. And the uneducated is he who has not been trained in the
chorus, and the educated is he who has been well trained?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And the chorus is made up of two parts, dance and song?
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Then he who is well educated will be able to sing and dance
well?
  Cle. I suppose that he will.
  Ath. Let us see; what are we saying?
  Cle. What?
  Ath. He sings well and dances well; now must we add that he sings
what is good and dances what is good?
  Cle. Let us make the addition.
  Ath. We will suppose that he knows the good to be good, and the
bad to be bad, and makes use of them accordingly: which now is the
better trained in dancing and music-he who is able to move his body
and to use his voice in what is understood to be the right manner, but
has no delight in good or hatred of evil; or he who is incorrect in
gesture and voice, but is right in his sense of pleasure and pain, and
welcomes what is good, and is offended at what is evil?
  Cle. There is a great difference, Stranger, in the two kinds of
education.
  Ath. If we three know what is good in song and dance, then we
truly know also who is educated and who is uneducated; but if not,
then we certainly shall not know wherein lies the safeguard of
education, and whether there is any or not.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Let us follow the scent like hounds, and go in pursuit of
beauty of figure, and melody, and song, and dance; if these escape us,
there will be no use in talking about true education, whether Hellenic
or barbarian.
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. And what is beauty of figure, or beautiful melody? When a manly
soul is in trouble, and when a cowardly soul is in similar case, are
they likely to use the same figures and gestures, or to give utterance
to the same sounds?
  Cle. How can they, when the very colours of their faces differ?
  Ath. Good, my friend; I may observe, however, in passing, that in
music there certainly are figures and there are melodies: and music is
concerned with harmony and rhythm, so that you may speak of a melody
or figure having good rhythm or good harmony-the term is correct
enough; but to speak metaphorically of a melody or figure having a
"good colour," as the masters of choruses do, is not allowable,
although you can speak of the melodies or figures of the brave and the
coward, praising the one and censuring the other. And not to be
tedious, let us say that the figures and melodies which are expressive
of virtue of soul or body, or of images of virtue, are without
exception good, and those which are expressive of vice are the reverse
of good.
  Cle. Your suggestion is excellent; and let us answer that these
things are so.
  Ath. Once more, are all of us equally delighted with every sort of
dance?
  Cle. Far otherwise.
  Ath. What, then, leads us astray? Are beautiful things not the
same to us all, or are they the same in themselves, but not in our
opinion of them? For no one will admit that forms of vice in the dance
are more beautiful than forms of virtue, or that he himself delights
in the forms of vice, and others in a muse of another character. And
yet most persons say, that the excellence of music is to give pleasure
to our souls. But this is intolerable and blasphemous; there is,
however, a much more plausible account of the delusion.
  Cle. What?
  Ath. The adaptation of art to the characters of men. Choric
movements are imitations of manners occurring in various actions,
fortunes, dispositions-each particular is imitated, and those to
whom the words, or songs, or dances are suited, either by nature or
habit or both, cannot help feeling pleasure in them and applauding
them, and calling them beautiful. But those whose natures, or ways, or
habits are unsuited to them, cannot delight in them or applaud them,
and they call them base. There are others, again, whose natures are
right and their habits wrong, or whose habits are right and their
natures wrong, and they praise one thing, but are pleased at
another. For they say that all these imitations are pleasant, but
not good. And in the presence of those whom they think wise, they
are ashamed of dancing and singing in the baser manner, or of
deliberately lending any countenance to such proceedings; and yet,
they have a secret pleasure in them.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. And is any harm done to the lover of vicious dances or songs,
or any good done to the approver of the opposite sort of pleasure?
  Cle. I think that there is.
  Ath. "I think" is not the word, but I would say, rather, "I am
certain." For must they not have the same effect as when a man
associates with bad characters, whom he likes and approves rather than
dislikes, and only censures playfully because he has a suspicion of
his own badness? In that case, he who takes pleasure in them will
surely become like those in whom he takes pleasure, even though he
be ashamed to praise them. And what greater good or evil can any
destiny ever make us undergo?
  Cle. I know of none.
  Ath. Then in a city which has good laws, or in future ages is to
have them, bearing in mind the instruction and amusement which are
given by music, can we suppose that the poets are to be allowed to
teach in the dance anything which they themselves like, in the way
of rhythm, or melody, or words, to the young children of any
well-conditioned parents? Is the poet to train his choruses as he
pleases, without reference to virtue or vice?
  Cle. That is surely quite unreasonable, and is not to be thought of.
  Ath. And yet he may do this in almost any state with the exception
of Egypt.
  Cle. And what are the laws about music and dancing in Egypt?
  Ath. You will wonder when I tell you: Long ago they appear to have
recognized the very principle of which we are now speaking-that
their young citizens must be habituated to forms and strains of
virtue. These they fixed, and exhibited the patterns of them in
their temples; and no painter or artist is allowed to innovate upon
them, or to leave the traditional forms and invent new ones. To this
day, no alteration is allowed either in these arts, or in music at
all. And you will find that their works of art are painted or
moulded in the same forms which they had ten thousand years
ago;-this is literally true and no exaggeration-their ancient
paintings and sculptures are not a whit better or worse than the
work of to-day, but are made with just the same skill.
  Cle. How extraordinary!
  Ath. I should rather say, How statesmanlike, how worthy of a
legislator! I know that other things in Egypt are nat so well. But
what I am telling you about music is true and deserving of
consideration, because showing that a lawgiver may institute
melodies which have a natural truth and correctness without any fear
of failure. To do this, however, must be the work of God, or of a
divine person; in Egypt they have a tradition that their ancient
chants which have been preserved for so many ages are the
composition of the Goddess Isis. And therefore, as I was saying, if
a person can only find in any way the natural melodies, he may
confidently embody them in a fixed and legal form. For the love of
novelty which arises out of pleasure in the new and weariness of the
old, has not strength enough to corrupt the consecrated song and
dance, under the plea that they have become antiquated. At any rate,
they are far from being corrupted in Egypt.
  Cle. Your arguments seem to prove your point.
  Ath. May we not confidently say that the true use of music and of
choral festivities is as follows: We rejoice when we think that we
prosper, and again we think that we prosper when we rejoice?
  Cle. Exactly.
  Ath. And when rejoicing in our good fortune, we are unable to be
still?
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Our young men break forth into dancing and singing, and we
who are their elders deem that we are fulfilling our part in life when
we look on at them. Having lost our agility, we delight in their
sports and merry-making, because we love to think of our former
selves; and gladly institute contests for those who are able to awaken
in us the memory of our youth.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Is it altogether unmeaning to say, as the common people do
about festivals, that he should be adjudged the wisest of men, and the
winner of the palm, who gives us the greatest amount of pleasure and
mirth? For on such occasions, and when mirth is the order of the
day, ought not he to be honoured most, and, as I was saying, bear
the palm, who gives most mirth to the greatest number? Now is this a
true way of speaking or of acting?
  Cle. Possibly.
  Ath. But, my dear friend, let us distinguish between different
cases, and not be hasty in forming a judgment: One way of
considering the question will be to imagine a festival at which
there are entertainments of all sorts, including gymnastic, musical,
and equestrian contests: the citizens are assembled; prizes are
offered, and proclamation is made that any one who likes may enter the
lists, and that he is to bear the palm who gives the most pleasure
to the spectators-there is to be no regulation about the manner how;
but he who is most successful in giving pleasure is to be crowned
victor, and deemed to be the pleasantest of the candidates: What is
likely to be the result of such a proclamation?
  Cle. In what respect?
  Ath. There would be various exhibitions: one man, like Homer, will
exhibit a rhapsody, another a performance on the lute; one will have a
tragedy, and another a comedy. Nor would there be anything astonishing
in some one imagining that he could gain the prize by exhibiting a
puppet-show. Suppose these competitors to meet, and not these only,
but innumerable others as well can you tell me who ought to be the
victor?
  Cle. I do not see how any one can answer you, or pretend to know,
unless he has heard with his own ears the several competitors; the
question is absurd.
  Ath. Well, then, if neither of you can answer, shall I answer this
question which you deem so absurd?
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. If very small children are to determine the question, they will
decide for the puppet show.
  Cle. Of course.
  Ath. The older children will be advocates of comedy; educated women,
and young men, and people in general, will favour tragedy.
  Cle. Very likely.
  Ath. And I believe that we old men would have the greatest
pleasure in hearing a rhapsodist recite well the Iliad and Odyssey, or
one of the Hesiodic poems, and would award the victory to him. But,
who would really be the victor?-that is the question.
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. Clearly you and I will have to declare that those whom we old
men adjudge victors ought to win; for our ways are far and away better
than any which at present exist anywhere in the world.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Thus far I too should agree with the many, that the
excellence of music is to be measured by pleasure. But the pleasure
must not be that of chance persons; the fairest music is that which
delights the best and best educated, and especially that which
delights the one man who is pre-eminent in virtue and education. And
therefore the judges must be men of character, for they will require
both wisdom and courage; the true judge must not draw his
inspiration from the theatre, nor ought he to be unnerved by the
clamour of the many and his own incapacity; nor again, knowing the
truth, ought he through cowardice and unmanliness carelessly to
deliver a lying judgment, with the very same lips which have just
appealed to the Gods before he judged. He is sitting not as the
disciple of the theatre, but, in his proper place, as their
instructor, and he ought to be the enemy of all pandering to the
pleasure of the spectators. The ancient and common custom of Hellas,
which still prevails in Italy and Sicily, did certainly leave the
judgment to the body of spectators, who determined the victor by
show of hands. But this custom has been the destruction of the
poets; for they are now in the habit of composing with a view to
please the bad taste of their judges, and the result is that the
spectators instruct themselves;-and also it has been the ruin of the
theatre; they ought to be having characters put before them better
than their own, and so receiving a higher pleasure, but now by their
own act the opposite result follows. What inference is to be drawn
from all this? Shall I tell you?
  Cle. What?
  Ath. The inference at which we arrive for the third or fourth time
is, that education is the constraining and directing of youth
towards that right reason, which the law affirms, and which the
experience of the eldest and best has agreed to be truly right. In
order, then, that the soul of the child may not be habituated to
feel joy and sorrow in a manner at variance with the law, and those
who obey the law, but may rather follow the law and rejoice and sorrow
at the same things as the aged-in order, I say, to produce this
effect, chants appear to have been invented, which really enchant, and
are designed to implant that harmony of which we speak. And, because
the mind of the child is incapable of enduring serious training,
they are called plays and songs, and are performed in play; just as
when men are sick and ailing in their bodies, their attendants give
them wholesome diet in pleasant meats and drinks, but unwholesome diet
in disagreeable things, in order that they may learn, as they ought,
to like the one, and to dislike the other. And similarly the true
legislator will persuade, and, if he cannot persuade, will compel
the poet to express, as he ought, by fair and noble words, in his
rhythms, the figures, and in his melodies, the music of temperate
and brave and in every way good men.
  Cle. But do you really imagine, Stranger, that this is the way in
which poets generally compose in States at the present day? As far
as I can observe, except among us and among the Lacedaemonians,
there are no regulations like those of which you speak; in other
places novelties are always being introduced in dancing and in
music, generally not under the authority of any law, but at the
instigation of lawless pleasures; and these pleasures are so far
from being the same, as you describe the Egyptian to be, or having the
same principles, that they are never the same.
  Ath. Most true, Cleinias; and I daresay that I may have expressed
myself obscurely, and so led you to imagine that I was speaking of
some really existing state of things, whereas I was only saying what
regulations I would like to have about music; and hence there occurred
a misapprehension on your part. For when evils are far gone and
irremediable, the task of censuring them is never pleasant, although
at times necessary. But as we do not really differ, will you let me
ask you whether you consider such institutions to be more prevalent
among the Cretans and Lacedaemonians than among the other Hellenes?
  Cle. Certainly they are.
  Ath. And if they were extended to the other Hellenes, would it be an
improvement on the present state of things?
  Cle. A very great improvement, if the customs which prevail among
them were such as prevail among us and the Lacedaemonians, and such as
you were just now saying ought to prevail.
  Ath. Let us see whether we understand one another:-Are not the
principles of education and music which prevail among you as
follows: you compel your poets to say that the good man, if he be
temperate and just, is fortunate and happy; and this whether he be
great and strong or small and weak, and whether he be rich or poor;
and, on the other hand, if he have a wealth passing that of Cinyras or
Midas, and be unjust, he is wretched and lives in misery? As the
poet says, and with truth: I sing not, I care not about him who
accomplishes all noble things, not having justice; let him who
"draws near and stretches out his hand against his enemies be a just
man." But if he be unjust, I would not have him "look calmly upon
bloody death," nor "surpass in swiftness the Thracian Boreas"; and let
no other thing that is called good ever be his. For the goods of which
the many speak are not really good: first in the catalogue is placed
health, beauty next, wealth third; and then innumerable others, as for
example to have a keen eye or a quick ear, and in general to have
all the senses perfect; or, again, to be a tyrant and do as you
like; and the final consummation of happiness is to have acquired
all these things, and when you have acquired them to become at once
immortal. But you and I say, that while to the just and holy all these
things are the best of possessions, to the unjust they are all,
including even health, the greatest of evils. For in truth, to have
sight, and hearing, and the use of the senses, or to live at all
without justice and virtue, even though a man be rich in all the
so-called goods of fortune, is the greatest of evils, if life be
immortal; but not so great, if the bad man lives only a very short
time. These are the truths which, if I am not mistaken, you will
persuade or compel your poets to utter with suitable accompaniments of
harmony and rhythm, and in these they must train up your youth. Am I
not right? For I plainly declare that evils as they are termed are
goods to the unjust, and only evils to the just, and that goods are
truly good to the good, but evil to the evil. Let me ask again, Are
you and I agreed about this?
  Cle. I think that we partly agree and partly do not.
  Ath. When a man has health and wealth and a tyranny which lasts, and
when he is preeminent in strength and courage, and has the gift of
immortality, and none of the so-called evils which counter-balance
these goods, but only the injustice and insolence of his own nature-of
such an one you are, I suspect, unwilling to believe that he is
miserable rather than happy.
  Cle. That is quite true.
  Ath. Once more: Suppose that he be valiant and strong, and
handsome and rich, and does throughout his whole life whatever he
likes, still, if he be unrighteous and insolent, would not both of you
agree that he will of necessity live basely? You will surely grant
so much?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And an evil life too?
  Cle. I am not equally disposed to grant that.
  Ath. Will he not live painfully and to his own disadvantage?
  Cle. How can I possibly say so?
  Ath. How! Then may Heaven make us to be of one mind, for now we
are of two. To me, dear Cleinias, the truth of what I am saying is
as plain as the fact that Crete is an island. And, if I were a
lawgiver, I would try to make the poets and all the citizens speak
in this strain, and I would inflict the heaviest penalties on any
one in all the land who should dare to say that there are bad men
who lead pleasant lives, or that the profitable and gainful is one
thing, and the just another; and there are many other matters about
which I should make my citizens speak in a manner different from the
Cretans and Lacedaemonians of this age, and I may say, indeed, from
the world in general. For tell me, my good friends, by Zeus and Apollo
tell me, if I were to ask these same Gods who were your legislators-Is
not the most just life also the pleasantest? or are there two lives,
one of which is the justest and the other the pleasantest?-and they
were to reply that there are two; and thereupon I proceeded to ask,
(that would be the right way of pursuing the enquiry), Which are the
happier-those who lead the justest, or those who lead the
pleasantest life? and they replied, Those who lead the
pleasantest-that would be a very strange answer, which I should not
like to put into the mouth of the Gods. The words will come with
more propriety from the lips of fathers and legislators, and therefore
I will repeat my former questions to one of them, and suppose him to
say again that he who leads the pleasantest life is the happiest.
And to that I rejoin:-O my father, did you not wish me to live as
happily as possible? And yet you also never ceased telling me that I
should live as justly as possible. Now, here the giver of the rule,
whether he be legislator or father, will be in a dilemma, and will
in vain endeavour to be consistent with himself. But if he were to
declare that the justest life is also the happiest, every one
hearing him would enquire, if I am not mistaken, what is that good and
noble principle in life which the law approves, and which is
superior to pleasure. For what good can the just man have which is
separated from pleasure? Shall we say that glory and fame, coming from
Gods and men, though good and noble, are nevertheless unpleasant,
and infamy pleasant? Certainly not, sweet legislator. Or shall we
say that the not-doing of wrong and there being no wrong done is
good and honourable, although there is no pleasure in it, and that the
doing wrong is pleasant, but evil and base?
  Cle. Impossible.
  Ath. The view which identifies the pleasant and the pleasant and the
just and the good and the noble has an excellent moral and religious
tendency. And the opposite view is most at variance with the designs
of the legislator, and is, in his opinion, infamous; for no one, if he
can help, will be persuaded to do that which gives him more pain
than pleasure. But as distant prospects are apt to make us dizzy,
especially in childhood, the legislator will try to purge away the
darkness and exhibit the truth; he will persuade the citizens, in some
way or other, by customs and praises and words, that just and unjust
are shadows only, and that injustice, which seems opposed to
justice, when contemplated by the unjust and evil man appears pleasant
and the just most unpleasant; but that from the just man's point of
view, the very opposite is the appearance of both of them.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. And which may be supposed to be the truer judgment-that of
the inferior or of the better soul?
  Cle. Surely, that of the better soul.
  Ath. Then the unjust life must not only be more base and depraved,
but also more unpleasant than the just and holy life?
  Cle. That seems to be implied in the present argument.
  Ath. And even supposing this were otherwise, and not as the argument
has proven, still the lawgiver, who is worth anything, if he ever
ventures to tell a lie to the young for their good, could not invent a
more useful lie than this, or one which will have a better effect in
making them do what is right, not on compulsion but voluntarily.
  Cle. Truth, Stranger, is a noble thing and a lasting, but a thing of
which men are hard to be persuaded.
  Ath. And yet the story of the Sidonian Cadmus, which is so
improbable, has been readily believed, and also innumerable other
tales.
  Cle. What is that story?
  Ath. The story of armed men springing up after the sowing of
teeth, which the legislator may take as a proof that he can persuade
the minds of the young of anything; so that he has only to reflect and
find out what belief will be of the greatest public advantage, and
then use all his efforts to make the whole community utter one and the
same word in their songs and tales and discourses all their life long.
But if you do not agree with me, there is no reason why you should not
argue on the other side.
  Cle. I do not see that any argument can fairly be raised by either
of us against what you are now saying.
  Ath. The next suggestion which I have to offer is, that all our
three choruses shall sing to the young and tender souls of children,
reciting in their strains all the noble thoughts of which we have
already spoken, or are about to speak; and the sum of them shall be,
that the life which is by the Gods deemed to be the happiest is also
the best;-we shall affirm this to be a most certain truth; and the
minds of our young disciples will be more likely to receive these
words of ours than any others which we might address to them.
  Cle. I assent to what you say.
  Ath. First will enter in their natural order the sacred choir
composed of children, which is to sing lustily the heaven-taught lay
to the whole city. Next will follow the choir of young men under the
age of thirty, who will call upon the God Paean to testify to the
truth of their words, and will pray him to be gracious to the youth
and to turn their hearts. Thirdly, the choir of elder men, who are
from thirty to sixty years of age, will also sing. There remain
those who are too old to sing, and they will tell stories,
illustrating the same virtues, as with the voice of an oracle.
  Cle. Who are those who compose the third choir, Stranger? for I do
not clearly understand what you mean to say about them.
  Ath. And yet almost all that I have been saying has said with a view
to them.
  Cle. Will you try to be a little plainer?
  Ath. I was speaking at the commencement of our discourse, as you
will remember, of the fiery nature of young creatures: I said that
they were unable to keep quiet either in limb or voice, and that
they called out and jumped about in a disorderly manner; and that no
other animal attained to any perception of order, but man only. Now
the order of motion is called rhythm, and the order of the voice, in
which high and low are duly mingled, is called harmony; and both
together are termed choric song. And I said that the Gods had pity
on us, and gave us Apollo and the Muses to be our playfellows and
leaders in the dance; and Dionysus, as I dare say that you will
remember, was the third.
  Cle. I quite remember.
  Ath. Thus far I have spoken of the chorus of Apollo and the Muses,
and I have still to speak of the remaining chorus, which is that of
Dionysus.
  Cle. How is that arranged? There is something strange, at any rate
on first hearing, in a Dionysiac chorus of old men, if you really mean
that those who are above thirty, and may be fifty, or from fifty to
sixty years of age, are to dance in his honour.
  Ath. Very true; and therefore it must be shown that there is good
reason for the proposal.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Are we agreed thus far?
  Cle. About what?
  Ath. That every man and boy, slave and free, both sexes, and the
whole city, should never cease charming themselves with the strains of
which we have spoken; and that there should be every sort of change
and variation of them in order to take away the effect of sameness, so
that the singers may always receive pleasure from their hymns, and may
never weary of them?
  Cle. Every one will agree.
  Ath. Where, then, will that best part of our city which, by reason
of age and intelligence, has the greatest influence, sing these
fairest of strains, which are to do so much good? Shall we be so
foolish as to let them off who would give us the most beautiful and
also the most useful of songs?
  Cle. But, says the argument, we cannot let them off.
  Ath. Then how can we carry out our purpose with decorum? Will this
be the way?
  Cle. What?
  Ath. When a man is advancing in years, he is afraid and reluctant to
sing;-he has no pleasure in his own performances; and if compulsion is
used, he will be more and more ashamed, the older and more discreet he
grows;-is not this true?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Well, and will he not be yet more ashamed if he has to stand up
and sing in the theatre to a mixed audience?-and if moreover when he
is required to do so, like the other choirs who contend for prizes,
and have been trained under a singing master, he is pinched and
hungry, he will certainly have a feeling of shame and discomfort which
will make him very unwilling to exhibit.
  Cle. No doubt.
  Ath. How, then, shall we reassure him, and get him to sing? Shall we
begin by enacting that boys shall not taste wine at all until they are
eighteen years of age; we will tell them that fire must not be
poured upon fire, whether in the body or in the soul, until they begin
to go to work-this is a precaution which has to be taken against the
excitableness of youth;-afterwards they may taste wine in moderation
up to the age of thirty, but while a man is young he should abstain
altogether from intoxication and from excess of wine; when, at length,
he has reached forty years, after dinner at a public mess, he may
invite not only the other Gods, but Dionysus above all, to the mystery
and festivity of the elder men, making use of the wine which he has
given men to lighten the sourness of old age; that in age we may renew
our youth, and forget our sorrows; and also in order that the nature
of the soul, like iron melted in the fire, may become softer and so
more impressible. In the first place, will not any one who is thus
mellowed be more ready and less ashamed to sing-I do not say before
a large audience, but before a moderate company; nor yet among
strangers, but among his familiars, and, as we have often said, to
chant, and to enchant?
  Cle. He will be far more ready.
  Ath. There will be no impropriety in our using such a method of
persuading them to join with us in song.
  Cle. None at all.
  Ath. And what strain will they sing, and what muse will they hymn?
The strain should clearly be one suitable to them.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And what strain is suitable for heroes? Shall they sing a
choric strain?
  Cle. Truly, Stranger, we of Crete and Lacedaemon know no strain
other than that which we have learnt and been accustomed to sing in
our chorus.
  Ath. I dare say; for you have never acquired the knowledge of the
most beautiful kind of song, in your military way of life, which is
modelled after the camp, and is not like that of dwellers in cities;
and you have your young men herding and feeding together like young
colts. No one takes his own individual colt and drags him away from
his fellows against his will, raging and foaming, and gives him a
groom to attend to him alone, and trains and rubs him down
privately, and gives him the qualities in education which will make
him not only a good soldier, but also a governor of a state and of
cities. Such an one, as we said at first, would be a greater warrior
than he of whom Tyrtaeus sings; and he would honour courage
everywhere, but always as the fourth, and not as the first part of
virtue, either in individuals or states.
  Cle. Once more, Stranger, I must complain that you depreciate our
lawgivers.
  Ath. Not intentionally, if at all, my good friend; but whither the
argument leads, thither let us follow; for if there be indeed some
strain of song more beautiful than that of the choruses or the
public theatres, I should like to impart it to those who, as we say,
are ashamed of these, and want to have the best.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. When things have an accompanying charm, either the best thing
in them is this very charm, or there is some rightness or utility
possessed by them;-for example, I should say that eating and drinking,
and the use of food in general, have an accompanying charm which we
call pleasure; but that this rightness and utility is just the
healthfulness of the things served up to us, which is their true
rightness.
  Cle. Just so.
  Ath. Thus, too, I should say that learning has a certain
accompanying charm which is the pleasure; but that the right and the
profitable, the good and the noble, are qualities which the truth
gives to it.
  Cle. Exactly.
  Ath. And so in the imitative arts-if they succeed in making
likenesses, and are accompanied by pleasure, may not their works be
said to have a charm?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. But equal proportions, whether of quality or quantity, and
not pleasure, speaking generally, would give them truth or rightness.
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. Then that only can be rightly judged by the standard of
pleasure, which makes or furnishes no utility or truth or likeness,
nor on the other hand is productive of any hurtful quality, but exists
solely for the sake of the accompanying charm; and the term "pleasure"
is most appropriately applied to it when these other qualities are
absent.
  Cle. You are speaking of harmless pleasure, are you not?
  Ath. Yes; and this I term amusement, when doing neither harm nor
good in any degree worth speaking of.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Then, if such be our principles, we must assert that
imitation is not to be judged of by pleasure and false opinion; and
this is true of all equality, for the equal is not equal or the
symmetrical symmetrical, because somebody thinks or likes something,
but they are to be judged of by the standard of truth, and by no other
whatever.
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. Do we not regard all music as representative and imitative?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Then, when any one says that music is to be judged of by
pleasure, his doctrine cannot be admitted; and if there be any music
of which pleasure is the criterion, such music is not to be sought out
or deemed to have any real excellence, but only that other kind of
music which is an imitation of the good.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. And those who seek for the best kind of song and music ought
not to seek for that which is pleasant, but for that which is true;
and the truth of imitation consists, as we were saying, in rendering
the thing imitated according to quantity and quality.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And every one will admit that musical compositions are all
imitative and representative. Will not poets and spectators and actors
all agree in this?
  Cle. They will.
  Ath. Surely then he who would judge correctly must know what each
composition is; for if he does not know what is the character and
meaning of the piece, and what it represents, he will never discern
whether the intention is true or false.
  Cle. Certainly not.
  Ath. And will he who does not know what is true be able to
distinguish what is good and bad? My statement is not very clear;
but perhaps you will understand me better if I put the matter in
another way.
  Cle. How?
  Ath. There are ten thousand likenesses of objects of sight?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. And can he who does not know what the exact object is which
is imitated, ever know whether the resemblance is truthfully executed?
I mean, for example, whether a statue has the proportions of a body,
and the true situation of the parts; what those proportions are, and
how the parts fit into one another in due order; also their colours
and conformations, or whether this is all confused in the execution:
do you think that any one can know about this, who does not know
what the animal is which has been imitated?
  Cle. Impossible.
  Ath. But even if we know that the thing pictured or sculptured is
a man, who has received at the hand of the artist all his proper parts
and colours and shapes, must we not also know whether the work is
beautiful or in any respect deficient in beauty?
  Cle. If this were not required, Stranger, we should all of us be
judges of beauty.
  Ath. Very true; and may we not say that in everything imitated,
whether in drawing, music, or any other art, he who is to be a
competent judge must possess three things;-he must know, in the
first place, of what the imitation is; secondly, he must know that
it is true; and thirdly, that it has been well executed in words and
melodies and rhythms?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Then let us not faint in discussing the peculiar difficulty
of music. Music is more celebrated than any other kind of imitation,
and therefore requires the greatest care of them all. For if a man
makes a mistake here, he may do himself the greatest injury by
welcoming evil dispositions, and the mistake may be very difficult
to discern, because the poets are artists very inferior in character
to the Muses themselves, who would never fall into the monstrous error
of assigning to the words of men the gestures and songs of women;
nor after combining the melodies with the gestures of freemen would
they add on the rhythms of slaves and men of the baser sort; nor,
beginning with the rhythms and gestures of freemen, would they
assign to them a melody or words which are of an opposite character;
nor would they mix up the voices and sounds of animals and of men
and instruments, and every other sort of noise, as if they were all
one. But human poets are fond of introducing this sort of inconsistent
mixture, and so make themselves ridiculous in the eyes of those who,
as Orpheus says, "are ripe for true pleasure." The experienced see all
this confusion, and yet the poets go on and make still further havoc
by separating the rhythm and the figure of the dance from the
melody, setting bare words to metre, and also separating the melody
and the rhythm from the words, using the lyre or the flute alone.
For when there are no words, it is very difficult to recognize the
meaning of the harmony and rhythm, or to see that any worthy object is
imitated by them. And we must acknowledge that all this sort of thing,
which aims only at swiftness and smoothness and a brutish noise, and
uses the flute and the lyre not as the mere accompaniments of the
dance and song, is exceedingly coarse and tasteless. The use of either
instrument, when unaccompanied, leads to every sort of irregularity
and trickery. This is all rational enough. But we are considering
not how our choristers, who are from thirty to fifty years of age, and
may be over fifty, are not to use the Muses, but how they are to use
them. And the considerations which we have urged seem to show in
what way these fifty year-old choristers who are to sing, may be
expected to be better trained. For they need to have a quick
perception and knowledge of harmonies and rhythms; otherwise, how
can they ever know whether a melody would be rightly sung to the
Dorian mode, or to the rhythm which the poet has assigned to it?
  Cle. Clearly they cannot.
  Ath. The many are ridiculous in imagining that they know what is
in proper harmony and rhythm, and what is not, when they can only be
made to sing and step in rhythm by force; it never occurs to them that
they are ignorant of what they are doing. Now every melody is right
when it has suitable harmony and rhythm, and wrong when unsuitable.
  Cle. That is most certain.
  Ath. But can a man who does not know a thing, as we were saying,
know that the thing is right?
  Cle. Impossible.
  Ath. Then now, as would appear, we are making the discovery that our
newly-appointed choristers, whom we hereby invite and, although they
are their own masters, compel to sing, must be educated to such an
extent as to be able to follow the steps of the rhythm and the notes
of the song, that they may know the harmonies and rhythms, and be able
to select what are suitable for men of their age and character to
sing; and may sing them, and have innocent pleasure from their own
performance, and also lead younger men to welcome with dutiful delight
good dispositions. Having such training, they will attain a more
accurate knowledge than falls to the lot of the common people, or even
of the poets themselves. For the poet need not know the third point,
viz., whether the imitation is good or not, though he can hardly
help knowing the laws of melody and rhythm. But the aged chorus must
know all the three, that they may choose the best, and that which is
nearest to the best; for otherwise they will never be able to charm
the souls of young men in the way of virtue. And now the original
design of the argument which was intended to bring eloquent aid to the
Chorus of Dionysus, has been accomplished to the best of our
ability, and let us see whether we were right:-I should imagine that a
drinking assembly is likely to become more and more tumultuous as
the drinking goes on: this, as we were saying at first, will certainly
be the case.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Every man has a more than natural elevation; his heart is
glad within him, and he will say anything and will be restrained by
nobody at such a time; he fancies that he is able to rule over himself
and all mankind.
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. Were we not saying that on such occasions the souls of the
drinkers become like iron heated in the fire, and grow softer and
younger, and are easily moulded by him who knows how to educate and
fashion them, just as when they were young, and that this fashioner of
them is the same who prescribed for them in the days of their youth,
viz., the good legislator; and that he ought to enact laws of the
banquet, which, when a man is confident, bold, and impudent, and
unwilling to wait his turn and have his share of silence and speech,
and drinking and music, will change his character into the
opposite-such laws as will infuse into him a just and noble fear,
which will take up arms at the approach of insolence, being that
divine fear which we have called reverence and shame?
  Cle. True.
  Ath. And the guardians of these laws and fellow-workers with them
are the calm and sober generals of the drinkers; and without their
help there is greater difficulty in fighting against drink than in
fighting against enemies when the commander of an army is not
himself calm; and he who is unwilling to obey them and the
commanders of Dionysiac feasts who are more than sixty years of age,
shall suffer a disgrace as great as he who disobeys military
leaders, or even greater.
  Cle. Right.
  Ath. If, then, drinking and amusement were regulated in this way,
would not the companions of our revels be improved? they would part
better friends than they were, and not, as now enemies. Their whole
intercourse would be regulated by law and observant of it, and the
sober would be the leaders of the drunken.
  Cle. I think so too, if drinking were regulated as you propose.
  Ath. Let us not then simply censure the gift of Dionysus as bad
and unfit to be received into the State. For wine has many
excellences, and one pre-eminent one, about which there is a
difficulty in speaking to the many, from a fear of their misconceiving
and misunderstanding what is said.
  Cle. To what do you refer?
  Ath. There is a tradition or story, which has somehow crept about
the world, that Dionysus was robbed of his wits by his stepmother
Here, and that out of revenge he inspires Bacchic furies and dancing
madnesses in others; for which reason he gave men wine. Such
traditions concerning the Gods I leave to those who think that they
may be safely uttered; I only know that no animal at birth is mature
or perfect in intelligence; and in the intermediate period, in which
he has not yet acquired his own proper sense, he rages and roars
without rhyme or reason; and when he has once got on his legs he jumps
about without rhyme or reason; and this, as you will remember, has
been already said by us to be the origin of music and gymnastic.
  Cle. To be sure, I remember.
  Ath. And did we not say that the sense of harmony and rhythm
sprang from this beginning among men, and that Apollo and the Muses
and Dionysus were the Gods whom we had to thank for them?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. The other story implied that wine was given man out of revenge,
and in order to make him mad; but our present doctrine, on the
contrary, is, that wine was given him as a balm, and in order to
implant modesty in the soul, and health and strength in the body.
  Cle. That, Stranger, is precisely what was said.
  Ath. Then half the subject may now be considered to have been
discussed; shall we proceed to the consideration of the other half?
  Cle. What is the other half, and how do you divide the subject?
  Ath. The whole choral art is also in our view the whole of
education; and of this art, rhythms and harmonies form the part
which has to do with the voice.
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. The movement of the body has rhythm in common with the movement
of the voice, but gesture is peculiar to it, whereas song is simply
the movement of the voice.
  Cle. Most true.
  Ath. And the sound of the voice which reaches and educates the soul,
we have ventured to term music.
  Cle. We were right.
  Ath. And the movement of the body, when regarded as an amusement, we
termed dancing; but when extended and pursued with a view to the
excellence of the body, this scientific training may be called
gymnastic.
  Cle. Exactly.
  Ath. Music, which was one half of the choral art, may be said to
have been completely discussed. Shall we proceed to the other half
or not? What would you like?
  Cle. My good friend, when you are talking with a Cretan and
Lacedaemonian, and we have discussed music and not gymnastic, what
answer are either of us likely to make to such an enquiry?
  Ath. An answer is contained in your question; and I understand and
accept what you say not only as an answer, but also as a command to
proceed with gymnastic.
  Cle. You quite understand me; do as you say.
  Ath. I will; and there will not be any difficulty in speaking
intelligibly to you about a subject with which both of you are far
more familiar than with music.
  Cle. There will not.
  Ath. Is not the origin of gymnastics, too, to be sought in the
tendency to rapid motion which exists in all animals; man, as we
were saying, having attained the sense of rhythm, created and invented
dancing; and melody arousing and awakening rhythm, both united
formed the choral art?
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. And one part of this subject has been already discussed by
us, and there still remains another to be discussed?
  Cle. Exactly.
  Ath. I have first a final word to add to my discourse about drink,
if you will allow me to do so.
  Cle. What more have you to say?
  Ath. I should say that if a city seriously means to adopt the
practice of drinking under due regulation and with a view to the
enforcement of temperance, and in like manner, and on the same
principle, will allow of other pleasures, designing to gain the
victory over them in this way all of them may be used. But if the
State makes drinking an amusement only, and whoever likes may drink
whenever he likes, and with whom he likes, and add to this any other
indulgences, I shall never agree or allow that this city or this man
should practise drinking. I would go further than the Cretans and
Lacedaemonians, and am disposed rather to the law of the
Carthaginians, that no one while he is on a campaign should be allowed
to taste wine at all, but that he should drink water during all that
time, and that in the city no slave, male or female, should ever drink
wine; and that no magistrates should drink during their year of
office, nor should pilots of vessels or judges while on duty taste
wine at all, nor any one who is going to hold a consultation about any
matter of importance; nor in the daytime at all, unless in consequence
of exercise or as medicine; nor again at night, when any one, either
man or woman, is minded to get children. There are numberless other
cases also in which those who have good sense and good laws ought
not to drink wine, so that if what I say is true, no city will need
many vineyards. Their husbandry and their way of life in general
will follow an appointed order, and their cultivation of the vine will
be the most limited and the least common of their employments. And
this, Stranger, shall be the crown of my discourse about wine, if
you agree.
  Cle. Excellent: we agree.
  BOOK III

  Athenian Stranger. Enough of this. And what, then, is to be regarded
as the origin of government? Will not a man be able to judge of it
best from a point of view in which he may behold the progress of
states and their transitions to good or evil?
  Cleinias. What do you mean?
  Ath. I mean that he might watch them from the point of view of time,
and observe the changes which take place in them during infinite ages.
  Cle. How so?
  Ath. Why, do you think that you can reckon the time which has
elapsed since cities first existed and men were citizens of them?
  Cle. Hardly.
  Ath. But are sure that it must be vast and incalculable?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And have not thousands and thousands of cities come into
being during this period and as many perished? And has not each of
them had every form of government many times over, now growing larger,
now smaller, and again improving or declining?
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. Let us endeavour to ascertain the cause of these changes; for
that will probably explain the first origin and development of forms
of government.
  Cle. Very good. You shall endeavour to impart your thoughts to us,
and we will make an effort to understand you.
  Ath. Do you believe that there is any truth in ancient traditions?
  Cle. What traditions?
  Ath. The traditions about the many destructions of mankind which
have been occasioned by deluges and pestilences, and in many other
ways, and of the survival of a remnant?
  Cle. Every one is disposed to believe them.
  Ath. Let us consider one of them, that which was caused by the
famous deluge.
  Cle. What are we to observe about it?
  Ath. I mean to say that those who then escaped would only be hill
shepherds-small sparks of the human race preserved on the tops of
mountains.
  Cle. Clearly.
  Ath. Such survivors would necessarily be unacquainted with the
arts and the various devices which are suggested to the dwellers in
cities by interest or ambition, and with all the wrongs which they
contrive against one another.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Let us suppose, then, that the cities in the plain and on the
sea-coast were utterly destroyed at that time.
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. Would not all implements have then perished and every other
excellent invention of political or any other sort of wisdom have
utterly disappeared?
  Cle. Why, yes, my friend; and if things had always continued as they
are at present ordered, how could any discovery have ever been made
even in the least particular? For it is evident that the arts were
unknown during ten thousand times ten thousand years. And no more than
a thousand or two thousand years have elapsed since the discoveries of
Daedalus, Orpheus and Palamedes-since Marsyas and Olympus invented
music, and Amphion the lyre-not to speak of numberless other
inventions which are but of yesterday.
  Ath. Have you forgotten, Cleinias, the name of a friend who is
really of yesterday?
  Cle. I suppose that you mean Epimenides.
  Ath. The same, my friend; he does indeed far overleap the heads of
all mankind by his invention; for he carried out in practice, as you
declare, what of old Hesiod only preached.
  Cle. Yes, according to our tradition.
  Ath. After the great destruction, may we not suppose that the
state of man was something of this sort:-In the beginning of things
there was a fearful illimitable desert and a vast expanse of land; a
herd or two of oxen would be the only survivors of the animal world;
and there might be a few goats, these too hardly enough to maintain
the shepherds who tended them?
  Cle. True.
  Ath. And of cities or governments or legislation, about which we are
now talking, do you suppose that they could have any recollection at
all?
  Cle. None whatever.
  Ath. And out of this state of things has there not sprung all that
we now are and have: cities and governments, and arts and laws, and
a great deal of vice and a great deal of virtue?
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. Why, my good friend, how can we possibly suppose that those who
knew nothing of all the good and evil of cities could have attained
their full development, whether of virtue or of vice?
  Cle. I understand your meaning, and you are quite right.
  Ath. But, as time advanced and the race multiplied, the world came
to be what the world is.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Doubtless the change was not made all in a moment, but little
by little, during a very long period of time.
  Cle. A highly probable supposition.
  Ath. At first, they would have a natural fear ringing in their
ears which would prevent their descending from the heights into the
plain.
  Cle. Of course.
  Ath. The fewness of the survivors at that time would have made
them all the more desirous of seeing one another; but then the means
of travelling either by land or sea had been almost entirely lost,
as I may say, with the loss of the arts, and there was great
difficulty in getting at one another; for iron and brass and all
metals were jumbled together and had disappeared in the chaos; nor was
there any possibility of extracting ore from them; and they had
scarcely any means of felling timber. Even if you suppose that some
implements might have been preserved in the mountains, they must
quickly have worn out and vanished, and there would be no more of them
until the art of metallurgy had again revived.
  Cle. There could not have been.
  Ath. In how many generations would this be attained?
  Cle. Clearly, not for many generations.
  Ath. During this period, and for some time afterwards, all the
arts which require iron and brass and the like would disappear.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Faction and war would also have died out in those days, and for
many reasons.
  Cle. How would that be?
  Ath. In the first place, the desolation of these primitive men would
create in them a feeling of affection and good-will towards one
another; and, secondly, they would have no occasion to quarrel about
their subsistence, for they would have pasture in abundance, except
just at first, and in some particular cases; and from their
pasture-land they would obtain the greater part of their food in a
primitive age, having plenty of milk and flesh; moreover they would
procure other food by the chase, not to be despised either in quantity
or quality. They would also have abundance of clothing, and bedding,
and dwellings, and utensils either capable of standing on the fire
or not; for the plastic and weaving arts do not require any use of
iron: and God has given these two arts to man in order to provide
him with all such things, that, when reduced to the last extremity,
the human race may still grow and increase. Hence in those days
mankind were not very poor; nor was poverty a cause of difference
among them; and rich they could not have been, having neither gold nor
silver:-such at that time was their condition. And the community which
has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest
principles; in it there is no insolence or injustice, nor, again,
are there any contentions or envyings. And therefore they were good,
and also because they were what is called simple-minded; and when they
were told about good and evil, they in their simplicity believed
what they heard to be very truth and practised it. No one had the
wit to suspect another of a falsehood, as men do now; but what they
heard about Gods and men they believed to be true, and lived
accordingly; and therefore they were in all respects such as we have
described them.
  Cle. That quite accords with my views, and with those of my friend
here.
  Ath. Would not many generations living on in a simple manner,
although ruder, perhaps, and more ignorant of the arts generally,
and in particular of those of land or naval warfare, and likewise of
other arts, termed in cities legal practices and party conflicts,
and including all conceivable ways of hurting one another in word
and deed;-although inferior to those who lived before the deluge, or
to the men of our day in these respects, would they not, I say, be
simpler and more manly, and also more temperate and altogether more
just? The reason has been already explained.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. I should wish you to understand that what has preceded and what
is about to follow, has been, and will be said, with the intention
of explaining what need the men of that time had of laws, and who
was their lawgiver.
  Cle. And thus far what you have said has been very well said.
  Ath. They could hardly have wanted lawgivers as yet; nothing of that
sort was likely to have existed in their days, for they had no letters
at this early period; they lived by habit and the customs of their
ancestors, as they are called.
  Cle. Probably.
  Ath. But there was already existing a form of government which, if I
am not mistaken, is generally termed a lordship, and this still
remains in many places, both among Hellenes and barbarians, and is the
government which is declared by Homer to have prevailed among the
Cyclopes:

  They have neither councils nor judgments, but they dwell in hollow
caves on the tops of high mountains, and every one gives law to his
wife and children, and they do not busy themselves about one another.

  Cle. That seems to be a charming poet of yours; I have read some
other verses of his, which are very clever; but I do not know much
of him, for foreign poets are very little read among the Cretans.
  Megillus. But they are in Lacedaemon, and he appears to be the
prince of them all; the manner of life, however, which he describes is
not Spartan, but rather Ionian, and he seems quite to confirm what you
are saying, when he traces up the ancient state of mankind by the help
of tradition to barbarism.
  Ath. Yes, he does confirm it; and we may accept his witness to the
fact that such forms of government sometimes arise.
  Cle. We may.
  Ath. And were not such states composed of men who had been dispersed
in single habitations and families by the poverty which attended the
devastations; and did not the eldest then rule among them, because
with them government originated in the authority of a father and a
mother, whom, like a flock of birds, they followed, forming one
troop under the patriarchal rule and sovereignty of their parents,
which of all sovereignties is the most just?
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. After this they came together in greater numbers, and increased
the size of their cities, and betook themselves to husbandry, first of
all at the foot of the mountains, and made enclosures of loose walls
and works of defence, in order to keep off wild beasts; thus
creating a single large and common habitation.
  Cle. Yes; at least we may suppose so.
  Ath. There is another thing which would probably happen.
  Cle. What?
  Ath. When these larger habitations grew up out of the lesser
original ones, each of the lesser ones would survive in the larger;
every family would be under the rule of the eldest, and, owing to
their separation from one another, would have peculiar customs in
things divine and human, which they would have received from their
several parents who had educated them; and these customs would incline
them to order, when the parents had the element of order in their
nature, and to courage, when they had the element of courage. And they
would naturally stamp upon their children, and upon their children's
children, their own likings; and, as we are saying, they would find
their way into the larger society, having already their own peculiar
laws.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And every man surely likes his own laws best, and the laws of
others not so well.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Then now we seem to have stumbled upon the beginnings of
legislation.
  Cle. Exactly.
  Ath. The next step will be that these persons who have met together,
will select some arbiters, who will review the laws of all of them,
and will publicly present such as they approve to the chiefs who
lead the tribes, and who are in a manner their kings, allowing them to
choose those which they think best. These persons will themselves be
called legislators, and will appoint the magistrates, framing some
sort of aristocracy, or perhaps monarchy, out of the dynasties or
lordships, and in this altered state of the government they will live.
  Cle. Yes, that would be the natural order of things.
  Ath. Then, now let us speak of a third form of government, in
which all other forms and conditions of polities and cities concur.
  Cle. What is that?
  Ath. The form which in fact Homer indicates as following the second.
This third form arose when, as he says, Dardanus founded Dardania:

  For not as yet had the holy Ilium been built on the plain to be a
city of speaking men; but they were still dwelling at the foot of
many-fountained Ida.

For indeed, in these verses, and in what he said of the Cyclopes, he
speaks the words of God and nature; for poets are a divine race and
often in their strains, by the aid of the Muses and the Graces, they
attain truth.
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. Then now let us proceed with the rest of our tale, which will
probably be found to illustrate in some degree our proposed
design:-Shall we do so?
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. Ilium was built, when they descended from the mountain, in a
large and fair plain, on a sort of low hill, watered by many rivers
descending from Ida.
  Cle. Such is the tradition.
  Ath. And we must suppose this event to have taken place many ages
after the deluge?
  Ath. A marvellous forgetfulness of the former destruction would
appear to have come over them, when they placed their town right under
numerous streams flowing from the heights, trusting for their security
to not very high hills, either.
  Cle. There must have been a long interval, clearly.
  Ath. And, as population increased, many other cities would begin
to be inhabited.
  Cle. Doubtless.
  Ath. Those cities made war against Troy-by sea as well as land-for
at that time men were ceasing to be afraid of the sea.
  Cle. Clearly.
  Ath. The Achaeans remained ten years, and overthrew Troy.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. And during the ten years in which the Achaeans were besieging
Ilium, the homes of the besiegers were falling into an evil plight.
Their youth revolted; and when the soldiers returned to their own
cities and families, they did not receive them properly, and as they
ought to have done, and numerous deaths, murders, exiles, were the
consequence. The exiles came again, under a new name, no longer
Achaeans, but Dorians-a name which they derived from Dorieus; for it
was he who gathered them together. The rest of the story is told by
you Lacedaemonians as part of the history of Sparta.
  Meg. To be sure.
  Ath. Thus, after digressing from the original subject of laws into
music and drinking-bouts, the argument has, providentially, come
back to the same point, and presents to us another handle. For we have
reached the settlement of Lacedaemon; which, as you truly say, is in
laws and in institutions the sister of Crete. And we are all the
better for the digression, because we have gone through various
governments and settlements, and have been present at the foundation
of a first, second, and third state, succeeding one another in
infinite time. And now there appears on the horizon a fourth state
or nation which was once in process of settlement and has continued
settled to this day. If, out of all this, we are able to discern
what is well or ill settled, and what laws are the salvation and
what are the destruction of cities, and what changes would make a
state happy, O Megillus and Cleinias, we may now begin again, unless
we have some fault to find with the previous discussion.
  Meg. If some God, Stranger, would promise us that our new enquiry
about legislation would be as good and full as the present, I would go
a great way to hear such another, and would think that a day as long
as this-and we are now approaching the longest day of the year-was too
short for the discussion.
  Ath. Then I suppose that we must consider this subject?
  Meg. Certainly.
  Ath. Let us place ourselves in thought at the moment when Lacedaemon
and Argos and Messene and the rest of the Peloponnesus were all in
complete subjection, Megillus, to your ancestors; for afterwards, as
the legend informs us, they divided their army into three portions,
and settled three cities, Argos, Messene, Lacedaemon.
  Meg. True.
  Ath. Temenus was the king of Argos, Cresphontes of Messene,
Procles and Eurysthenes of Lacedaemon.
  Meg. Certainly.
  Ath. To these kings all the men of that day made oath that they
would assist them, if any one subverted their kingdom.
  Meg. True.
  Ath. But can a kingship be destroyed, or was any other form of
government ever destroyed, by any but the rulers themselves? No
indeed, by Zeus. Have we already forgotten what was said a little
while ago?
  Meg. No.
  Ath. And may we not now further confirm what was then mentioned? For
we have come upon facts which have brought us back again to the same
principle; so that, in resuming the discussion, we shall not be
enquiring about an empty theory, but about events which actually
happened. The case was as follows:-Three royal heroes made oath to
three cities which were under a kingly government, and the cities to
the kings, that both rulers and subjects should govern and be governed
according to the laws which were common to all of them: the rulers
promised that as time and the race went forward they would not make
their rule more arbitrary; and the subjects said that, if the rulers
observed these conditions, they would never subvert or permit others
to subvert those kingdoms; the kings were to assist kings and
peoples when injured, and the peoples were to assist peoples and kings
in like manner. Is not this the fact?
  Meg. Yes.
  Ath. And the three states to whom these laws were given, whether
their kings or any others were the authors of them, had therefore
the greatest security for the maintenance of their constitutions?
  Meg. What security?
  Ath. That the other two states were always to come to the rescue
against a rebellious third.
  Meg. True.
  Ath. Many persons say that legislators ought to impose such laws
as the mass of the people will be ready to receive; but this is just
as if one were to command gymnastic masters or physicians to treat
or cure their pupils or patients in an agreeable manner.
  Meg. Exactly.
  Ath. Whereas the physician may often be too happy if he can
restore health, and make the body whole, without any very great
infliction of pain.
  Meg. Certainly.
  Ath. There was also another advantage possessed by the men of that
day, which greatly lightened the task of passing laws.
  Meg. What advantage?
  Ath. The legislators of that day, when they equalized property,
escaped the great accusation which generally arises in legislation, if
a person attempts to disturb the possession of land, or to abolish
debts, because he sees that without this reform there can never be any
real equality. Now, in general, when the legislator attempts to make a
new settlement of such matters, every one meets him with the cry, that
"he is not to disturb vested interests"-declaring with imprecations
that he is introducing agrarian laws and cancelling of debts, until
a man is at his wits end; whereas no one could quarrel with the
Dorians for distributing the land-there was nothing to hinder them;
and as for debts, they had none which were considerable or of old
standing.
  Meg. Very true.
  Ath. But then, my good friends, why did the settlement and
legislation of their country turn out so badly?
  Meg. How do you mean; and why do you blame them?
  Ath. There were three kingdoms, and of these, two quickly
corrupted their original constitution and laws, and the only one which
remained was the Spartan.
  Meg. The question which you ask is not easily answered.
  Ath. And yet must be answered when we are enquiring about laws, this
being our old man's sober game of play, whereby we beguile the way, as
I was saying when we first set out on our journey.
  Meg. Certainly; and we must find out why this was.
  Ath. What laws are more worthy of our attention than those which
have regulated such cities? or what settlements of states are
greater or more famous?
  Meg. I know of none.
  Ath. Can we doubt that your ancestors intended these institutions
not only for the protection of Peloponnesus, but of all the
Hellenes. in case they were attacked by the barbarian? For the
inhabitants of the region about Ilium, when they provoked by their
insolence the Trojan war, relied upon the power of the Assyrians and
the Empire of Ninus, which still existed and had a great prestige; the
people of those days fearing the united Assyrian Empire just as we now
fear the Great King. And the second capture of Troy was a serious
offence against them, because Troy was a portion of the Assyrian
Empire. To meet the danger the single army was distributed between
three cities by the royal brothers, sons of Heracles-a fair device, as
it seemed, and a far better arrangement than the expedition against
Troy. For, firstly, the people of that day had, as they thought, in
the Heraclidae better leaders than the Pelopidae; in the next place,
they considered that their army was superior in valour to that which
went against Troy; for, although the latter conquered the Trojans,
they were themselves conquered by the Heraclidae-Achaeans by
Dorians. May we not suppose that this was the intention with which the
men of those days framed the constitutions of their states?
  Meg. Quite true.
  Ath. And would not men who had shared with one another many dangers,
and were governed by a single race of royal brothers, and had taken
the advice of oracles, and in particular of the Delphian Apollo, be
likely to think that such states would be firmly and lastingly
established?
  Meg. Of course they would.
  Ath. Yet these institutions, of which such great expectations were
entertained, seem to have all rapidly vanished away; with the
exception, as I was saying, of that small part of them which existed
in yourland.And this third part has never to this day ceased warring
against the two others; whereas, if the original idea had been carried
out, and they had agreed to be one, their power would have been
invincible in war.
  Meg. No doubt.
  Ath. But what was the ruin of this glorious confederacy? Here is a
subject well worthy of consideration.
  Meg. Certainly, no one will ever find more striking instances of
laws or governments being the salvation or destruction of great and
noble interests, than are here presented to his view.
  Ath. Then now we seem to have happily arrived at a real and
important question.
  Meg. Very true.
  Ath. Did you never remark, sage friend, that all men, and we
ourselves at this moment, often fancy that they see some beautiful
thing which might have effected wonders if any one had only known
how to make a right use of it in some way; and yet this mode of
looking at things may turn out after all to be a mistake, and not
according to nature, either in our own case or in any other?
  Meg. To what are you referring, and what do you mean?
  Ath. I was thinking of my own admiration of the aforesaid
Heracleid expedition, which was so noble, and might have had such
wonderful results for the Hellenes, if only rightly used; and I was
just laughing at myself.
  Meg. But were you not right and wise in speaking as you did, and
we in assenting to you?
  Ath. Perhaps; and yet I cannot help observing that any one who
sees anything great or powerful, immediately has the feeling
that-"If the owner only knew how to use his great and noble
possession, how happy would he be, and what great results would he
achieve!"
  Meg. And would he not be justified?
  Ath. Reflect; in what point of view does this sort of praise
appear just: First, in reference to the question in hand:-If the
then commanders had known how to arrange their army properly, how
would they have attained success? Would not this have been the way?
They would have bound them all firmly together and preserved them
for ever, giving them freedom and dominion at pleasure, combined
with the power of doing in the whole world, Hellenic and barbarian,
whatever they and their descendants desired. What other aim would they
have had?
  Meg. Very good.
  Ath. Suppose any one were in the same way to express his
admiration at the sight of great wealth or family honour, or the like,
he would praise them under the idea that through them he would
attain either all or the greater and chief part of what he desires.
  Meg. He would.
  Ath. Well, now, and does not the argument show that there is one
common desire of all mankind?
  Meg. What is it?
  Ath. The desire which a man has, that all things, if possible-at any
rate, things human-may come to pass in accordance with his soul's
desire.
  Meg. Certainly.
  Ath. And having this desire always, and at every time of life, in
youth, in manhood, in age, he cannot help always praying for the
fulfilment of it.
  Meg. No doubt.
  Ath. And we join in the prayers of our friends, and ask for them
what they ask for themselves.
  Meg. We do.
  Ath. Dear is the son to the father-the younger to the elder.
  Meg. Of course.
  Ath. And yet the son often prays to obtain things which the father
prays that he may not obtain.
  Meg. When the son is young and foolish, you mean?
  Ath. Yes; or when the father, in the dotage of age or the heat of
youth, having no sense of right and justice, prays with fervour, under
the influence of feelings akin to those of Theseus when he cursed
the unfortunate Hippolytus, do you imagine that the son, having a
sense of right and justice, will join in his father's prayers?
  Meg. I understand you to mean that a man should not desire or be
in a hurry to have all things according to his wish, for his wish
may be at variance with his reason. But every state and every
individual ought to pray and strive for wisdom.
  Ath. Yes; and I remember, and you will remember, what I said at
first, that a statesman and legislator ought to ordain laws with a
view to wisdom; while you were arguing that the good lawgiver ought to
order all with a view to war. And to this I replied that there were
four virtues, but that upon your view one of them only was the aim
of legislation; whereas you ought to regard all virtue, and especially
that which comes first, and is the leader of all the rest-I mean
wisdom and mind and opinion, having affection and desire in their
train. And now the argument returns to the same point, and I say
once more, in jest if you like, or in earnest if you like, that the
prayer of a fool is full of danger, being likely to end in the
opposite of what he desires. And if you would rather receive my
words in earnest, I am willing that you should; and you will find, I
suspect, as I have said already, that not cowardice was the cause of
the ruin of the Dorian kings and of their whole design, nor
ignorance of military matters, either on the part of the rulers or
of their subjects; but their misfortunes were due to their general
degeneracy, and especially to their ignorance of the most important
human affairs. That was then, and is still, and always will be the
case, as I will endeavour, if you will allow me, to make out and
demonstrate as well as I am able to you who are my friends, in the
course of the argument.
  Cle. Pray go on, Stranger;-compliments are troublesome, but we
will show, not in word but in deed, how greatly we prize your words,
for we will give them our best attention; and that is the way in which
a freeman best shows his approval or disapproval.
  Meg. Excellent, Cleinias; let us do as you say.
  Cle. By all means, if Heaven wills. Go on.
  Ath. Well, then, proceeding in the same train of thought, I say that
the greatest ignorance was the ruin of the Dorian power, and that now,
as then, ignorance is ruin. And if this be true, the legislator must
endeavour to implant wisdom in states, and banish ignorance to the
utmost of his power.
  Cle. That is evident.
  Ath. Then now consider what is really the greatest ignorance. I
should like to know whether you and Megillus would agree with me in
what I am about to say; for my opinion is-
  Cle. What?
  Ath. That the greatest ignorance is when a man hates that which he
nevertheless thinks to be good and noble, and loves and embraces
that which he knows to be unrighteous and evil. This disagreement
between the sense of pleasure and the judgment of reason in the soul
is, in my opinion, the worst ignorance; and also the greatest, because
affecting the great mass of the human soul; for the principle which
feels pleasure and pain in the individual is like the mass or populace
in a state. And when the soul is opposed to knowledge, or opinion,
or reason, which are her natural lords, that I call folly, just as
in the state, when the multitude refuses to obey their rulers and
the laws; or, again, in the individual, when fair reasonings have
their habitation in the soul and yet do no good, but rather the
reverse of good. All these cases I term the worst ignorance, whether
in individuals or in states. You will understand, Stranger, that I
am speaking of something which is very different from the ignorance of
handicraftsmen.
  Cle. Yes, my friend, we understand and agree.
  Ath. Let us, then, in the first place declare and affirm that the
citizen who does not know these things ought never to have any kind of
authority entrusted to him: he must be stigmatized as ignorant, even
though he be versed in calculation and skilled in all sorts of
accomplishments, and feats of mental dexterity; and the opposite are
to be called wise, even although, in the words of the proverb, they
know neither how to read nor how to swim; and to them, as to men of
sense, authority is to be committed. For, O my friends, how can
there be the least shadow of wisdom when there is no harmony? There is
none; but the noblest and greatest of harmonies may be truly said to
be the greatest wisdom; and of this he is a partaker who lives
according to reason; whereas he who is devoid of reason is the
destroyer of his house and the very opposite of a saviour of the
state: he is utterly ignorant of political wisdom. Let this, then,
as I was saying, be laid down by us.
  Cle. Let it be so laid down.
  Ath. I suppose that there must be rulers and subjects in states?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And what are the principles on which men rule and obey in
cities, whether great or small; and similarly in families? What are
they, and how many in number? Is there not one claim of authority
which is always just-that of fathers and mothers and in general of
progenitors to rule over their offspring?
  Cle. There is.
  Ath. Next follows the principle that the noble should rule over
the ignoble; and, thirdly, that the elder should rule and the
younger obey?
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. And, fourthly, that slaves should be ruled, and their masters
rule?
  Cle. Of course.
  Ath. Fifthly, if I am not mistaken, comes the principle that the
stronger shall rule, and the weaker be ruled?
  Cle. That is a rule not to be disobeyed.
  Ath. Yes, and a rule which prevails very widely among all creatures,
and is according to nature, as the Theban poet Pindar once said; and
the sixth principle, and the greatest of all, is, that the wise should
lead and command, and the ignorant follow and obey; and yet, O thou
most wise Pindar, as I should reply him, this surely is not contrary
to nature, but according to nature, being the rule of law over willing
subjects, and not a rule of compulsion.
  Cle. Most true.
  Ath. There is a seventh kind of rule which is awarded by lot, and is
dear to the Gods and a token of good fortune: he on whom the lot falls
is a ruler, and he who fails in obtaining the lot goes away and is the
subject; and this we affirm to be quite just.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. "Then now," as we say playfully to any of those who lightly
undertake the making of laws, "you see, legislator, the principles
of government, how many they are, and that they are naturally
opposed to each other. There we have discovered a fountain-head of
seditions, to which you must attend. And, first, we will ask you to
consider with us, how and in what respect the kings of Argos and
Messene violated these our maxims, and ruined themselves and the great
and famous Hellenic power of the olden time. Was it because they did
not know how wisely Hesiod spoke when he said that the half is often
more than the whole? His meaning was, that when to take the whole
would be dangerous, and to take the half would be the safe and
moderate course, then the moderate or better was more than the
immoderate or worse."
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. And may we suppose this immoderate spirit to be more fatal when
found among kings than when among peoples?
  Cle. The probability is that ignorance will be a disorder especially
prevalent among kings, because they lead a proud and luxurious life.
  Ath. Is it not palpable that the chief aim of the kings of that time
was to get the better of the established laws, and that they were
not in harmony with the principles which they had agreed to observe by
word and oath? This want of harmony may have had the appearance of
wisdom, but was really, as we assert, the greatest ignorance, and
utterly overthrew the whole empire by dissonance and harsh discord.
  Cle. Very likely.
  Ath. Good; and what measures ought the legislator to have then taken
in order to avert this calamity? Truly there is no great wisdom in
knowing, and no great difficulty in telling, after the evil has
happened; but to have foreseen the remedy at the time would have taken
a much wiser head than ours.
  Meg. What do you mean?
  Ath. Any one who looks at what has occurred with you Lacedaemonians,
Megillus, may easily know and may easily say what ought to have been
done at that time.
  Meg. Speak a little more clearly.
  Ath. Nothing can be clearer than the observation which I am about to
make.
  Meg. What is it?
  Ath. That if any one gives too great a power to anything, too
large a sail to a vessel, too much food to the body, too much
authority to the mind, and does not observe the mean, everything is
overthrown, and, in the wantonness of excess runs in the one case to
disorders, and in the other to injustice, which is the child of
excess. I mean to say, my dear friends, that there is no soul of
man, young and irresponsible, who will be able to sustain the
temptation of arbitrary power-no one who will not, under such
circumstances, become filled with folly, that worst of diseases, and
be hated by his nearest and dearest friends: when this happens, his
kingdom is undermined, and all his power vanishes from him. And
great legislators who know the mean should take heed of the danger. As
far as we can guess at this distance of time, what happened was as
follows:-
  Meg. What?
  Ath. A God, who watched over Sparta, seeing into the future, gave
you two families of kings instead of one; and thus brought you more
within the limits of moderation. In the next place, some human
wisdom mingled with divine power, observing that the constitution of
your government was still feverish and excited, tempered your inborn
strength and pride of birth with the moderation which comes of age,
making the power of your twenty-eight elders equal with that of the
kings in the most important matters. But your third saviour,
perceiving that your government was still swelling and foaming, and
desirous to impose a curb upon it, instituted the Ephors, whose
power he made to resemble that of magistrates elected by lot; and by
this arrangement the kingly office, being compounded of the right
elements and duly moderated, was preserved, and was the means of
preserving all the rest. Since, if there had been only the original
legislators, Temenus, Cresphontes, and their contemporaries, as far as
they were concerned not even the portion of Aristodemus would have
been preserved; for they had no proper experience in legislation, or
they would surely not have imagined that oaths would moderate a
youthful spirit invested with a power which might be converted into
a tyranny. Now that God has instructed us what sort of government
would have been or will be lasting, there is no wisdom, as I have
already said, in judging after the event; there is no difficulty in
learning from an example which has already occurred. But if any one
could have foreseen all this at the time, and had been able to
moderate the government of the three kingdoms and unite them into one,
he might have saved all the excellent institutions which were then
conceived; and no Persian or any other armament would have dared to
attack us, or would have regarded Hellas as a power to be despised.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. There was small credit to us, Cleinias, in defeating them;
and the discredit was, not that the conquerors did not win glorious
victories both by land and sea, but what, in my opinion, brought
discredit was, first of all, the circumstance that of the three cities
one only fought on behalf of Hellas, and the two others were so
utterly good for nothing that the one was waging a mighty war
against Lacedaemon, and was thus preventing her from rendering
assistance, while the city of Argos, which had the precedence at the
time of the distribution, when asked to aid in repelling the
barbarian, would not answer to the call, or give aid. Many things
might be told about Hellas in connection with that war which are far
from honourable; nor, indeed, can we rightly say that Hellas
repelled the invader; for the truth is, that unless the Athenians
and Lacedaemonians, acting in concert, had warded off the impending
yoke, all the tribes of Hellas would have been fused in a chaos of
Hellenes mingling with one another, of barbarians mingling with
Hellenes, and Hellenes with barbarians; just as nations who are now
subject to the Persian power, owing to unnatural separations and
combinations of them, are dispersed and scattered, and live miserably.
These, Cleinias and Megillus, are the reproaches which we have to make
against statesmen and legislators, as they are called, past and
present, if we would analyse the causes of their failure, and find out
what else might have been done. We said, for instance, just now,
that there ought to be no great and unmixed powers; and this was under
the idea that a state ought to be free and wise and harmonious, and
that a legislator ought to legislate with a view to this end. Nor is
there any reason to be surprised at our continually proposing aims for
the legislator which appear not to be always the same; but we should
consider when we say that temperance is to be the aim, or wisdom is to
be the aim, or friendship is to be the aim, that all these aims are
really the same; and if so, a variety in the modes of expression ought
not to disturb us.
  Cle. Let us resume the argument in that spirit. And now, speaking of
friendship and wisdom and freedom, I wish that you would tell me at
what, in your opinion, the legislator should aim.
  Ath. Hear me, then: there are two mother forms of states from
which the rest may be truly said to be derived; and one of them may be
called monarchy and the other democracy: the Persians have the highest
form of the one, and we of the other; almost all the rest, as I was
saying, are variations of these. Now, if you are to have liberty and
the combination of friendship with wisdom, you must have both these
forms of government in a measure; the argument emphatically declares
that no city can be well governed which is not made up of both.
  Cle. Impossible.
  Ath. Neither the one, if it be exclusively and excessively
attached to monarchy, nor the other, if it be similarly attached to
freedom, observes moderation; but your states, the Laconian and
Cretan, have more of it; and the same was the case with the
Athenians and Persians of old time, but now they have less. Shall I
tell you why?
  Cle. By all means, if it will tend to elucidate our subject.
  Ath. Hear, then:-There was a time when the Persians had more of
the state which is a mean between slavery and freedom. In the reign of
Cyrus they were freemen and also lords of many others: the rulers gave
a share of freedom to the subjects, and being treated as equals, the
soldiers were on better terms with their generals, and showed
themselves more ready in the hour of danger. And if there was any wise
man among them, who was able to give good counsel, he imparted his
wisdom to the public; for the king was not jealous, but allowed him
full liberty of speech, and gave honour to those who could advise
him in any matter. And the nation waxed in all respects, because there
was freedom and friendship and communion of mind among them.
  Cle. That certainly appears to have been the case.
  Ath. How, then, was this advantage lost under Cambyses, and again
recovered under Darius? Shall I try to divine?
  Cle. The enquiry, no doubt, has a bearing upon our subject.
  Ath. I imagine that Cyrus, though a great and patriotic general, had
never given his mind to education, and never attended to the order
of his household.
  Cle. What makes you say so?
  Ath. I think that from his youth upwards he was a soldier, and
entrusted the education of his children to the women; and they brought
them up from their childhood as the favourites of fortune, who were
blessed already, and needed no more blessings. They thought that
they were happy enough, and that no one should be allowed to oppose
them in any way, and they compelled every one to praise all that
they said or did. This was how they brought them up.
  Cle. A splendid education truly!
  Ath. Such an one as women were likely to give them, and especially
princesses who had recently grown rich, and in the absence of the men,
too, who were occupied in wars and dangers, and had no time to look
after them.
  Cle. What would you expect?
  Ath. Their father had possessions of cattle and sheep, and many
herds of men and other animals, but he did not consider that those
to whom he was about to make them over were not trained in his own
calling, which was Persian; for the Persians are shepherds-sons of a
rugged land, which is a stern mother, and well fitted to produce
sturdy race able to live in the open air and go without sleep, and
also to fight, if fighting is required. He did not observe that his
sons were trained differently; through the so-called blessing of being
royal they were educated in the Median fashion by women and eunuchs,
which led to their becoming such as people do become when they are
brought up unreproved. And so, after the death of Cyrus, his sons,
in the fulness of luxury and licence, took the kingdom, and first
one slew the other because he could not endure a rival; and,
afterwards, the slayer himself, mad with wine and brutality, lost
his kingdom through the Medes and the Eunuch, as they called him,
who despised the folly of Cambyses.
  Cle. So runs the tale, and such probably were the facts.
  Ath. Yes; and the tradition says, that the empire came back to the
Persians, through Darius and the seven chiefs.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Let us note the rest of the story. Observe, that Darius was not
the son of a king, and had not received a luxurious education. When he
came to the throne, being one of the seven, he divided the country
into seven portions, and of this arrangement there are some shadowy
traces still remaining; he made laws upon the principle of introducing
universal equality in the order of the state, and he embodied in his
laws the settlement of the tribute which Cyrus promised-thus
creating a feeling of friendship and community among all the Persians,
and attaching the people to him with money and gifts. Hence his armies
cheerfully acquired for him countries as large as those which Cyrus
had left behind him. Darius was succeeded by his son Xerxes; and he
again was brought up in the royal and luxurious fashion. Might we
not most justly say: "O Darius, how came you to bring up Xerxes in the
same way in which Cyrus brought up Cambyses, and not to see his
fatal mistake?" For Xerxes, being the creation of the same
education, met with much the same fortune as Cambyses; and from that
time until now there has never been a really great king among the
Persians, although they are all called Great. And their degeneracy
is not to be attributed to chance, as I maintain; the reason is rather
the evil life which is generally led by the sons of very rich and
royal persons; for never will boy or man, young or old, excel in
virtue, who has been thus educated. And this, I say, is what the
legislator has to consider, and what at the present moment has to be
considered by us. Justly may you, O Lacedaemonians, be praised, in
that you do not give special honour or a special education to wealth
rather than to poverty, or to a royal rather than to a private
station, where the divine and inspired lawgiver has not originally
commanded them to be given. For no man ought to have pre-eminent
honour in a state because he surpasses others in wealth, any more than
because he is swift of foot or fair or strong, unless he have some
virtue in him; nor even if he have virtue, unless he have this
particular virtue of temperance.
  Meg. What do you mean, Stranger?
  Ath. I suppose that courage is a part of virtue?
  Meg. To be sure.
  Ath. Then, now hear and judge for yourself:-Would you like to have
for a fellow-lodger or neighbour a very courageous man, who had no
control over himself?
  Meg. Heaven forbid!
  Ath. Or an artist, who was clever in his profession, but a rogue?
  Meg. Certainly not.
  Ath. And surely justice does not grow apart from temperance?
  Meg. Impossible.
  Ath. Any more than our pattern wise man, whom we exhibited as having
his pleasures and pains in accordance with and corresponding to true
reason, can be intemperate?
  Meg. No.
  Ath. There is a further consideration relating to the due and
undue award of honours in states.
  Meg. What is it?
  Ath. I should like to know whether temperance without the other
virtues, existing alone in the soul of man, is rightly to be praised
or blamed?
  Meg. I cannot tell.
  Ath. And that is the best answer; for whichever alternative you
had chosen, I think that you would have gone wrong.
  Meg. I am fortunate.
  Ath. Very good; a quality, which is a mere appendage of things which
can be praised or blamed, does not deserve an expression of opinion,
but is best passed over in silence.
  Meg. You are speaking of temperance?
  Ath. Yes; but of the other virtues, that which having this appendage
is also most beneficial, will be most deserving of honour, and next
that which is beneficial in the next degree; and so each of them
will be rightly honoured according to a regular order.
  Meg. True.
  Ath. And ought not the legislator to determine these classes?
  Meg. Certainly he should.
  Ath. Suppose that we leave to him the arrangement of details. But
the general division of laws according to their importance into a
first and second and third class, we who are lovers of law may make
ourselves.
  Meg. Very; good.
  Ath. We maintain, then, that a State which would be safe and
happy, as far as the nature of man allows, must and ought to
distribute honour and dishonour in the right way. And the right way is
to place the goods of the soul first and highest in the scale,
always assuming temperance to be the condition of them; and to
assign the second place to the goods of the body; and the third
place to money and property. And it any legislator or state departs
from this rule by giving money the place of honour, or in any way
preferring that which is really last, may we not say, that he or the
state is doing an unholy and unpatriotic thing?
  Meg. Yes; let that be plainly declared.
  Ath. The consideration of the Persian governments led us thus far to
enlarge. We remarked that the Persians grew worse and worse. And we
affirm the reason of this to have been, that they too much
diminished the freedom of the people, and introduced too much of
despotism, and so destroyed friendship and community of feeling. And
when there is an end of these, no longer do the governors govern on
behalf of their subjects or of the people, but on behalf of
themselves; and if they think that they can gain ever so small an
advantage for themselves, they devastate cities, and send fire and
desolation among friendly races. And as they hate ruthlessly and
horribly, so are they hated; and when they want the people to fight
for them, they find no community of feeling or willingness to risk
their lives on their behalf; their untold myriads are useless to
them on the field of battle, and they think that their salvation
depends on the employment of mercenaries and strangers whom they hire,
as if they were in want of more men. And they cannot help being
stupid, since they proclaim by actions that the ordinary
distinctions of right and wrong which are made in a state are a
trifle, when compared with gold and silver.
  Meg. Quite true.
  Ath. And now enough of the Persians, and their present
maladministration of their government, which is owing to the excess of
slavery and despotism among them.
  Meg. Good.
  Ath. Next, we must pass in review the government of Attica in like
manner, and from this show that entire freedom and the absence of
all superior authority is not by any means so good as government by
others when properly limited, which was our ancient Athenian
constitution at the time when the Persians made their attack on
Hellas, or, speaking more correctly, on the whole continent of Europe.
There were four classes, arranged according to a property census,
and reverence was our queen and mistress, and made us willing to
live in obedience to the laws which then prevailed. Also the
vastness of the Persian armament, both by sea and on land, caused a
helpless terror, which made us more and more the servants of our
rulers and of the laws; and for all these reasons an exceeding harmony
prevailed among us. About ten years before the naval engagement at
Salamis, Datis came, leading a Persian host by command of Darius,
which was expressly directed against the Athenians and Eretrians,
having orders to carry them away captive; and these orders he was to
execute under pain of death. Now Datis and his myriads soon became
complete masters of Eretria, and he sent a fearful report to Athens
that no Eretrian had escaped him; for the soldiers of Datis had joined
hands and netted the whole of Eretria. And this report, whether well
or ill founded, was terrible to all the Hellenes, and above all to the
Athenians, and they dispatched embassies in all directions, but no one
was willing to come to their relief, with the exception of the
Lacedaemonians; and they, either because they were detained by the
Messenian war, which was then going on, or for some other reason of
which we are not told, came a day too late for the battle of Marathon.
After a while, the news arrived of mighty preparations being made, and
innumerable threats came from the king. Then, as time went on, a
rumour reached us that Darius had died, and that his son, who was
young and hot-headed, had come to the throne and was persisting in his
design. The Athenians were under the impression that the whole
expedition was directed against them, in consequence of the battle
of Marathon; and hearing of the bridge over the Hellespont, and the
canal of Athos, and the host of ships, considering that there was no
salvation for them either by land or by sea, for there was no one to
help them, and remembering that in the first expedition, when the
Persians destroyed Eretria, no one came to their help, or would risk
the danger of an alliance with them, they thought that this would
happen again, at least on land; nor, when they looked to the sea,
could they descry any hope of salvation; for they were attacked by a
thousand vessels and more. One chance of safety remained, slight
indeed and desperate, but their only one. They saw that on the
former occasion they had gained a seemingly impossible victory, and
borne up by this hope, they found that their only refuge was in
themselves and in the Gods. All these things created in them the
spirit of friendship; there was the fear of the moment, and there
was that higher fear, which they had acquired by obedience to their
ancient laws, and which I have several times in the preceding
discourse called reverence, of which the good man ought to be a
willing servant, and of which the coward is independent and
fearless. If this fear had not possessed them, they would never have
met the enemy, or defended their temples and sepulchres and their
country, and everything that was near and dear to them, as they did;
but little by little they would have been all scattered and dispersed.
  Meg. Your words, Athenian, are quite true, and worthy of yourself
and of your country.
  Ath. They are true, Megillus; and to you, who have inherited the
virtues of your ancestors, I may properly speak of the actions of that
day. And I would wish you and Cleinias to consider whether my words
have not also a bearing on legislation; for I am not discoursing
only for the pleasure of talking, but for the argument's sake.
Please to remark that the experience both of ourselves and the
Persians was, in a certain sense, the same; for as they led their
people into utter servitude, so we too led ours into all freedom.
And now, how shall we proceed? for I would like you to observe that
our previous arguments have good deal to say for themselves.
  Meg. True; but I wish that you would give us a fuller explanation.
  Ath. I will. Under the ancient laws, my friends, the people was
not as now the master, but rather the willing servant of the laws.
  Meg. What laws do you mean?
  Ath. In the first place, let us speak of the laws about music-that
is to say, such music as then existed-in order that we may trace the
growth of the excess of freedom from the beginning. Now music was
early divided among us into certain kinds and manners. One sort
consisted of prayers to the Gods, which were called hymns; and there
was another and opposite sort called lamentations, and another
termed paeans, and another, celebrating the birth of Dionysus, called,
I believe, "dithyrambs." And they used the actual word "laws," or
nomoi, for another kind of song; and to this they added the term
"citharoedic." All these and others were duly distinguished, nor
were the performers allowed to confuse one style of music with
another. And the authority which determined and gave judgment, and
punished the disobedient, was not expressed in a hiss, nor in the most
unmusical shouts of the multitude, as in our days, nor in applause and
clapping of hands. But the directors of public instruction insisted
that the spectators should listen in silence to the end; and boys
and their tutors, and the multitude in general, were kept quiet by a
hint from a stick. Such was the good order which the multitude were
willing to observe; they would never have dared to give judgment by
noisy cries. And then, as time went on, the poets themselves
introduced the reign of vulgar and lawless innovation. They were men
of genius, but they had no perception of what is just and lawful in
music; raging like Bacchanals and possessed with inordinate
delights-mingling lamentations with hymns, and paeans with dithyrambs;
imitating the sounds of the flute on the lyre, and making one
general confusion; ignorantly affirming that music has no truth,
and, whether good or bad, can only be judged of rightly by the
pleasure of the hearer. And by composing such licentious works, and
adding to them words as licentious, they have inspired the multitude
with lawlessness and boldness, and made them fancy that they can judge
for themselves about melody and song. And in this way the theatres
from being mute have become vocal, as though they had understanding of
good and bad in music and poetry; and instead of an aristocracy, an
evil sort of theatrocracy has grown up. For if the democracy which
judged had only consisted of educated persons, no fatal harm would
have been done; but in music there first arose the universal conceit
of omniscience and general lawlessness;-freedom came following
afterwards, and men, fancying that they knew what they did not know,
had no longer any fear, and the absence of fear begets
shamelessness. For what is this shamelessness, which is so evil a
thing, but the insolent refusal to regard the opinion of the better by
reason of an over-daring sort of liberty?
  Meg. Very true.
  Ath. Consequent upon this freedom comes the other freedom, of
disobedience to rulers; and then the attempt to escape the control and
exhortation of father, mother, elders, and when near the end, the
control of the laws also; and at the very end there is the contempt of
oaths and pledges, and no regard at all for the Gods-herein they
exhibit and imitate the old so called Titanic nature, and come to
the same point as the Titans when they rebelled against God, leading a
life of endless evils. But why have I said all this? I ask, because
the argument ought to be pulled up from time to time, and not be
allowed to run away, but held with bit and bridle, and then we shall
not, as the proverb says, fall off our ass. Let us then once more
ask the question, To what end has all this been said?
  Meg. Very good.
  Ath. This, then, has been said for the sake-
  Meg. Of what?
  Ath. We were maintaining that the lawgiver ought to have three
things in view: first, that the city for which he legislates should be
free; and secondly, be at unity with herself; and thirdly, should have
understanding;-these were our principles, were they not?
  Meg. Certainly.
  Ath. With a view to this we selected two kinds of government, the
despotic, and the other the most free; and now we are considering
which of them is the right form: we took a mean in both cases, of
despotism in the one, and of liberty in the other, and we saw that
in a mean they attained their perfection; but that when they were
carried to the extreme of either, slavery or licence, neither party
were the gainers.
  Meg. Very true.
  Ath. And that was our reason for considering the settlement of the
Dorian army, and of the city built by Dardanus at the foot of the
mountains, and the removal of cities to the seashore, and of our
mention of the first men, who were the survivors of the deluge. And
all that was previously said about music and drinking, and what
preceded, was said with the view of seeing how a state might be best
administered, and how an individual might best order his own life. And
now, Megillus and Cleinias, how can we put to the proof the value of
our words?
  Cle. Stranger, I think that I see how a proof of their value may
be obtained. This discussion of ours appears to me to have been
singularly fortunate, and just what I at this moment want; most
auspiciously have you and my friend Megillus come in my way. For I
will tell you what has happened to me; and I regard the coincidence as
a sort of omen. The greater part of Crete is going to send out a
colony, and they have entrusted the management of the affair to the
Cnosians; and the Cnosian government to me and nine others. And they
desire us to give them any laws which we please, whether taken from
the Cretan model or from any other; and they do not mind about their
being foreign if they are better. Grant me then this favour, which
will also be a gain to yourselves:-Let us make a selection from what
has been said, and then let us imagine a State of which we will
suppose ourselves to be the original founders. Thus we shall proceed
with our enquiry, and, at the same time, I may have the use of the
framework which you are constructing, for the city which is in
contemplation.
   Ath. Good news, Cleinias; if Megillus has no objection, you may
be sure that I will do all in my power to please you.
  Cle. Thank you.
  Meg. And so will I.
  Cle. Excellent; and now let us begin to frame the State.
  BOOK IV

  Athenian Stranger. And now, what will this city be? I do not mean to
ask what is or will hereafter be the name of the place; that may be
determined by the accident of locality or of the original settlement-a
river or fountain, or some local deity may give the sanction of a name
to the newly-founded city; but I do want to know what the situation
is, whether maritime or inland.
  Cleinias. I should imagine, Stranger, that the city of which we
are speaking is about eighty stadia distant from the sea.
  Ath. And are there harbours on the seaboard?
  Cle. Excellent harbours, Stranger; there could not be better.
  Ath. Alas! what a prospect! And is the surrounding counwant; most
auspiciously have you and my friend Megillus come intry
productive, or in need of importations?
  Cle. Hardly in need of anything.
  Ath. And is there any neighbouring State?
  Cle. None whatever, and that is the reason for selecting the
place; in days of old, there was a migration of the inhabitants, and
the region has been deserted from time immemorial.
  Ath. And has the place a fair proportion of hill, and plain, and
wood?
  Cle. Like the rest of Crete in that.
  Ath. You mean to say that there is more rock than plain?
  Cle. Exactly.
  Ath. Then there is some hope that your citizens may be virtuous: had
you been on the sea, and well provided with harbours, and an importing
rather than a producing country, some mighty saviour would have been
needed, and lawgivers more than mortal, if you were ever to have a
chance of preserving your state from degeneracy and discordance of
manners. But there is comfort in the eighty stadia; although the sea
is too near, especially if, as you say, the harbours are so good.
Still we may be content. The sea is pleasant enough as a daily
companion, but has indeed also a bitter and brackish quality;
filling the streets with merchants and shopkeepers, and begetting in
the souls of men uncertain and unfaithful ways-making the state
unfriendly and unfaithful both to her own citizens, and also to
other nations. There is a consolation, therefore, in the country
producing all things at home; and yet, owing to the ruggedness of
the soil, not providing anything in great abundance. Had there been
abundance, there might have been a great export trade, and a great
return of gold and silver; which, as we may safely affirm, has the
most fatal results on a State whose aim is the attainment of just
and noble sentiments: this was said by us, if you remember, in the
previous discussion.
  Cle. I remember, and am of opinion that we both were and are in
the right.
  Ath. Well, but let me ask, how is the country supplied with timber
for ship-building?
  Cle. There is no fir of any consequence, nor pine, and not much
cypress; and you will find very little stone-pine or plane-wood, which
shipwrights always require for the interior of ships.
  Ath. These are also natural advantages.
  Cle. Why so?
  Ath. Because no city ought to be easily able to imitate its
enemies in what is mischievous.
  Cle. How does that bear upon any of the matters of which we have
been speaking?
  Ath. Remember, my good friend, what I said at first about the Cretan
laws, that they look to one thing only, and this, as you both
agreed, was war; and I replied that such laws, in so far as they
tended to promote virtue, were good; but in that they regarded a
part only, and not the whole of virtue, I disapproved of them. And now
I hope that you in your turn will follow and watch me if I legislate
with a view to anything but virtue, or with a view to a part of virtue
only. For I consider that the true lawgiver, like an archer, aims only
at that on which some eternal beauty is always attending, and
dismisses everything else, whether wealth or any other benefit, when
separated from virtue. I was saying that the imitation of enemies
was a bad thing; and I was thinking of a case in which a maritime
people are harassed by enemies, as the Athenians were by Minos (I do
not speak from any desire to recall past grievances); but he, as we
know, was a great naval potentate, who compelled the inhabitants of
Attica to pay him a cruel tribute; and in those days they had no ships
of war as they now have, nor was the country filled with
ship-timber, and therefore they could not readily build them. Hence
they could not learn how to imitate their enemy at sea, and in this
way, becoming sailors themselves, directly repel their enemies. Better
for them to have lost many times over the seven youths, than that
heavy-armed and stationary troops should have been turned into
sailors, and accustomed to be often leaping on shore, and again to
come running back to their ships; or should have fancied that there
was no disgrace in not awaiting the attack of an enemy and dying
boldly; and that there were good reasons, and plenty of them, for a
man throwing away his arms, and betaking himself to flight-which is
not dishonourable, as people say, at certain times. This is the
language of naval warfare, and is anything but worthy of extraordinary
praise. For we should not teach bad habits, least of all to the best
part of the citizens. You may learn the evil of such a practice from
Homer, by whom Odysseus is introduced, rebuking Agamemnon because he
desires to draw down the ships to the sea at a time when the
Achaeans are hard pressed by the Trojans-he gets angry with him, and
says:

  Who, at a time when the battle is in full cry, biddest to drag the
well-benched ships into the sea, that the prayers of the Trojans may
be accomplished yet more, and high ruin falls upon us. For the
Achaeans will not maintain the battle, when the ships are drawn into
the sea, but they will look behind and will cease from strife; in that
the counsel which you give will prove injurious.

You see that he quite knew triremes on the sea, in the neighbourhood
of fighting men, to be an evil;-lions might be trained in that way
to fly from a herd of deer. Moreover, naval powers which owe their
safety to ships, do not give honour to that sort of warlike excellence
which is most deserving of it. For he who owes his safety to the pilot
and the captain, and the oarsman, and all sorts of rather inferior
persons cannot rightly give honour to whom honour is due. But how
can a state be in a right condition which cannot justly award honour?
  Cle. It is hardly possible, I admit; and yet, Stranger, we Cretans
are in the habit of saying that the battle of Salamis was the
salvation of Hellas.
  Ath. Why, yes; and that is an opinion which is widely spread both
among Hellenes and barbarians. But Megillus and I say rather, that the
battle of Marathon was the beginning, and the battle of Plataea the
completion, of the great deliverance, and that these battles by land
made the Hellenes better; whereas the sea-fights of Salamis and
Artemisium-for I may as well put them both together-made them no
better, if I may say so without offence about the battles which helped
to save us. And in estimating the goodness of a state, we regard
both the situation of the country and the order of the laws,
considering that the mere preservation and continuance of life is
not the most honourable thing for men, as the vulgar think, but the
continuance of the best life, while we live; and that again, if I am
jot mistaken, is remark which has been made already.
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. Then we have only to ask whether we are taking the course which
we acknowledge to be the best for the settlement and legislation of
states.
  Cle. The best by far.
  Ath. And now let me proceed to another question: Who are to be the
colonists? May any one come out of all Crete; and is the idea that the
population in the several states is too numerous for the means of
subsistence? For I suppose that you are not going to send out a
general invitation to any Hellene who likes to come. And yet I observe
that to your country settlers have come from Argos and Aegina and
other parts of Hellas. Tell me, then, whence do you draw your recruits
in the present enterprise?
  Cle. They will come from all Crete; and of other Hellenes,
Peloponnesians will be most acceptable. For, as you truly observe,
there are Cretans of Argive descent; and the race of Cretans which has
the highest character at the present day is the Gortynian, and this
has come from Gortys in the Peloponnesus.
  Ath. Cities find colonization in some respects easier if the
colonists are one race, which like a swarm of bees is sent out from
a single country, either when friends leave friends, owing to some
pressure of population or other similar necessity, or when a portion
of a state is driven by factions to emigrate. And there have been
whole cities which have taken flight when utterly conquered by a
superior power in war. This, however, which is in one way an advantage
to the colonist or legislator, in another point of view creates a
difficulty. There is an element of friendship in the community of
race, and language, and language, and laws, and in common temples
and rites of worship; but colonies which are of this homogeneous
sort are apt to kick against any laws or any form of constitution
differing from that which they had at home; and although the badness
of their own laws may have been the cause of the factions which
prevailed among them, yet from the force of habit they would fain
preserve the very customs which were their ruin, and the leader of the
colony, who is their legislator, finds them troublesome and
rebellious. On the other hand, the conflux of several populations
might be more disposed to listen to new laws; but then, to make them
combine and pull together, as they say of horses, is a most
difficult task, and the work of years. And yet there is nothing
which tends more to the improvement of mankind than legislation and
colonization.
  Cle. No doubt; but I should like to know why you say so.
  Ath. My good friend, I am afraid that the course of my
speculations is leading me to say something depreciatory of
legislators; but if the word be to the purpose, there can be no
harm. And yet, why am I disquieted, for I believe that the same
principle applies equally to all human things?
  Cle. To what are you referring?
  Ath. I was going to say that man never legislates, but accidents
of all sorts, which legislate for us in all sorts of ways. The
violence of war and the hard necessity of poverty are constantly
overturning governments and changing laws. And the power of discase
has often caused innovations in the state, when there have been
pestilences, or when there has been a succession of bad seasons
continuing during many years. Any one who sees all this, naturally
rushes to the conclusion of which I was speaking, that no mortal
legislates in anything, but that in human affairs chance is almost
everything. And this may be said of the arts of the sailor, and the
pilot, and the physician, and the general, and may seem to be well
said; and yet there is another thing which may be said with equal
truth of all of them.
  Cle. What is it?
  Ath. That God governs all things, and that chance and opportunity
co-operate with him in the government of human affairs. There is,
however, a third and less extreme view, that art should be there also;
for I should say that in a storm there must surely be a great
advantage in having the aid of the pilot's art. You would agree?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. And does not a like principle apply to legislation as well as
to other things: even supposing all the conditions to be favourable
which are needed for the happiness of the state, yet the true
legislator must from time to time appear on the scene?
  Cle. Most true.
  Ath. In each case the artist would be able to pray rightly for
certain conditions, and if these were granted by fortune, he would
then only require to exercise his art?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And all the other artists just now mentioned, if they were
bidden to offer up each their special prayer, would do so?
  Cle. Of course.
  Ath. And the legislator would do likewise?
  Cle. I believe that he would.
  Ath. "Come, legislator," we will say to him; "what are the
conditions which you require in a state before you can organize it?"
How ought he to answer this question? Shall I give his answer?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. He will say-"Give me a state which is governed by a tyrant, and
let the tyrant be young and have a good memory; let him be quick at
learning, and of a courageous and noble nature; let him have that
quality which, as I said before, is the inseparable companion of all
the other parts of virtue, if there is to be any good in them."
  Cle. I suppose, Megillus, that this companion virtue of which the
Stranger speaks, must be temperance?
  Ath. Yes, Cleinias, temperance in the vulgar sense; not that which
in the forced and exaggerated language of some philosophers is
called prudence, but that which is the natural gift of children and
animals, of whom some live continently and others incontinently, but
when isolated, was as we said, hardly worth reckoning in the catalogue
of goods. I think that you must understand my meaning.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Then our tyrant must have this as well as the other
qualities, if the state is to acquire in the best manner and in the
shortest time the form of government which is most conducive to
happiness; for there neither is nor ever will be a better or
speedier way of establishing a polity than by a tyranny.
  Cle. By what possible arguments, Stranger, can any man persuade
himself of such a monstrous doctrine?
  Ath. There is surely no difficulty in seeing, Cleinias, what is in
accordance with the order of nature?
  Cle. You would assume, as you say, a tyrant who was young,
temperate, quick at learning, having a good memory, courageous, of a
noble nature?
  Ath. Yes; and you must add fortunate; and his good fortune must be
that he is the contemporary of a great legislator, and that some happy
chance brings them together. When this has been accomplished, God
has done all that he ever does for a state which he desires to be
eminently prosperous; He has done second best for a state in which
there are two such rulers, and third best for a state in which there
are three. The difficulty increases with the increase, and
diminishes with the diminution of the number.
  Cle. You mean to say, I suppose, that the best government is
produced from a tyranny, and originates in a good lawgiver and an
orderly tyrant, and that the change from such a tyranny into a perfect
form of government takes place most easily; less easily when from an
oligarchy; and, in the third degree, from a democracy: is not that
your meaning?
  Ath. Not so; I mean rather to say that the change is best made out
of a tyranny; and secondly, out of a monarchy; and thirdly, out of
some sort of democracy: fourth, in the capacity for improvement, comes
oligarchy, which has the greatest difficulty in admitting of such a
change, because the government is in the hands of a number of
potentates. I am supposing that the legislator is by nature of the
true sort, and that his strength is united with that of the chief
men of the state; and when the ruling element is numerically small,
and at the same time very strong, as in a tyranny, there the change is
likely to be easiest and most rapid.
  Cle. How? I do not understand.
  Ath. And yet I have repeated what I am saying a good many times; but
I suppose that you have never seen a city which is under a tyranny?
  Cle. No, and I cannot say that I have any great desire to see one.
  Ath. And yet, where there is a tyranny, you might certainly see that
of which I am now speaking.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. I mean that you might see how, without trouble and in no very
long period of time, the tyrant, if he wishes, can change the
manners of a state: he has only to go in the direction of virtue or of
vice, whichever he prefers, he himself indicating by his example the
lines of conduct, praising and rewarding some actions and reproving
others, and degrading those who disobey.
  Cle. But how can we imagine that the citizens in general will at
once follow the example set to them; and how can he have this power
both of persuading and of compelling them?
  Ath. Let no one, my friends, persuade us that there is any quicker
and easier way in which states change their laws than when the
rulers lead: such changes never have, nor ever will, come to pass in
any other way. The real impossibility or difficulty is of another
sort, and is rarely surmounted in the course of ages; but when once it
is surmounted, ten thousand or rather all blessings follow.
  Cle. Of what are you speaking?
  Ath. The difficulty is to find the divine love of temperate and just
institutions existing in any powerful forms of government, whether
in a monarchy or oligarchy of wealth or of birth. You might as well
hope to reproduce the character of Nestor, who is said to have
excelled all men in the power of speech, and yet more in his
temperance. This, however, according to the tradition, was in the
times of Troy; in our own days there is nothing of the sort; but if
such an one either has or ever shall come into being, or is now
among us, blessed is he and blessed are they who hear the wise words
that flow from his lips. And this may be said of power in general:
When the supreme power in man coincides with the greatest wisdom and
temperance, then the best laws and the best constitution come into
being; but in no other way. And let what I have been saying be
regarded as a kind of sacred legend or oracle, and let this be our
proof that, in one point of view, there may be a difficulty for a city
to have good laws, but that there is another point of view in which
nothing can be easier or sooner effected, granting our supposition.
  Cle. How do you mean?
  Ath. Let us try to amuse ourselves, old boys as we are, by
moulding in words the laws which are suitable to your state.
  Cle. Let us proceed without delay.
  Ath. Then let us invoke God at the settlement of our state; may he
hear and be propitious to us, and come and set in order the State
and the laws!
  Cle. May he come!
  Ath. But what form of polity are we going to give the city?
  Cle. Tell us what you mean a little more clearly. Do you mean some
form of democracy, or oligarchy, or aristocracy, or monarchy? For we
cannot suppose that you would include tyranny.
  Ath. Which of you will first tell me to which of these classes his
own government is to be referred?
  Megillus. Ought I to answer first, since I am the elder?
  Cle. Perhaps you should.
  Meg. And yet, Stranger, I perceive that I cannot say, without more
thought, what I should call the government of Lacedaemon, for it seems
to me to be like a tyranny-the power of our Ephors is marvellously
tyrannical; and sometimes it appears to me to be of all cities the
most democratical; and who can reasonably deny that it is an
aristocracy? We have also a monarchy which is held for life, and is
said by all mankind, and not by ourselves only, to be the most ancient
of all monarchies; and, therefore, when asked on a sudden, I cannot
precisely say which form of government the Spartan is.
  Cle. I am in the same difficulty, Megillus; for I do not feel
confident that the polity of Cnosus is any of these.
   Ath. The reason is, my excellent friends, that you really have
polities, but the states of which we were just now speaking are merely
aggregations of men dwelling in cities who are the subjects and
servants of a part of their own state, and each of them is named after
the dominant power; they are not polities at all. But if states are to
be named after their rulers, the true state ought to be called by
the name of the God who rules over wise men.
  Cle. And who is this God?
  Ath. May I still make use of fable to some extent, in the hope
that I may be better able to answer your question: shall I?
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. In the primeval world, and a long while before the cities
came into being whose settlements we have described, there is said
to have been in the time of Cronos a blessed rule and life, of which
the best-ordered of existing states is a copy.
  Cle. It will be very necessary to hear about that.
  Ath. I quite agree with you; and therefore I have introduced the
subject.
  Cle. Most appropriately; and since the tale is to the point, you
will do well in giving us the whole story.
  Ath. I will do as you suggest. There is a tradition of the happy
life of mankind in days when all things were spontaneous and abundant.
And of this the reason is said to have been as follows:-Cronos knew
what we ourselves were declaring, that no human nature invested with
supreme power is able to order human affairs and not overflow with
insolence and wrong. Which reflection led him to appoint not men but
demigods, who are of a higher and more divine race, to be the kings
and rulers of our cities; he did as we do with flocks of sheep and
other tame animals. For we do not appoint oxen to be the lords of
oxen, or goats of goats; but we ourselves are a superior race, and
rule over them. In like manner God, in his love of mankind, placed
over us the demons, who are a superior race, and they with great
case and pleasure to themselves, and no less to us, taking care us and
giving us peace and reverence and order and justice never failing,
made the tribes of men happy and united. And this tradition, which
is true, declares that cities of which some mortal man and not God
is the ruler, have no escape from evils and toils. Still we must do
all that we can to imitate the life which is said to have existed in
the days of Cronos, and, as far as the principle of immortality dwells
in us, to that we must hearken, both in private and public life, and
regulate our cities and houses according to law, meaning by the very
term "law," the distribution of mind. But if either a single person or
an oligarchy or a democracy has a soul eager after pleasures and
desires-wanting to be filled with them, yet retaining none of them,
and perpetually afflicted with an endless and insatiable disorder; and
this evil spirit, having first trampled the laws under foot, becomes
the master either of a state or of an individual-then, as I was
saying, salvation is hopeless. And now, Cleinias, we have to
consider whether you will or will not accept this tale of mine.
  Cle. Certainly we will.
  Ath. You are aware-are you not?-that there are of said to be as many
forms of laws as there are of governments, and of the latter we have
already mentioned all those which are commonly recognized. Now you
must regard this as a matter of first-rate importance. For what is
to be the standard of just and unjust, is once more the point at
issue. Men say that the law ought not to regard either military
virtue, or virtue in general, but only the interests and power and
preservation of the established form of government; this is thought by
them to be the best way of expressing the natural definition of
justice.
  Cle. How?
  Ath. Justice is said by them to be the interest of the stronger.
  Cle. Speak plainer.
  Ath. I will:-"Surely," they say, "the governing power makes whatever
laws have authority in any state?"
  Cle. True.
  Ath. "Well," they would add, "and do you suppose that tyranny or
democracy, or any other conquering power, does not make the
continuance of the power which is possessed by them the first or
principal object of their laws?"
  Cle. How can they have any other?
  Ath. "And whoever transgresses these laws is punished as an
evil-doer by the legislator, who calls the laws just?"
  Cle. Naturally.
  Ath. "This, then, is always the mode and fashion in which justice
exists."
  Cle. Certainly, if they are correct in their view.
  Ath. Why, yes, this is one of those false principles of government
to which we were referring.
  Cle. Which do you mean?
  Ath. Those which we were examining when we spoke of who ought to
govern whom. Did we not arrive at the conclusion that parents ought to
govern their children, and the elder the younger, and the noble the
ignoble? And there were many other principles, if you remember, and
they were not always consistent. One principle was this very principle
of might, and we said that Pindar considered violence natural and
justified it.
  Cle. Yes; I remember.
  Ath. Consider, then, to whom our state is to be entrusted. For there
is a thing which has occurred times without number in states-
  Cle. What thing?
  Ath. That when there has been a contest for power, those who gain
the upper hand so entirely monopolize the government, as to refuse all
share to the defeated party and their descendants-they live watching
one another, the ruling class being in perpetual fear that some one
who has a recollection of former wrongs will come into power and
rise up against them. Now, according to our view, such governments are
not polities at all, nor are laws right which are passed for the
good of particular classes and not for the good of the whole state.
States which have such laws are not polities but parties, and their
notions of justice are simply unmeaning. I say this, because I am
going to assert that we must not entrust the government in your
state to any one because he is rich, or because he possesses any other
advantage, such as strength, or stature, or again birth: but he who is
most obedient to the laws of the state, he shall win the palm; and
to him who is victorious in the first degree shall be given the
highest office and chief ministry of the gods; and the second to him
who bears the second palm; and on a similar principle shall all the
other be assigned to those who come next in order. And when I call the
rulers servants or ministers of the law, I give them this name not for
the sake of novelty, but because I certainly believe that upon such
service or ministry depends the well- or ill-being of the state. For
that state in which the law is subject and has no authority, I
perceive to be on the highway to ruin; but I see that the state in
which the law is above the rulers, and the rulers are the inferiors of
the law, has salvation, and every blessing which the Gods can confer.
  Cle. Truly, Stranger, you see with the keen vision of age.
  Ath. Why, yes; every man when he is young has that sort of vision
dullest, and when he is old keenest.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. And now, what is to be the next step? May we not suppose the
colonists to have arrived, and proceed to make our speech to them?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. "Friends," we say to them,-"God, as the old tradition declares,
holding in his hand the beginning, middle, and end of all that is,
travels according to his nature in a straight line towards the
accomplishment of his end. Justice always accompanies him, and is
the punisher of those who fall short of the divine law. To justice, he
who would be happy holds fast, and follows in her company with all
humility and order; but he who is lifted up with pride, or elated by
wealth or rank, or beauty, who is young and foolish, and has a soul
hot with insolence, and thinks that he has no need of any guide or
ruler, but is able himself to be the guide of others, he, I say, is
left deserted of God; and being thus deserted, he takes to him
others who are like himself, and dances about, throwing all things
into confusion, and many think that he is a great man, but in a
short time he pays a penalty which justice cannot but approve, and
is utterly destroyed, and his family and city with him. Wherefore,
seeing that human things are thus ordered, what should a wise man do
or think, or not do or think?
  Cle. Every man ought to make up his mind that he will be one of
the followers of God; there can be no doubt of that.
  Ath. Then what life is agreeable to God, and becoming in his
followers? One only, expressed once for all in the old saying that
"like agrees with like, with measure measure," but things which have
no measure agree neither with themselves nor with the things which
have. Now God ought to be to us the measure of all things, and not
man, as men commonly say (Protagoras): the words are far more true
of him. And he who would be dear to God must, as far as is possible,
be like him and such as he is. Wherefore the temperate man is the
friend of God, for he is like him; and the intemperate man is unlike
him, and different from him, and unjust. And the same applies to other
things; and this is the conclusion, which is also the noblest and
truest of all sayings-that for the good man to offer sacrifice to
the Gods, and hold converse with them by means of prayers and
offerings and every kind of service, is the noblest and best of all
things, and also the most conducive to a happy life, and very fit
and meet. But with the bad man, the opposite of this is true: for
the bad man has an impure soul, whereas the good is pure; and from one
who is polluted, neither good man nor God can without impropriety
receive gifts. Wherefore the unholy do only waste their much service
upon the Gods, but when offered by any holy man, such service is
most acceptable to them. This is the mark at which we ought to aim.
But what weapons shall we use, and how shall we direct them? In the
first place, we affirm that next after the Olympian Gods and the
Gods of the State, honour should be given to the Gods below; they
should receive everything in even and of the second choice, and ill
omen, while the odd numbers, and the first choice, and the things of
lucky omen, are given to the Gods above, by him who would rightly
hit the mark of piety. Next to these Gods, a wise man will do
service to the demons or spirits, and then to the heroes, and after
them will follow the private and ancestral Gods, who are worshipped as
the law prescribes in the places which are sacred to them. Next
comes the honour of living parents, to whom, as is meet, we have to
pay the first and greatest and oldest of all debts, considering that
all which a man has belongs to those who gave him birth and brought
him up, and that he must do all that he can to minister to them,
first, in his property, secondly, in his person, and thirdly, in his
soul, in return for the endless care and travail which they bestowed
upon him of old, in the days of his infancy, and which he is now to
pay back to them when they are old and in the extremity of their need.
And all his life long he ought never to utter, or to have uttered,
an unbecoming word to them; for of light and fleeting words the
penalty is most severe; Nemesis, the messenger of justice, is
appointed to watch over all such matters. When they are angry and want
to satisfy their feelings in word or deed, he should give way to them;
for a father who thinks that he has been wronged by his son may be
reasonably expected to be very angry. At their death, the most
moderate funeral is best, neither exceeding the customary expense, nor
yet falling short of the honour which has been usually shown by the
former generation to their parents. And let a man not forget to pay
the yearly tribute of respect to the dead, honouring them chiefly by
omitting nothing that conduces to a perpetual remembrance of them, and
giving a reasonable portion of his fortune to the dead. Doing this,
and living after this manner, we shall receive our reward from the
Gods and those who are above us [i.e., the demons]; and we shall spend
our days for the most part in good hope. And how a man ought to
order what relates to his descendants and his kindred and friends
and fellow-citizens, and the rites of hospitality taught by Heaven,
and the intercourse which arises out of all these duties, with a
view to the embellishment and orderly regulation of his own life-these
things, I say, the laws, as we proceed with them, will accomplish,
partly persuading, and partly when natures do not yield to the
persuasion of custom, chastising them by might and right, and will
thus render our state, if the Gods co-operate with us, prosperous
and happy. But of what has to be said, and must be said by the
legislator who is of my way of thinking, and yet, if said in the
form of law, would be out of place-of this I think that he may give
a sample for the instruction of himself and of those for whom he is
legislating; and then when, as far as he is able, he has gone
through all the preliminaries, he may proceed to the work of
legislation. Now, what will be the form of such prefaces? There may be
a difficulty in including or describing them all under a single
form, but I think that we may get some notion of them if we can
guarantee one thing.
  Cle. What is that?
  Ath. I should wish the citizens to be as readily persuaded to virtue
as possible; this will surely be the aim of the legislator in all
his laws.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. The proposal appears to me to be of some value; and I think
that a person will listen with more gentleness and good-will to the
precepts addressed to him by the legislator, when his soul is not
altogether unprepared to receive them. Even a little done in the way
of conciliation gains his ear, and is always worth having. For there
is no great inclination or readiness on the part of mankind to be made
as good, or as quickly good, as possible. The case of the many
proves the wisdom of Hesiod, who says that the road to wickedness is
smooth and can be travelled without perspiring, because it is so
very short:

  But before virtue the immortal Gods have placed the sweat of labour,
and long and steep is the way thither, and rugged at first; but when
you have reached the top, although difficult before, it is then easy.

  Cle. Yes; and he certainly speaks well.
  Ath. Very true: and now let me tell you the effect which the
preceding discourse has had upon me.
  Cle. Proceed.
  Ath. Suppose that we have a little conversation with the legislator,
and say to him-"O, legislator, speak; if you know what we ought to say
and do, you can surely tell."
  Cle. Of course he can.
  Ath. "Did we not hear you just now saying, that the legislator ought
not to allow the poets to do what they liked? For that they would
not know in which of their words they went against the laws, to the
hurt of the state."
  Cle. That is true.
  Ath. May we not fairly make answer to him on behalf of the poets?
  Cle. What answer shall we make to him?
  Ath. That the poet, according to the tradition which has ever
prevailed among us, and is accepted of all men, when he sits down on
the tripod of the muse, is not in his right mind; like a fountain,
he allows to flow out freely whatever comes in, and his art being
imitative, he is often compelled to represent men of opposite
dispositions, and thus to contradict himself; neither can he tell
whether there is more truth in one thing that he has said than in
another. this is not the case in a law; the legislator must give not
two rules about the same thing, but one only. Take an example from
what you have just been saying. Of three kinds of funerals, there is
one which is too extravagant, another is too niggardly, the third is a
mean; and you choose and approve and order the last without
qualification. But if I had an extremely rich wife, and she bade me
bury her and describe her burial in a poem, I should praise the
extravagant sort; and a poor miserly man, who had not much money to
spend, would approve of the niggardly; and the man of moderate
means, who was himself moderate, would praise a moderate funeral.
Now you in the capacity of legislator must not barely say "a
moderate funeral," but you must define what moderation is, and how
much; unless you are definite, you must not suppose that you are
speaking a language that can become law.
  Cle. Certainly not.
  Ath. And is our legislator to have no preface to his laws, but to
say at once Do this, avoid that-and then holding the penalty in
terrorem to go on to another law; offering never a word of advice or
exhortation to those for whom he is legislating, after the manner of
some doctors? For of doctors, as I may remind you, some have a
gentler, others a ruder method of cure; and as children ask the doctor
to be gentle with them, so we will ask the legislator to cure our
disorders with the gentlest remedies. What I mean to say is, that
besides doctors there are doctors' servants, who are also styled
doctors.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. And whether they are slaves or freemen makes no difference;
they acquire their knowledge of medicine by obeying and observing
their masters; empirically and not according to the natural way of
learning, as the manner of freemen is, who have learned scientifically
themselves the art which they impart scientifically to their pupils.
You are aware that there are these two classes of doctors?
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. And did you ever observe that there are two classes of patients
in states, slaves and freemen; and the slave doctors run about and
cure the slaves, or wait for them in the dispensaries-practitioners of
this sort never talk to their patients individually, or let them
talk about their own individual complaints? The slave doctor
prescribes what mere experience suggests, as if he had exact
knowledge; and when he has given his orders, like a tyrant, he
rushes off with equal assurance to some other servant who is ill;
and so he relieves the master of the house of the care of his
invalid slaves. But the other doctor, who is a freeman, attends and
practises upon freemen; and he carries his enquiries far back, and
goes into the nature of the disorder; he enters into discourse with
the patient and with his friends, and is at once getting information
from the sick man, and also instructing him as far as he is able,
and he will not prescribe for him until he has first convinced him; at
last, when he has brought the patient more and more under his
persuasive influences and set him on the road to health, he attempts
to effect a cure. Now which is the better way of proceeding in a
physician and in a trainer? Is he the better who accomplishes his ends
in a double way, or he who works in one way, and that the ruder and
inferior?
  Cle. I should say, Stranger, that the double way is far better.
  Ath. Should you like to see an example of the double and single
method in legislation?
  Cle. Certainly I should.
  Ath. What will be our first law? Will not the the order of nature,
begin by making regulations for states about births?
  Cle. He will.
  Ath. In all states the birth of children goes back to the connection
of marriage?
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. And, according to the true order, the laws relating to marriage
should be those which are first determined in every state?
  Cle. Quite so.
  Ath. Then let me first give the law of marriage in a simple form; it
may run as follows:-A man shall marry between the ages of thirty and
thirty-five, or, if he does not, he shall pay such and such a fine, or
shall suffer the loss of such and such privileges. This would be the
simple law about marriage. The double law would run thus:-A man
shall marry between the ages of thirty and thirty-five, considering
that in a manner the human race naturally partakes of immortality,
which every man is by nature inclined to desire to the utmost; for the
desire of every man that he may become famous, and not lie in the
grave without a name, is only the love of continuance. Now mankind are
coeval with all time, and are ever following, and will ever follow,
the course of time; and so they are immortal, because they leave
children's children behind them, and partake of immortality in the
unity of generation. And for a man voluntarily to deprive himself of
this gift, as he deliberately does who will not have a wife or
children, is impiety. He who obeys the law shall be free, and shall
pay no fine; but he who is disobedient, and does not marry, when he
has arrived at the age of thirty-five, shall pay a yearly fine of a
certain amount, in order that he may not imagine his celibacy to bring
ease and profit to him; and he shall not share in the honours which
the young men in the state give to the aged. Comparing now the two
forms of the law, you will be able to arrive at a judgment about any
other laws-whether they should be double in length even when shortest,
because they have to persuade as well as threaten, or whether they
shall only threaten and be of half the length.
  Meg. The shorter form, Stranger, would be more in accordance with
Lacedaemonian custom; although, for my own part, if any one were to
ask me which I myself prefer in the state, I should certainly
determine in favour of the longer; and I would have every law made
after the same pattern, if I had to choose. But I think that
Cleinias is the person to be consulted, for his is the state which
is going to use these laws.
  Cle. Thank you, Megillus.
  Ath. Whether, in the abstract, words are to be many or few, is a
very foolish question; the best form, and not the shortest, is to be
approved; nor is length at all to be regarded. Of the two forms of law
which have been recited, the one is not only twice as good in
practical usefulness as the other, but the case is like that of the
two kinds of doctors, which I was just now mentioning. And yet
legislators never appear to have considered that they have two
instruments which they might use in legislation-persuasion and
force; for in dealing with the rude and uneducated multitude, they use
the one only as far as they can; they do not mingle persuasion with
coercion, but employ force pure and simple. Moreover, there is a third
point, sweet friends, which ought to be, and never is, regarded in our
existing laws.
  Cle. What is it?
  Ath. A point arising out of our previous discussion, which comes
into my mind in some mysterious way. All this time, from early dawn
until noon, have we been talking about laws in this charming
retreat: now we are going to promulgate our laws, and what has
preceded was only the prelude of them. Why do I mention this? For this
reason:-Because all discourses and vocal exercises have preludes and
overtures, which are a sort of artistic beginnings intended to help
the strain which is to be performed; lyric measures and music of every
other kind have preludes framed with wonderful care. But of the
truer and higher strain of law and politics, no one has ever yet
uttered any prelude, or composed or published any, as though there was
no such thing in nature. Whereas our present discussion seems to me to
imply that there is;-these double laws, of which we were speaking, are
not exactly double, but they are in two parts, the law and the prelude
of the law. The arbitrary command, which was compared to the
commands of doctors, whom we described as of the meaner sort, was
the law pure and simple; and that which preceded, and was described by
our friend here as being hortatory only, was, although in fact, an
exhortation, likewise analogous to the preamble of a discourse. For
I imagine that all this language of conciliation, which the legislator
has been uttering in the preface of the law, was intended to create
goodwill in the person whom he addressed, in order that, by reason
of this good-will, he might more intelligently receive his command,
that is to say, the law. And therefore, in my way of speaking, this is
more rightly described as the preamble than as the matter of the
law. And I must further proceed to observe, that to all his laws,
and to each separately, the legislator should prefix a preamble; he
should remember how great will be the difference between them,
according as they have, or have not, such preambles, as in the case
already given.
  Cle. The lawgiver, if he asks my opinion, will certainly legislate
in the form which you advise.
  Ath. I think that you are right, Cleinias, in affirming that all
laws have preambles, and that throughout the whole of this work of
legislation every single law should have a suitable preamble at the
beginning; for that which is to follow is most important, and it makes
all the difference whether we clearly remember the preambles or not.
Yet we should be wrong in requiring that all laws, small and great
alike, should have preambles of the same kind, any more than all songs
or speeches; although they may be natural to all, they are not
always necessary, and whether they are to be employed or not has in
each case to be left to the judgment of the speaker or the musician,
or, in the present instance, of the lawgiver.
  Cle. That I think is most true. And now, Stranger, without delay let
us return to the argument, and, as people say in play, make a second
and better beginning, if you please, with the principles which we have
been laying down, which we never thought of regarding as a preamble
before, but of which we may now make a preamble, and not merely
consider them to be chance topics of discourse. Let us acknowledge,
then, that we have a preamble. About the honour of the Gods and the
respect of parents, enough has been already said; and we may proceed
to the topics which follow next in order, until the preamble is deemed
by you to be complete; and after that you shall go through the laws
themselves.
  Ath. I understand you to mean that we have made a sufficient
preamble about Gods and demi-gods, and about parents living or dead;
and now you would have us bring the rest of the subject into the light
of day?
  Cle. Exactly.
  Ath. After this, as is meet and for the interest of us all, I the
speaker, and you the listeners, will try to estimate all that
relates to the souls and bodies and properties of the citizens, as
regards both their occupations and arrive, as far as in us lies, at
the nature of education. These then are the topics which follow next
in order.
  Cle. Very good.
  BOOK V

  Athenian Stranger. Listen, all ye who have just now heard the laws
about Gods, and about our dear forefathers:-Of all the things which
a man has, next to the Gods, his soul is the most divine and most
truly his own. Now in every man there are two parts: the better and
superior, which rules, and the worse and inferior, which serves; and
the ruling part of him is always to be preferred to the subject.
Wherefore I am right in bidding every one next to the Gods, who are
our masters, and those who in order follow them [i.e., the demons], to
honour his own soul, which every one seems to honour, but no one
honours as he ought; for honour is a divine good, and no evil thing is
honourable; and he who thinks that he can honour the soul by word or
gift, or any sort of compliance, without making her in any way better,
seems to honour her, but honours her not at all. For example, every
man, from his very boyhood, fancies that he is able to know
everything, and thinks that he honours his soul by praising her, and
he is very ready to let her do whatever she may like. But I mean to
say that in acting thus he injures his soul, and is far from honouring
her; whereas, in our opinion, he ought to honour her as second only to
the Gods. Again, when a man thinks that others are to be blamed, and
not himself, for the errors which he has committed from time to
time, and the many and great evils which befell him in consequence,
and is always fancying himself to be exempt and innocent, he is
under the idea that he is honouring his soul; whereas the very reverse
is the fact, for he is really injuring her. And when, disregarding the
word and approval of the legislator, he indulges in pleasure, then
again he is far from honouring her; he only dishonours her, and
fills her full of evil and remorse; or when he does not endure to
the end the labours and fears and sorrows and pains which the
legislator approves, but gives way before them, then, by yielding,
he does not honour the soul, but by all such conduct he makes her to
be dishonourable; nor when he thinks that life at any price is a good,
does he honour her, but yet once more he dishonours her; for the
soul having a notion that the world below is all evil, he yields to
her, and does not resist and teach or convince her that, for aught she
knows, the world of the Gods below, instead of being evil, may be
the greatest of all goods. Again, when any one prefers beauty to
virtue, what is this but the real and utter dishonour of the soul? For
such a preference implies that the body is more honourable than the
soul; and this is false, for there is nothing of earthly birth which
is more honourable than the heavenly, and he who thinks otherwise of
the soul has no idea how greatly he undervalues this wonderful
possession; nor, again, when a person is willing, or not unwilling, to
acquire dishonest gains, does he then honour his soul with gifts-far
otherwise; he sells her glory and honour for a small piece of gold;
but all the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to
give in exchange for virtue. In a word, I may say that he who does not
estimate the base and evil, the good and noble, according to the
standard of the legislator, and abstain in every possible way from the
one and practise the other to the utmost of his power, does not know
that in all these respects he is most foully and disgracefully abusing
his soul, which is the divinest part of man; for no one, as I may say,
ever considers that which is declared to be the greatest penalty of
evil-doing--namely, to grow into the likeness of bad men, and
growing like them to fly from the conversation of the good, and be cut
off from them, and cleave to and follow after the company of the
bad. And he who is joined to them must do and suffer what such men
by nature do and say to one another-a suffering which is not justice
but retribution; for justice and the just are noble, whereas
retribution is the suffering which waits upon injustice; and whether a
man escape or endure this, he is miserable-in the former case, because
he is not cured; while in the latter, he perishes in order that the
rest of mankind may be saved.
  Speaking generally, our glory is to follow the better and improve
the inferior, which is susceptible of improvement, as far as this is
possible. And of all human possessions, the soul is by nature most
inclined to avoid the evil, and track out and find the chief good;
which when a man has found, he should take up his abode with it during
the remainder of his life. Wherefore the soul also is second [or
next to God] in honour; and third, as every one will perceive, comes
the honour of the body in natural order. Having determined this, we
have next to consider that there is a natural honour of the body,
and that of honours some are true and some are counterfeit. To
decide which are which is the business of the legislator; and he, I
suspect, would intimate that they are as follows:-Honour is not to
be given to the fair body, or to the strong or the swift or the
tall, or to the healthy body (although many may think otherwise),
any more than to their opposites; but the mean states of all these
habits are by far the safest and most moderate; for the one extreme
makes the soul braggart and insolent, and the other, illiberal and
base; and money, and property, and distinction all go to the same
tune. The excess of any of these things is apt to be a source of
hatreds and divisions among states and individuals; and the defect
of them is commonly a cause of slavery. And, therefore, I would not
have any one fond of heaping up riches for the sake of his children,
in order that he may leave them as rich as possible. For the
possession of great wealth is of no use, either to them or to the
state. The condition of youth which is free from flattery, and at
the same time not in need of the necessaries of life, is the best
and most harmonious of all, being in accord and agreement with our
nature, and making life to be most entirely free from sorrow. Let
parents, then, bequeath to their children not a heap of riches, but
the spirit of reverence. We, indeed, fancy that they will inherit
reverence from us, if we rebuke them when they show a want of
reverence. But this quality is not really imparted to them by the
present style of admonition, which only tells them that the young
ought always to be reverential. A sensible legislator will rather
exhort the elders to reverence the younger, and above all to take heed
that no young man sees or hears one of themselves doing or saying
anything disgraceful; for where old men have no shame, there young men
will most certainly be devoid of reverence. The best way of training
the young is to train yourself at the same time; not to admonish them,
but to be always carrying out your own admonitions in practice. He who
honours his kindred, and reveres those who share in the same Gods
and are of the same blood and family, may fairly expect that the
Gods who preside over generation will be propitious to him, and will
quicken his seed. And he who deems the services which his friends
and acquaintances do for him, greater and more important than they
themselves deem them, and his own favours to them less than theirs
to him, will have their good-will in the intercourse of life. And
surely in his relations to the state and his fellow citizens, he is by
far the best, who rather than the Olympic or any other victory of
peace or war, desires to win the palm of obedience to the laws of
his country, and who, of all mankind, is the person reputed to have
obeyed them best through life. In his relations to strangers, a man
should consider that a contract is a most holy thing, and that all
concerns and wrongs of strangers are more directly dependent on the
protection of God, than wrongs done to citizens; for the stranger,
having no kindred and friends, is more to be pitied by Gods and men.
Wherefore, also, he who is most able to avenge him is most zealous
in his cause; and he who is most able is the genius and the god of the
stranger, who follow in the train of Zeus, the god of strangers. And
for this reason, he who has a spark of caution in him, will do his
best to pass through life without sinning against the stranger. And of
offences committed, whether against strangers or fellow-countrymen,
that against suppliants is the greatest. For the god who witnessed
to the agreement made with the suppliant, becomes in a special
manner the guardian of the sufferer; and he will certainly not
suffer unavenged.
  Thus we have fairly described the manner in which a man is to act
about his parents, and himself, and his own affairs; and in relation
to the state, and his friends, and kindred, both in what concerns
his own countrymen, and in what concerns the stranger. We will now
consider what manner of man he must be who would best pass through
life in respect of those other things which are not matters of law,
but of praise and blame only; in which praise and blame educate a man,
and make him more tractable and amenable to the laws which are about
to be imposed.
  Truth is the beginning of every good thing, both to Gods and men;
and he who would be blessed and happy, should be from the first a
partaker of the truth, that he may live a true man as long as
possible, for then he can be trusted; but he is not to be trusted
who loves voluntary falsehood, and he who loves involuntary
falsehood is a fool. Neither condition is enviable, for the
untrustworthy and ignorant has no friend, and as time advances he
becomes known, and lays up in store for himself isolation in crabbed
age when life is on the wane: so that, whether his children or friends
are alive or not, he is equally solitary.-Worthy of honour is he who
does no injustice, and of more than twofold honour, if he not only
does no injustice himself, but hinders others from doing any; the
first may count as one man, the second is worth many men, because he
informs the rulers of the injustice of others. And yet more highly
to be esteemed is he who co-operates with the rulers in correcting the
citizens as far as he can-he shall be proclaimed the great and perfect
citizen, and bear away the palm of virtue. The same praise may be
given about temperance and wisdom, and all other goods which may be
imparted to others, as well as acquired by a man for himself; he who
imparts them shall be honoured as the man of men, and he who is
willing, yet is not able, may be allowed the second place; but he
who is jealous and will not, if he can help, allow others to partake
in a friendly way of any good, is deserving of blame: the good,
however, which he has, is not to be undervalued by us because it is
possessed by him, but must be acquired by us also to the utmost of our
power. Let every man, then, freely strive for the prize of virtue, and
let there be no envy. For the unenvious nature increases the greatness
of states-he himself contends in the race, blasting the fair fame of
no man; but the envious, who thinks that he ought to get the better by
defaming others, is less energetic himself in the pursuit of true
virtue, and reduces his rivals to despair by his unjust slanders of
them. And so he makes the whole city to enter the arena untrained in
the practice of virtue, and diminishes her glory as far as in him
lies. Now every man should be valiant, but he should also be gentle.
From the cruel, or hardly curable, or altogether incurable acts of
injustice done to him by others, a man can only escape by fighting and
defending himself and conquering, and by never ceasing to punish them;
and no man who is not of a noble spirit is able to accomplish this. As
to the actions of those who do evil, but whose evil is curable, in the
first place, let us remember that the unjust man is not unjust of
his own free will. For no man of his own free will would choose to
possess the greatest of evils, and least of all in the most honourable
part of himself. And the soul, as we said, is of a truth deemed by all
men the most honourable. In the soul, then, which is the most
honourable part of him, no one, if he could help, would admit, or
allow to continue the greatest of evils. The unrighteous and vicious
are always to be pitied in any case; and one can afford to forgive
as well as pity him who is curable, and refrain and calm one's
anger, not getting into a passion, like a woman, and nursing
ill-feeling. But upon him who is incapable of reformation and wholly
evil, the vials of our wrath should be poured out; wherefore I say
that good men ought, when occasion demands, to be both gentle and
passionate.
  Of all evils the greatest is one which in the souls of most men is
innate, and which a man is always excusing in himself and never
correcting; mean, what is expressed in the saying that "Every man by
nature is and ought to be his own friend." Whereas the excessive
love of self is in reality the source to each man of all offences; for
the lover is blinded about the beloved, so that he judges wrongly of
the just, the good, and the honourable, and thinks that he ought
always to prefer himself to the truth. But he who would be a great man
ought to regard, not himself or his interests, but what is just,
whether the just act be his own or that of another. Through a
similar error men are induced to fancy that their own ignorance is
wisdom, and thus we who may be truly said to know nothing, think
that we know all things; and because we will not let others act for us
in what we do not know, we are compelled to act amiss ourselves.
Wherefore let every man avoid excess of self-love, and condescend to
follow a better man than himself, not allowing any false shame to
stand in the way. There are also minor precepts which are often
repeated, and are quite as useful; a man should recollect them and
remind himself of them. For when a stream is flowing out, there should
be water flowing in too; and recollection flows in while wisdom is
departing. Therefore I say that a man should refrain from excess
either of laughter or tears, and should exhort his neighbour to do the
same; he should veil his immoderate sorrow or joy, and seek to
behave with propriety, whether the genius of his good fortune
remains with him, or whether at the crisis of his fate, when he
seems to be mounting high and steep places, the Gods oppose him in
some of his enterprises. Still he may ever hope, in the case of good
men, that whatever afflictions are to befall them in the future God
will lessen, and that present evils he will change for the better; and
as to the goods which are the opposite of these evils, he will not
doubt that they will be added to them, and that they will be
fortunate. Such should be men's hopes, and such should be the
exhortations with which they admonish one another, never losing an
opportunity, but on every occasion distinctly reminding themselves and
others of all these things, both in jest and earnest.
  Enough has now been said of divine matters, both as touching the
practices which men ought to follow, and as to the sort of persons who
they ought severally to be. But of human things we have not as yet
spoken, and we must; for to men we are discoursing and not to Gods.
Pleasures and pains and desires are a part of human nature, and on
them every mortal being must of necessity hang and depend with the
most eager interest. And therefore we must praise the noblest life,
not only as the fairest in appearance, but as being one which, if a
man will only taste, and not, while still in his youth, desert for
another, he will find to surpass also in the very thing which we all
of us desire-I mean in having a greater amount of pleasure and less of
pain during the whole of life. And this will be plain, if a man has
a true taste of them, as will be quickly and clearly seen. But what is
a true taste? That we have to learn from the argument-the point
being what is according to nature, and what is not according to
nature. One life must be compared with another, the more pleasurable
with the more painful, after this manner:-We desire to have
pleasure, but we neither desire nor choose pain; and the neutral state
we are ready to take in exchange, not for pleasure but for pain; and
we also wish for less pain and greater pleasure, but less pleasure and
greater pain we do not wish for; and an equal balance of either we
cannot venture to assert that we should desire. And all these differ
or do not differ severally in number and magnitude and intensity and
equality, and in the opposites of these when regarded as objects of
choice, in relation to desire. And such being the necessary order of
things, we wish for that life in which there are many great and
intense elements of pleasure and pain, and in which the pleasures
are in excess, and do not wish for that in which the opposites exceed;
nor, again, do we wish for that in which the clements of either are
small and few and feeble, and the pains exceed. And when, as I said
before, there is a balance of pleasure and pain in life, this is to be
regarded by us as the balanced life; while other lives are preferred
by us because they exceed in what we like, or are rejected by us
because they exceed in what we dislike. All the lives of men may be
regarded by us as bound up in these, and we must also consider what
sort of lives we by nature desire. And if we wish for any others, I
say that we desire them only through some ignorance and inexperience
of the lives which actually exist.
  Now, what lives are they, and how many in which, having searched out
and beheld the objects of will and desire and their opposites, and
making of them a law, choosing, I say, the dear and the pleasant and
the best and noblest, a man may live in the happiest way possible? Let
us say that the temperate life is one kind of life, and the rational
another, and the courageous another, and the healthful another; and to
these four let us oppose four other lives-the foolish, the cowardly,
the intemperate, the diseased. He who knows the temperate life will
describe it as in all things gentle, having gentle pains and gentle
pleasures, and placid desires and loves not insane; whereas the
intemperate life is impetuous in all things, and has violent pains and
pleasures, and vehement and stinging desires, and loves utterly
insane; and in the temperate life the pleasures exceed the pains,
but in the intemperate life the pains exceed the pleasures in
greatness and number and frequency. Hence one of the two lives is
naturally and necessarily more pleasant and the other more painful,
and he who would live pleasantly cannot possibly choose to live
intemperately. And if this is true, the inference clearly is that no
man is voluntarily intemperate; but that the whole multitude of men
lack temperance in their lives, either from ignorance, or from want of
self-control, or both. And the same holds of the diseased and
healthy life; they both have pleasures and pains, but in health the
pleasure exceeds the pain, and in sickness the pain exceeds the
pleasure. Now our intention in choosing the lives is not that the
painful should exceed, but the life in which pain is exceeded by
pleasure we have determined to be the more pleasant life. And we
should say that the temperate life has the elements both of pleasure
and pain fewer and smaller and less frequent than the intemperate, and
the wise life than the foolish life, and the life of courage than
the life of cowardice; one of each pair exceeding in pleasure and
the other in pain, the courageous surpassing the cowardly, and the
wise exceeding the foolish. And so the one dass of lives exceeds the
other class in pleasure; the temperate and courageous and wise and
healthy exceed the cowardly and foolish and intemperate and diseased
lives; and generally speaking, that which has any virtue, whether of
body or soul, is pleasanter than the vicious life, and far superior in
beauty and rectitude and excellence and reputation, and causes him who
lives accordingly to be infinitely happier than the opposite.
  Enough of the preamble; and now the laws should follow; or, to speak
more correctly, outline of them. As, then, in the case of a web or any
other tissue, the warp and the woof cannot be made of the same
materials, but the warp is necessarily superior as being stronger, and
having a certain character of firmness, whereas the woof is softer and
has a proper degree of elasticity;-in a similar manner those who are
to hold great offices in states, should be distinguished truly in each
case from those who have been but slenderly proven by education. Let
us suppose that there are two parts in the constitution of a state-one
the creation of offices, the other the laws which are assigned to them
to administer.
  But, before all this, comes the following consideration:-The
shepherd or herdsman, or breeder of horses or the like, when he has
received his animals will not begin to train them until he has first
purified them in a manner which befits a community of animals; he will
divide the healthy and unhealthy, and the good breed and the bad
breed, and will send away the unhealthy and badly bred to other herds,
and tend the rest, reflecting that his labours will be vain and have
no effect, either on the souls or bodies of those whom nature and
ill nurture have corrupted, and that they will involve in
destruction the pure and healthy nature and being of every other
animal, if he should neglect to purify them. Now the case of other
animals is not so important-they are only worth introducing for the
sake of illustration; but what relates to man is of the highest
importance; and the legislator should make enquiries, and indicate
what is proper for each one in the way of purification and of any
other procedure. Take, for example, the purification of a city-there
are many kinds of purification, some easier and others more difficult;
and some of them, and the best and most difficult of them, the
legislator, if he be also a despot, may be able to effect; but the
legislator, who, not being a despot, sets up a new government and
laws, even if he attempt the mildest of purgations, may think
himself happy if he can complete his work. The best kind of
purification is painful, like similar cures in medicine, involving
righteous punishment and inflicting death or exile in the last resort.
For in this way we commonly dispose of great sinners who are
incurable, and are the greatest injury of the whole state. But the
milder form of purification is as follows:-when men who have
nothing, and are in want of food, show a disposition to follow their
leaders in an attack on the property of the rich-these, who are the
natural plague of the state, are sent away by the legislator in a
friendly spirit as far as he is able; and this dismissal of them is
euphemistically termed a colony. And every legislator should
contrive to do this at once. Our present case, however, is peculiar.
For there is no need to devise any colony or purifying separation
under the circumstances in which we are placed. But as, when many
streams flow together from many sources, whether springs or mountain
torrents, into a single lake, we ought to attend and take care that
the confluent waters should be perfectly clear, and in order to effect
this, should pump and draw off and divert impurities, so in every
political arrangement there may be trouble and danger. But, seeing
that we are now only discoursing and not acting, let our selection
be supposed to be completed, and the desired purity attained. Touching
evil men, who want to join and be citizens of our state, after we have
tested them by every sort of persuasion and for a sufficient time,
we will prevent them from coming; but the good we will to the utmost
of our ability receive as friends with open arms.
  Another piece of good fortune must not be forgotten, which, as we
were saying, the Heraclid colony had, and which is also ours-that we
have escaped division of land and the abolition of debts; for these
are always a source of dangerous contention, and a city which is
driven by necessity to legislate upon such matters can neither allow
the old ways to continue, nor yet venture to alter them. We must
have recourse to prayers, so to speak, and hope that a slight change
may be cautiously effected in a length of time. And such a change
can be accomplished by those who have abundance of land, and having
also many debtors, are willing, in a kindly spirit, to share with
those who are in want, sometimes remitting and sometimes giving,
holding fast in a path of moderation, and deeming poverty to be the
increase of a man's desires and not the diminution of his property.
For this is the great beginning of salvation to a state, and upon this
lasting basis may be erected afterwards whatever political order is
suitable under the circumstances; but if the change be based upon an
unsound principle, the future administration of the country will be
full of difficulties. That is a danger which, as I am saying, is
escaped by us, and yet we had better say how, if we had not escaped,
we might have escaped; and we may venture now to assert that no
other way of escape, whether narrow or broad, can be devised but
freedom from avarice and a sense of justice-upon this rock our city
shall be built; for there ought to be no disputes among citizens about
property. If there are quarrels of long standing among them, no
legislator of any degree of sense will proceed a step in the
arrangement of the state until they are settled. But that they to whom
God has given, as he has to us, to be the founders of a new state as
yet free from enmity-that they should create themselves enmities by
their mode of distributing lands and houses, would be superhuman folly
and wickedness.
  How then can we rightly order the distribution of the land? In the
first place, the number of the citizens has to be determined, and also
the number and size of the divisions into which they will have to be
formed; and the land and the houses will then have to be apportioned
by us as fairly as we can. The number of citizens can only be
estimated satisfactorily in relation to the territory and the
neighbouring states. The territory must be sufficient to maintain a
certain number of inhabitants in a moderate way of life-more than this
is not required; and the number of citizens should be sufficient to
defend themselves against the injustice of their neighbours, and
also to give them the power of rendering efficient aid to their
neighbours when they are wronged. After having taken a survey of
theirs and their neighbours' territory, we will determine the limits
of them in fact as well as in theory. And now, let us proceed to
legislate with a view to perfecting the form and outline of our state.
The number of our citizens shall be 5040-this will be a convenient
number; and these shall be owners of the land and protectors of the
allotment. The houses and the land will be divided in the same way, so
that every man may correspond to a lot. Let the whole number be
first divided into two parts, and then into three; and the number is
further capable of being divided into four or five parts, or any
number of parts up to ten. Every legislator ought to know so much
arithmetic as to be able to tell what number is most likely to be
useful to all cities; and we are going to take that number which
contains the greatest and most regular and unbroken series of
divisions. The whole of number has every possible division, and the
number 5040 can be divided by exactly fifty-nine divisors, and ten
of these proceed without interval from one to ten: this will furnish
numbers for war and peace, and for all contracts and dealings,
including taxes and divisions of the land. These properties of
number should be ascertained at leisure by those who are bound by
law to know them; for they are true, and should be proclaimed at the
foundation of the city, with a view to use. Whether the legislator
is establishing a new state or restoring an old and decayed one, in
respect of Gods and temples-the temples which are to be built in
each city, and the Gods or demi-gods after whom they are to be
called-if he be a man of sense, he will make no change in anything
which the oracle of Delphi, or Dodona, or the God Ammon, or any
ancient tradition has sanctioned in whatever manner, whether by
apparitions or reputed inspiration of Heaven, in obedience to which
mankind have established sacrifices in connection with mystic rites,
either originating on the spot, or derived from Tyrrhenia or Cyprus or
some other place, and on the strength of which traditions they have
consecrated oracles and images, and altars and temples, and
portioned out a sacred domain for each of them. The least part of
all these ought not to be disturbed by the legislator; but he should
assign to the several districts some God, or demi-god, or hero, and,
in the distribution of the soil, should give to these first their
chosen domain and all things fitting, that the inhabitants of the
several districts may meet at fixed times, and that they may readily
supply their various wants, and entertain one another with sacrifices,
and become friends and acquaintances; for there is no greater good
in a state than that the citizens should be known to one another. When
not light but darkness and ignorance of each other's characters
prevails among them, no one will receive the honour of which he is
deserving, or the power or the justice to which he is fairly entitled:
wherefore, in every state, above all things, every man should take
heed that he have no deceit in him, but that he be always true and
simple; and that no deceitful person take any advantage of him.
  The next move in our pastime of legislation, like the withdrawal
of the stone from the holy line in the game of draughts, being an
unusual one, will probably excite wonder when mentioned for the
first time. And yet, if a man will only reflect and weigh the matter
with care, he will see that our city is ordered in a manner which,
if not the best, is the second best. Perhaps also some one may not
approve this form, because he thinks that such a constitution is ill
adapted to a legislator who has not despotic power. The truth is, that
there are three forms of government, the best, the second and the
third best, which we may just mention, and then leave the selection to
the ruler of the settlement. Following this method in the present
instance, let us speak of the states which are respectively first,
second, and third in excellence, and then we will leave the choice
to Cleinias now, or to any one else who may hereafter have to make a
similar choice among constitutions, and may desire to give to his
state some feature which is congenial to him and which he approves
in his own country.
  The first and highest form of the state and of the government and of
the law is that in which there prevails most widely the ancient
saying, that "Friends have all things in common." Whether there is
anywhere now, or will ever be, this communion of women and children
and of property, in which the private and individual is altogether
banished from life, and things which are by nature private, such as
eyes and ears and hands, have become common, and in some way see and
hear and act in common, and all men express praise and blame and
feel joy and sorrow on the same occasions, and whatever laws there are
unite the city to the utmost-whether all this is possible or not, I
say that no man, acting upon any other principle, will ever constitute
a state which will be truer or better or more exalted in virtue.
Whether such a state is governed by Gods or sons of Gods, one, or more
than one, happy are the men who, living after this manner, dwell
there; and therefore to this we are to look for the pattern of the
state, and to cling to this, and to seek with all our might for one
which is like this. The state which we have now in hand, when created,
will be nearest to immortality and the only one which takes the second
place; and after that, by the grace of God, we will complete the third
one. And we will begin by speaking of the nature and origin of the
second.
  Let the citizens at once distribute their land and houses, and not
till the land in common, since a community of goods goes beyond
their proposed origin, and nurture, and education. But in making the
distribution, let the several possessors feel that their particular
lots also belong to the whole city; and seeing that the earth is their
parent, let them tend her more carefully than children do their
mother. For she is a goddess and their queen, and they are her
mortal subjects. Such also are the feelings which they ought to
entertain to the Gods and demi-gods of the country. And in order
that the distribution may always remain, they ought to consider
further that the present number of families should be always retained,
and neither increased nor diminished. This may be secured for the
whole city in the following manner:-Let the possessor of a lot leave
the one of his children who is his best beloved, and one only, to be
the heir of his dwelling, and his successor in the duty of ministering
to the Gods, the state and the family, as well the living members of
it as those who are departed when he comes into the inheritance; but
of his other children, if he have more than one, he shall give the
females in marriage according to the law to be hereafter enacted,
and the males he shall distribute as sons to those citizens who have
no children and are disposed to receive them; or if there should be
none such, and particular individuals have too many children, male
or female, or too few, as in the case of barrenness-in all these cases
let the highest and most honourable magistracy created by us judge and
determine what is to be done with the redundant or deficient, and
devise a means that the number of 5040 houses shall always remain
the same. There are many ways of regulating numbers; for they in
whom generation is affluent may be made to refrain, and, on the
other hand, special care may be taken to increase the number of births
by rewards and stigmas, or we may meet the evil by the elder men
giving advice and administering rebuke to the younger-in this way
the object may be attained. And if after all there be very great
difficulty about the equal preservation of the 5040 houses, and
there be an excess of citizens, owing to the too great love of those
who live together, and we are at our wits' end, there is still the old
device often mentioned by us of sending out a colony, which will
part friends with us, and be composed of suitable persons. If, on
the other hand, there come a wave bearing a deluge of disease, or a
plague of war, and the inhabitants become much fewer than the
appointed number by reason of bereavement, we ought not to introduce
citizens of spurious birth and education, if this can be avoided;
but even God is said not to be able to fight against necessity.
  Wherefore let us suppose this "high argument" of ours to address
us in the following terms:-Best of men, cease not to honour
according to nature similarity and equality and sameness and
agreement, as regards number and every good and noble quality. And,
above all, observe the aforesaid number 5040 throughout life; in the
second place, do not disparage the small and modest proportions of the
inheritances which you received in the distribution, by buying and
selling them to one another. For then neither will the God who gave
you the lot be your friend, nor will the legislator; and indeed the
law declares to the disobedient that these are the terms upon which he
may or may not take the lot. In the first place, the earth as he is
informed is sacred to the Gods; and in the next place, priests and
priestesses will offer up prayers over a first, and second, and even a
third sacrifice, that he who buys or sells the houses or lands which
he has received, may suffer the punishment which he deserves; and
these their prayers they shall write down in the temples, on tablets
of cypress-wood, for the instruction of posterity. Moreover they
will set a watch over all these things, that they may be observed;-the
magistracy which has the sharpest eyes shall keep watch that any
infringement of these commands may be discovered and punished as
offences both against the law and the God. How great is the benefit of
such an ordinance to all those cities, which obey and are administered
accordingly, no bad man can ever know, as the old proverb says; but
only a man of experience and good habits. For in such an order of
things there will not be much opportunity for making money; no man
either ought, or indeed will be allowed, to exercise any ignoble
occupation, of which the vulgarity is a matter of reproach to a
freeman, and should never want to acquire riches by any such means.
  Further, the law enjoins that no private man shall be allowed to
possess gold and silver, but only coin for daily use, which is
almost necessary in dealing with artisans, and for payment of
hirelings, whether slaves or immigrants, by all those persons who
require the use of them. Wherefore our citizens, as we say, should
have a coin passing current among themselves, but not accepted among
the rest of mankind; with a view, however, to expeditions and journeys
to other lands-for embassies, or for any other occasion which may
arise of sending out a herald, the state must also possess a common
Hellenic currency. If a private person is ever obliged to go abroad,
let him have the consent of the magistrates and go; and if when he
returns he has any foreign money remaining, let him give the surplus
back to the treasury, and receive a corresponding sum in the local
currency. And if he is discovered to appropriate it, let it be
confiscated, and let him who knows and does not inform be subject to
curse and dishonour equally him who brought the money, and also to a
fine not less in amount than the foreign money which has been
brought back. In marrying and giving in marriage, no one shall give or
receive any dowry at all; and no one shall deposit money with
another whom he does not trust as a friend, nor shall he lend money
upon interest; and the borrower should be under no obligation to repay
either capital or interest. That these principles are best, any one
may see who compares them with the first principle and intention of
a state. The intention, as we affirm, of a reasonable statesman, is
not what the many declare to be the object of a good legislator,
namely, that the state for the true interests of which he is
advising should be as great and as rich as possible, and should
possess gold and silver, and have the greatest empire by sea and
land;-this they imagine to be the real object of legislation, at the
same time adding, inconsistently, that the true legislator desires
to have the city the best and happiest possible. But they do not see
that some of these things are possible, and some of them are
impossible; and he who orders the state will desire what is
possible, and will not indulge in vain wishes or attempts to
accomplish that which is impossible. The citizen must indeed be
happy and good, and the legislator will seek to make him so; but
very rich and very good at the same time he cannot be, not, at
least, in the sense in which the many speak of riches. For they mean
by "the rich" the few who have the most valuable possessions, although
the owner of them may quite well be a rogue. And if this is true, I
can never assent to the doctrine that the rich man will be happy-he
must be good as well as rich. And good in a high degree, and rich in a
high degree at the same time, he cannot be. Some one will ask, why
not? And we shall answer-Because acquisitions which come from
sources which are just and unjust indifferently, are more than
double those which come from just sources only; and the sums which are
expended neither honourably nor disgracefully, are only half as
great as those which are expended honourably and on honourable
purposes. Thus, if the one acquires double and spends half, the
other who is in the opposite case and is a good man cannot possibly be
wealthier than he. The first-I am speaking of the saver and not of the
spender-is not always bad; he may indeed in some cases be utterly bad,
but, as I was saying, a good man he never is. For he who receives
money unjustly as well as justly, and spends neither nor unjustly,
will be a rich man if he be also thrifty. On the other hand, the
utterly bad is in general profligate, and therefore very poor; while
he who spends on noble objects, and acquires wealth by just means
only, can hardly be remarkable for riches, any more than he can be
very poor. Our statement, then, is true, that the very rich are not
good, and, if they are not good, they are not happy. But the intention
of our laws was that the citizens should be as happy as may be, and as
friendly as possible to one another. And men who are always at law
with one another, and amongst whom there are many wrongs done, can
never be friends to one another, but only those among whom crimes
and lawsuits are few and slight. Therefore we say that gold and silver
ought not to be allowed in the city, nor much of the vulgar sort of
trade which is carried on by lending money, or rearing the meaner
kinds of live stock; but only the produce of agriculture, and only
so much of this as will not compel us in pursuing it to neglect that
for the sake of which riches exist-I mean, soul and body, which
without gymnastics, and without education, will never be worth
anything; and therefore, as we have said not once but many times,
the care of riches should have the last place in our thoughts. For
there are in all three things about which every man has an interest;
and the interest about money, when rightly regarded, is the third
and lowest of them: midway comes the interest of the body; and,
first of all, that of the soul; and the state which we are
describing will have been rightly constituted if it ordains honours
according to this scale. But if, in any of the laws which have been
ordained, health has been preferred to temperance, or wealth to health
and temperate habits, that law must clearly be wrong. Wherefore, also,
the legislator ought often to impress upon himself the
question-"What do I want?" and "Do I attain my aim, or do I miss the
mark?" In this way, and in this way only, he ma acquit himself and
free others from the work of legislation.
  Let the allottee then hold his lot upon the conditions which we have
mentioned.
  It would be well that every man should come to the colony having all
things equal; but seeing that this is not possible, and one man will
have greater possessions than another, for many reasons and in
particular in order to preserve equality in special crises of the
state, qualifications of property must be unequal, in order that
offices and contributions and distributions may be proportioned to the
value of each person's wealth, and not solely to the virtue of his
ancestors or himself, nor yet to the strength and beauty of his
person, but also to the measure of his wealth or poverty; and so by
a law of inequality, which will be in proportion to his wealth, he
will receive honours and offices as equally as possible, and there
will be no quarrels and disputes. To which end there should be four
different standards appointed according to the amount of property:
there should be a first and a second and a third and a fourth class,
in which the citizens will be placed, and they will be called by these
or similar names: they may continue in the same rank, or pass into
another in any individual case, on becoming richer from being, poorer,
or poorer from being richer. The form of law which I should propose as
the natural sequel would be as follows:-In a state which is desirous
of being saved from the greatest of all plagues-not faction, but
rather distraction;-here should exist among the citizens neither
extreme poverty, nor, again, excess of wealth, for both are productive
of both these evils. Now the legislator should determine what is to be
the limit of poverty or wealth. Let the limit of poverty be the
value of the lot; this ought to be preserved, and no ruler, nor any
one else who aspires after a reputation for virtue, will allow the lot
to be impaired in any case. This the legislator gives as a measure,
and he will permit a man to acquire double or triple, or as much as
four times the amount of this. But if a person have yet greater
riches, whether he has found them, or they have been given to him,
or he has made them in business, or has acquired by any stroke of
fortune that which is in excess of the measure, if he give back the
surplus to the state, and to the Gods who are the patrons of the
state, he shall suffer no penalty or loss of reputation; but if he
disobeys this our law any one who likes may inform against him and
receive half the value of the excess, and the delinquent shall pay a
sum equal to the excess out of his own property, and the other half of
the excess shall belong to the Gods. And let every possession of every
man, with the exception of the lot, be publicly registered before
the magistrates whom the law appoints, so that all suits about money
may be easy and quite simple.
  The next thing to be noted is, that the city should be placed as
nearly as possible in the centre of the country; we should choose a
place which possesses what is suitable for a city, and this may easily
be imagined and described. Then we will divide the city into twelve
portions, first founding temples to Hestia, to Zeus and to Athene,
in a spot which we will call the Acropolis, and surround with a
circular wall, making the division of the entire city and country
radiate from this point. The twelve portions shall be equalized by the
provision that those which are of good land shall be smaller. while
those of inferior quality shall be larger. The number of the lots
shall be 5040, and each of them shall be divided into two, and every
allotment shall be composed of two such sections; one of land near the
city, the other of land which is at a distance. This arrangement shall
be carried out in the following manner: The section which is near
the city shall be added to that which is on borders, and form one lot,
and the portion which is next nearest shall be added to the portion
which is next farthest; and so of the rest. Moreover, in the two
sections of the lots the same principle of equalization of the soil
ought to be maintained; the badness and goodness shall be
compensated by more and less. And the legislator shall divide the
citizens into twelve parts, and arrange the rest of their property, as
far as possible, so as to form twelve equal parts; and there shall
be a registration of all. After this they shall assign twelve lots
to twelve Gods, and call them by their names, and dedicate to each God
their several portions, and call the tribes after them. And they shall
distribute the twelve divisions of the city in the same way in which
they divided the country; and every man shall have two habitations,
one in the centre of the country, and the other at the extremity.
Enough of the manner of settlement.
  Now we ought by all means to consider that there can never be such a
happy concurrence of circumstances as we have described; neither can
all things coincide as they are wanted. Men who will not take
offence at such a mode of living together, and will endure all their
life long to have their property fixed at a moderate limit, and to
beget children in accordance with our ordinances, and will allow
themselves to be deprived of gold and other things which the
legislator, as is evident from these enactments, will certainly forbid
them; and will endure, further, the situation of the land with the
city in the middle and dwellings round about;-all this is as if the
legislator were telling his dreams, or making a city and citizens of
wax. There is truth in these objections, and therefore every one
should take to heart what I am going to say. Once more, then, the
legislator shall appear and address us:-"O my friends," he will say to
us, "do not suppose me ignorant that there is a certain degree of
truth in your words; but I am of opinion that, in matters which are
not present but future, he who exhibits a pattern of that at which
he aims, should in nothing fall short of the fairest and truest; and
that if he finds any part of this work impossible of execution he
should avoid and not execute it, but he should contrive to carry out
that which is nearest and most akin to it; you must allow the
legislator to perfect his design, and when it is perfected, you should
join with him in considering what part of his legislation is expedient
and what will arouse opposition; for surely the artist who is to be
deemed worthy of any regard at all, ought always to make his work
self-consistent."
  Having determined that there is to be a distribution into twelve
parts, let us now see in what way this may be accomplished. There is
no difficulty in perceiving that the twelve parts admit of the
greatest number of divisions of that which they include, or in
seeing the other numbers which are consequent upon them, and are
produced out of them up to 5040; wherefore the law ought to order
phratries and demes and villages, and also military ranks and
movements, as well as coins and measures, dry and liquid, and weights,
so as to be commensurable and agreeable to one another. Nor should
we fear the appearance of minuteness, if the law commands that all the
vessels which a man possesses should have a common measure, when we
consider generally that the divisions and variations of numbers have a
use in respect of all the variations of which they are susceptible,
both in themselves and as measures of height and depth, and in all
sounds, and in motions, as well those which proceed in a straight
direction, upwards or downwards, as in those which go round and round.
The legislator is to consider all these things and to bid the
citizens, as far as possible, not to lose sight of numerical order;
for no single instrument of youthful education has such mighty
power, both as regards domestic economy and politics, and in the arts,
as the study of arithmetic. Above all, arithmetic stirs up him who
is by nature sleepy and dull, and makes him quick to learn, retentive,
shrewd, and aided by art divine he makes progress quite beyond his
natural powers. All such things, if only the legislator, by other laws
and institutions, can banish meanness and covetousness from the
souls of men, so that they can use them properly and to their own
good, will be excellent and suitable instruments of education. But
if he cannot, he will unintentionally create in them, instead of
wisdom, the habit of craft, which evil tendency may be observed in the
Egyptians and Phoenicians, and many other races, through the general
vulgarity of their pursuits and acquisitions, whether some unworthy
legislator theirs has been the cause, or some impediment of chance
or nature. For we must not fail to observe, O Megillus and Cleinias,
that there is a difference in places, and that some beget better men
and others worse; and we must legislate accordingly. Some places are
subject to strange and fatal influences by reason of diverse winds and
violent heats, some by reason of waters; or, again, from the character
of the food given by the earth, which not only affects the bodies of
men for good or evil, but produces similar results in their souls. And
in all such qualities those spots excel in which there is a divine
inspiration, and in which the demi-gods have their appointed lots, and
are propitious, not adverse, to the settlers in them. To all these
matters the legislator, if he have any sense in him, will attend as
far as man can, and frame his laws accordingly. And this is what
you, Cleinias, must do, and to matters of this kind you must turn your
mind since you are going to colonize a new country.
  Cleinias. Your words, Athenian Stranger, are excellent, and I will
do as you say.
  BOOK VI

  Athenian Stranger. And now having made an end of the preliminaries
we will proceed to the appointment of magistracies.
  Cleinias. Very good.
  Ath. In the ordering of a state there are two parts: first, the
number of the magistracies, and the mode of establishing them; and,
secondly, when they have been established, laws again will have to
be provided for each of them, suitable in nature and number. But
before electing the magistrates let us stop a little and say a word in
season about the election of them.
  Cle. What have you got to say?
  Ath. This is what I have to say; every one can see, that although
the work of legislation is a most important matter, yet if a
well-ordered city superadd to good laws unsuitable offices, not only
will there be no use in having the good laws-not only will they be
ridiculous and useless, but the greatest political injury and evil
will accrue from them.
  Cle. Of course.
  Ath. Then now, my friend, let us observe what will happen in the
constitution of out intended state. In the first place, you will
acknowledge that those who are duly appointed to magisterial power,
and their families, should severally have given satisfactory proof
of what they are, from youth upward until the time of election; in the
next place, those who are to elect should have been trained in
habits of law, and be well educated, that they may have a right
judgment, and may be able to select or reject men whom they approve or
disapprove, as they are worthy of either. But how can we imagine
that those who are brought together for the first time, and are
strangers to one another, and also uneducated, will avoid making
mistakes in the choice of magistrates?
  Cle. Impossible.
  Ath. The matter is serious, and excuses will not serve the turn. I
will tell you, then, what you and I will have to do, since you, as you
tell me, with nine others, have offered to settle the new state on
behalf of the people of Crete, and I am to help you by the invention
of the present romance. I certainly should not like to leave the
tale wandering all over the world without a head;-a headless monster
is such a hideous thing.
  Cle. Excellent, Stranger.
  Ath. Yes; and I will be as good as my word.
  Cle. Let us by all means do as you propose.
  Ath. That we will, by the grace of God, if old age will only
permit us.
  Cle. But God will be gracious.
  Ath. Yes; and under his guidance let us consider further point.
  Cle. What is it?
  Ath. Let us remember what a courageously mad and daring creation
this our city is.
  Cle. What had you in your mind when you said that?
  Ath. I had in my mind the free and easy manner in which we are
ordaining that the inexperienced colonists shall receive our laws. Now
a man need not be very wise, Cleinias, in order to see that no one can
easily receive laws at their first imposition. But if we could
anyhow wait until those who have been imbued with them from childhood,
and have been nurtured in them, and become habituated to them, take
their part in the public elections of the state; I say, if this
could be accomplished, and rightly accomplished by any way or
contrivance-then, I think that there would be very little danger, at
the end of the time, of a state thus trained not being permanent.
  Cle. A reasonable supposition.
  Ath. Then let us consider if we can find any way out of the
difficulty; for I maintain, Cleinias, that the Cnosians, above all the
other Cretans, should not be satisfied with barely discharging their
duty to the colony, but they ought to take the utmost pains to
establish the offices which are first created by them in the best
and surest manner. Above all, this applies to the selection of the
guardians of the law, who must be chosen first of all, and with the
greatest care; the others are of less importance.
  Cle. What method can we devise of electing them?
  Ath. This will be the method:-Sons of the Cretans, I shall say to
them, inasmuch as the Cnosians have precedence over the other
states, they should, in common with those who join this settlement,
choose a body of thirty-seven in all, nineteen of them being taken
from the settlers, and the remainder from the citizens of Cnosus. Of
those latter the Cnosians shall make a present to your colony, and you
yourself shall be one of the eighteen, and shall become a citizen of
the new state; and if you and they cannot be persuaded to go, the
Cnosians may fairly use a little violence in order to make you.
  Cle. But why, Stranger, do not you and Megillus take a part in our
new city?
  Ath. O, Cleinias, Athens is proud, and Sparta too; and they are both
a long way off. But you and likewise the other colonists are
conveniently situated as you describe. I have been speaking of the way
in which the new citizens may be best managed under present
circumstances; but in after-ages, if the city continues to exist,
let the election be on this wise. All who are horse or foot
soldiers, or have seen military service at the proper ages when they
were severally fitted for it, shall share in the election of
magistrates; and the election shall be held in whatever temple the
state deems most venerable, and every one shall carry his vote to
the altar of the God, writing down on a tablet the name of the
person for whom he votes, and his father's name, and his tribe, and
ward; and at the side he shall write his own name in like manner.
Any one who pleases may take away any tablet which he does not think
properly filled up, and exhibit it in the Agara for a period of not
less than thirty days. The tablets which are judged to be first, to
the number of 300, shall be shown by the magistrates to the whole
city, and the citizens shall in like manner select from these the
candidates whom they prefer; and this second selection, to the
number of 100, shall be again exhibited to the citizens; in the third,
let any one who pleases select whom pleases out of the 100, walking
through the parts of victims, and let them choose for magistrates
and proclaim the seven and thirty who have the greatest number of
votes. But who, Cleinias and Megillus, will order for us in the colony
all this matter of the magistrates, and the scrutinies of them? If
we reflect, we shall see that cities which are in process of
construction like ours must have some such persons, who cannot
possibly be elected before there are any magistrates; and yet they
must be elected in some way, and they are not to be inferior men,
but the best possible. For as the proverb says, "a good beginning is
half the business"; and "to have begun well" is praised by all, and in
my opinion is a great deal more than half the business, and has
never been praised by any one enough.
  Cle. That is very true.
  Ath. Then let us recognize the difficulty, and make clear to our own
minds how the beginning is to be accomplished. There is only one
proposal which I have to offer, and that is one which, under our
circumstances, is both necessary and expedient.
  Cle. What is it?
  Ath. I maintain that this colony of ours has a father and mother,
who are no other than the colonizing state. Well I know that many
colonies have been, and will be, at enmity with their parents. But
in early days the child, as in a family, loves and is beloved; even if
there come a time later when the tie is broken, still, while he is
in want of education, he naturally loves his parents and is beloved by
them, and flies to his relatives for protection, and finds in them his
only natural allies in time of need; and this parental feeling already
exists in the Cnosians, as is shown by their care of the new city; and
there is a similar feeling on the part of the young city towards
Cnosus. And I repeat what I was saying-for there is no harm in
repeating a good thing-that the Cnosians should take a common interest
in all these matters, and choose, as far as they can, the eldest and
best of the colonists, to the number of not less than a hundred; and
let there be another hundred of the Cnosians themselves. These, I say,
on their arrival, should have a joint care that the magistrates should
be appointed according to law, and that when they are appointed they
should undergo a scrutiny. When this has been effected, the Cnosians
shall return home, and the new city do the best she can for her own
preservation and happiness. I would have the seven-and-thirty now, and
in all future time, chosen to fulfil the following duties:-Let them,
in the first place, be the guardians of the law; and, secondly, of the
registers in which each one registers before the magistrate the amount
of his property, excepting four minae which are allowed to citizens of
the first class, three allowed to the second, two to the third, and
a single mina to the fourth. And if any one, despising the laws for
the sake of gain, be found to possess anything more which has not been
registered, let all that he has in excess be confiscated, and let
him be liable to a suit which shall be the reverse of honourable or
fortunate. And let any one who will, indict him on the charge of
loving base gains, and proceed against him before the guardians of the
law. And if he be cast, let him lose his share of the public
possessions, and when there is any public distribution, let him have
nothing but his original lot; and let him be written down a
condemned man as long as he lives, in some place in which any one
who pleases can read about his onces. The guardian of the law shall
not hold office longer than twenty years, and shall not be less than
fifty years of age when he is elected; or if he is elected when he
is sixty years of age, he shall hold office for ten years only; and
upon the same principle, he must not imagine that he will be permitted
to hold such an important office as that of guardian of the laws after
he is seventy years of age, if he live so long.
  These are the three first ordinances about the guardians of the law;
as the work of legislation progresses, each law in turn will assign to
them their further duties. And now we may proceed in order to speak of
the election of other officers; for generals have to be elected, and
these again must have their ministers, commanders, and colonels of
horse, and commanders of brigades of foot, who would be more rightly
called by their popular name of brigadiers. The guardians of the law
shall propose as generals men who are natives of the city, and a
selection from the candidates proposed shall be made by those who
are or have been of the age for military service. And if one who is
not proposed is thought by somebody to be better than one who is,
let him name whom he prefers in the place of whom, and make oath
that he is better, and propose him; and whichever of them is
approved by vote shall be admitted to the final selection; and the
three who have the greatest number of votes shall be appointed
generals, and superintendents of military affairs, after previously
undergoing a scrutiny, like the guardians of the law. And let the
generals thus elected propose twelve brigadiers, one for each tribe;
and there shall be a right of counterproposal as in the case of the
generals, and the voting and decision shall take place in the same
way. Until the prytanes and council are elected, the guardians of
the law shall convene the assembly in some holy spot which is suitable
to the purpose, placing the hoplites by themselves, and the cavalry by
themselves, and in a third division all the rest of the army. All
are to vote for the generals [and for the colonels of horse], but
the brigadiers are to be voted for only by those who carry shields
[i.e. the hoplites]. Let the body of cavalry choose phylarchs for
the generals; but captains of light troops, or archers, or any other
division of the army, shall be appointed by the generals for
themselves. There only remains the appointment of officers of cavalry:
these shall be proposed by the same persons who proposed the generals,
and the election and the counter-proposal of other candidates shall be
arranged in the same way as in the case of the generals, and let the
cavalry vote and the infantry look on at the election; the two who
have the greatest number of votes shall be the leaders of all the
horse. Disputes about the voting may be raised once or twice; but if
the dispute be raised a third time, the officers who preside at the
several elections shall decide.
  The council shall consist of 30 x 12 members-360 will be a
convenient number for sub-division. If we divide the whole number into
four parts of ninety each, we get ninety counsellors for each class.
First, all the citizens shall select candidates from the first
class; they shall be compelled to vote, and, if they do not, shall
be duly fined. When the candidates have been selected, some one
shall mark them down; this shall be the business of the first day. And
on the following day, candidates shall be selected from the second
class in the same manner and under the same conditions as on the
previous day; and on the third day a selection shall be made from
the third class, at which every one may, if he likes, vote, and the
three first classes shall be compelled to vote; but the fourth and
lowest class shall be under no compulsion, and any member of this
class who does not vote shall not be punished. On the fourth day
candidates shall be selected from the fourth and smallest class;
they shall be selected by all, but he who is of the fourth class shall
suffer no penalty, nor he who is of the third, if he be not willing to
vote; but he who is of the first or second class, if he does not
vote shall be punished;-he who is of the second class shall pay a fine
of triple the amount which was exacted at first, and he who is of
the first class quadruple. On the fifth day the rulers shall bring out
the names noted down, for all the citizens to see, and every man shall
choose out of them, under pain, if he do not, of suffering the first
penalty; and when they have chosen out of each of the classes, they
shall choose one-half of them by lot, who shall undergo a
scrutiny:-These are to form the council for the year.
  The mode of election which has been described is in a mean between
monarchy and democracy, and such a mean the state ought always to
observe; for servants and masters never can be friends, nor good and
bad, merely because they are declared to have equal privileges. For to
unequals equals become unequal, if they are not harmonized by measure;
and both by reason of equality, and by reason of inequality, cities
are filled with seditions. The old saying, that "equality makes
friendship," is happy and also true; but there is obscurity and
confusion as to what sort of equality is meant. For there are two
equalities which are called by the same name, but are in reality in
many ways almost the opposite of one another; one of them may be
introduced without difficulty, by any state or any legislator in the
distribution of honours: this is the rule of measure, weight, and
number, which regulates and apportions them. But there is another
equality, of a better and higher kind, which is not so easily
recognized. This is the judgment of Zeus; among men it avails but
little; that little, however, is the source of the greatest good to
individuals and states. For it gives to the greater more, and to the
inferior less and in proportion to the nature of each; and, above all,
greater honour always to the greater virtue, and to the less less; and
to either in proportion to their respective measure of virtue and
education. And this is justice, and is ever the true principle of
states, at which we ought to aim, and according to this rule order the
new city which is now being founded, and any other city which may be
hereafter founded. To this the legislator should look-not to the
interests of tyrants one or more, or to the power of the people, but
to justice always; which, as I was saying, the distribution of natural
equality among unequals in each case. But there are times at which
every state is compelled to use the words, "just," "equal," in a
secondary sense, in the hope of escaping in some degree from factions.
For equity and indulgence are infractions of the perfect and strict
rule of justice. And this is the reason why we are obliged to use
the equality of the lot, in order to avoid the discontent of the
people; and so we invoke God and fortune in our prayers, and beg
that they themselves will direct the lot with a view to supreme
justice. And therefore, although we are compelled to use both
equalities, we should use that into which the element of chance enters
as seldom as possible.
  Thus, O my friends, and for the reasons given, should a state act
which would endure and be saved. But as a ship sailing on the sea
has to be watched night and day, in like manner a city also is sailing
on a sea of politics, and is liable to all sorts of insidious
assaults; and therefore from morning to night, and from night to
morning, rulers must join hands with rulers, and watchers with
watchers, receiving and giving up their trust in a perpetual
succession. Now a multitude can never fulfil a duty of this sort
with anything like energy. Moreover, the greater number of the
senators will have to be left during the greater part of the year to
order their concerns at their own homes. They will therefore have to
be arranged in twelve portions, answering to the twelve months, and
furnish guardians of the state, each portion for a single month. Their
business is to be at hand and receive any foreigner or citizen who
comes to them, whether to give information, or to put one of those
questions, to which, when asked by other cities, a city should give an
answer, and to which, if she ask them herself, she should receive an
answer; or again, when there is a likelihood of internal commotions,
which are always liable to happen in some form or other, they will, if
they can, prevent their occurring; or if they have already occurred,
will lose time in making them known to the city, and healing the evil.
Wherefore, also, this which is the presiding body of the state ought
always to have the control of their assemblies, and of the
dissolutions of them, ordinary as well as extraordinary. All this is
to be ordered by the twelfth part of the council, which is always to
keep watch together with the other officers of the state during one
portion of the year, and to rest during the remaining eleven portions.
  Thus will the city be fairly ordered. And now, who is to have, the
superintendence of the country, and what shall be the arrangement?
Seeing that the whole city and the entire country have been both of
them divided into twelve portions, ought there not to be appointed
superintendents of the streets of the city, and of the houses, and
buildings, and harbours, and the agora, and fountains, and sacred
domains, and temples, and the like?
  Cle. To be sure there ought.
  Ath. Let us assume, then, that there ought to be servants of the
temples, and priests and priestesses. There must also be
superintendents of roads and buddings, who will have a care of men,
that they may do no harm, and also of beasts, both within the
enclosure and in the suburbs. Three kinds of officers will thus have
to be appointed, in order that the city may be suitably provided
according to her needs. Those who have the care of the city shall be
called wardens of the city; and those who have the care of the agora
shall be called wardens of the agora; and those who have the care of
the temples shall be called priests. Those who hold hereditary offices
as priests or priestesses, shall not be disturbed; but if there be few
or none such, as is probable at the foundation of a new city,
priests and priestesses shall be appointed to be servants of the
Gods who have no servants. Some of our officers shall be elected,
and others appointed by lot, those who are of the people and those who
are not of the people mingling in a friendly manner in every place and
city, that the state may be as far as possible of one mind. The
officers of the temples shall be appointed by lot; in this way their
election will be committed to God, that he may do what is agreeable to
him. And he who obtains a lot shall undergo a scrutiny, first, as to
whether he is sound of body and of legitimate birth; and in the second
place, in order to show that he is of a perfectly pure family, not
stained with homicide or any similar impiety in his own person, and
also that his father and mother have led a similar unstained life. Now
the laws about all divine things should be brought from Delphi, and
interpreters appointed, under whose direction they should be used. The
tenure of the priesthood should always be for a year and no longer;
and he who will duly execute the sacred office, according to the
laws of religion, must be not less than sixty years of age-the laws
shall be the same about priestesses. As for the interpreters, they
shall be appointed thus:-Let the twelve tribes be distributed into
groups of four, and let each group select four, one out of each
tribe within the group, three times; and let the three who have the
greatest number of votes [out of the twelve appointed by each
group], after undergoing a scrutiny, nine in all, be sent to Delphi,
in order that the God may return one out of each triad; their age
shall be the same as that of the priests, and the scrutiny of them
shall be conducted in the same manner; let them be interpreters for
life, and when any one dies let the four tribes select another from
the tribe of the deceased. Moreover, besides priests and interpreters,
there must be treasurers, who will take charge of the property of
the several temples, and of the sacred domains, and shall have
authority over the produce and the letting of them; and three of
them shall be chosen from the highest classes for the greater temples,
and two for the lesser, and one for the least of all; the manner of
their election and the scrutiny of them shall be the same as that of
the generals. This shall be the order of the temples.
  Let everything have a guard as far as possible. Let the defence of
the city be commited to the generals, and taxiarchs, and hipparchs,
and phylarchs, and prytanes, and the wardens of the city, and of the
agora, when the election of them has been completed. The defence of
the country shall be provided for as follows:-The entire land has been
already distributed into twelve as nearly as possible equal parts, and
let the tribe allotted to a division provide annually for it five
wardens of the country and commanders of the watch; and let each
body of five have the power of selecting twelve others out of the
youth of their own tribe-these shall be not less than twenty-five
years of age, and not more than thirty. And let there be allotted to
them severally every month the various districts, in order that they
may all acquire knowledge and experience of the whole country. The
term of service for commanders and for watchers shall continue
during two years. After having had their stations allotted to them,
they will go from place to place in regular order, making their
round from left to right as their commanders direct them; (when I
speak of going to the right, I mean that they are to go to the
east). And at the commencement of the second year, in order that as
many as possible of the guards may not only get a knowledge of the
country at any one season of the year, but may also have experience of
the manner in which different places are affected at different seasons
of the year, their then commanders shall lead them again towards the
left, from place to place in succession, until they have completed the
second year. In the third year other wardens of the country shall be
chosen and commanders of the watch, five for each division, who are to
be the superintendents of the bands of twelve. While on service at
each station, their attention shall be directed to the following
points:-In the first place, they shall see that the country is well
protected against enemies; they shall trench and dig wherever this
is required, and, as far as they can, they shall by fortifications
keep off the evil-disposed, in order to prevent them from doing any
harm to the country or the property; they shall use the beasts of
burden and the labourers whom they find on the spot: these will be
their instruments whom they will superintend, taking them, as far as
possible, at the times when they are not engaged in their regular
business. They shall make every part of the country inaccessible to
enemies, and as accessible as possible to friends; there shall be ways
for man and beasts of burden and for cattle, and they shall take
care to have them always as smooth as they can; and shall provide
against the rains doing harm instead of good to the land, when they
come down from the mountains into the hollow dells; and shall keep
in the overflow by the help of works and ditches, in order that the
valleys, receiving and drinking up the rain from heaven, and providing
fountains and streams in the fields and regions which lie
underneath, may furnish even to the dry places plenty of good water.
The fountains of water, whether of rivers or of springs, shall be
ornamented with plantations and buildings for beauty; and let them
bring together the streams in subterraneous channels, and make all
things plenteous; and if there be a sacred grove or dedicated precinct
in the neighbourhood, they shall conduct the water to the actual
temples of the Gods, and so beautify them at all seasons of the
year. Everywhere in such places the youth shall make gymnasia for
themselves, and warm baths for the aged, placing by them abundance
of dry wood, for the benefit of those labouring under disease-there
the weary frame of the rustic, worn with toil, will receive a kindly
welcome, far better than he would at the hands of a not over-wise
doctor.
  The building of these and the like works will be useful and
ornamental; they will provide a pleasing amusement, but they will be a
serious employment too; for the sixty wardens will have to guard their
several divisions, not only with a view to enemies, but also with an
eye to professing friends. When a quarrel arises among neighbours or
citizens, and any one, whether slave or freeman wrongs another, let
the five wardens decide small matters on their own authority; but
where the charge against another relates to greater matters, the
seventeen composed of the fives and twelves, shall determine any
charges which one man brings against another, not involving more
than three minae. Every judge and magistrate shall be liable to give
an account of his conduct in office, except those who, like kings,
have the final decision. Moreover, as regards the aforesaid wardens of
the country, if they do any wrong to those of whom they have the care,
whether by imposing upon them unequal tasks, or by taking the
produce of the soil or implements of husbandry without their
consent; also if they receive anything in the way of a bribe, or
decide suits unjustly, or if they yield to the influences of flattery,
let them be publicly dishonoured; and in regard to any other wrong
which they do to the inhabitants of the country, if the question be of
a mina, let them submit to the decision of the villagers in the
neighbourhood; but in suits of greater amount, or in case of lesser,
if they refuse to submit, trusting that their monthly removal into
another part of the country will enable them to escape-in such cases
the injured party may bring his suit in the common court, and if he
obtain a verdict he may exact from the defendant, who refused to
submit, a double penalty.
  The wardens and the overseers of the country, while on their two
years service, shall have common meals at their several stations,
and shall all live together; and he who is absent from the common
meal, or sleeps out, if only for one day or night, unless by order
of his commanders, or by reason of absolute necessity, if the five
denounce him and inscribe his name the agora as not having kept his
guard, let him be deemed to have betrayed the city, as far as lay in
his power, and let him be disgraced and beaten with impunity by any
one who meets him and is willing to punish him. If any of the
commanders is guilty of such an irregularity, the whole company of
sixty shall see to it, and he who is cognizant of the offence, and
does not bring the offender to trial, shall be amenable to the same
laws as the younger offender himself, and shall pay a heavier fine,
and be incapable of ever commanding the young. The guardians of the
law are to be careful inspectors of these matters, and shall either
prevent or punish offenders. Every man should remember the universal
rule, that he who is not a good servant will not be a good master; a
man should pride himself more upon serving well than upon commanding
well: first upon serving the laws, which is also the service of the
Gods; in the second place, upon having. served ancient and
honourable men in the days of his youth. Furthermore, during the two
years in which any one is a warden of the country, his daily food
ought to be of a simple and humble kind. When the twelve have been
chosen, let them and the five meet together, and determine that they
will be their own servants, and, like servants, will not have other
slaves and servants for their own use, neither will they use those
of the villagers and husbandmen for their private advantage, but for
the public service only; and in general they should make up their
minds to live independently by themselves, servants of each other
and of themselves. Further, at all seasons of the year, summer and
winter alike, let them be under arms and survey minutely the whole
country; thus they will at once keep guard, and at the same time
acquire a perfect knowledge of every locality. There can be no more
important kind of information than the exact knowledge of a man's
own country; and for this as well as for more general reasons of
pleasure and advantage, hunting with dogs and other kinds of sports
should be pursued by the young. The service to whom this is
committed may be called the secret police, or wardens of the
country; the name does not much signify, but every one who has the
safety of the state at heart will use his utmost diligence in this
service.
  After the wardens of the country, we have to speak of the election
of wardens of the agora and of the city. The wardens of the country
were sixty in number, and the wardens of the city will be three, and
will divide the twelve parts of the city into three; like the
former, they shall have care of the ways, and of the different high
roads which lead out of the country into the city, and of the
buildings, that they may be all made according to law;-also of the
waters, which the guardians of the supply preserve and convey to them,
care being taken that they may reach the fountains pure and
abundant, and be both an ornament and a benefit to the city. These
also should be men of influence, and at leisure to take care of the
public interest. Let every man propose as warden of the city any one
whom he likes out of the highest class, and when the vote has been
given on them, and the number is reduced to the six who have the
greatest number of votes, let the electing officers choose by lot
three out of the six, and when they have undergone a scrutiny let them
hold office according to the laws laid down for them. Next, let the
wardens of the agora be elected in like manner, out of the first and
second class, five in number: ten are to be first elected, and out
of the ten five are to be chosen by lot, as in the election of the
wardens of the city:-these when they have undergone a scrutiny are
to be declared magistrates. Every one shall vote for every one, and he
who will not vote, if he be informed against before the magistrates,
shall be fined fifty drachmae, and shall also be deemed a bad citizen.
Let any one who likes go to the assembly and to the general council;
it shall be compulsory to go on citizens of the first and second
class, and they shall pay a fine of ten drachmae if they be found
not answering to their names at the assembly. the third and fourth
class shall be under no compulsion, and shall be let off without a
fine, unless the magistrates have commanded all to be present, in
consequence of some urgent necessity. The wardens of the agora shall
observe the order appointed by law for the agora, and shall have the
charge of the temples and fountains which are in the agora; and they
shall see that no one injures anything, and punish him who does,
with stripes and bonds, if he be a slave or stranger; but if he be a
citizen who misbehaves in this way, they shall have the power
themselves of inflicting a fine upon him to the amount of a hundred
drachmae, or with the consent of the wardens of the city up to
double that amount. And let the wardens of the city have a similar
power of imposing punishments and fines in their own department; and
let them impose fines by their own department; and let them impose
fines by their own authority, up to a mina, or up to two minae with
the consent of the wardens of the agora.
  In the next place, it will be proper to appoint directors of music
and gymnastic, two kinds of each-of the one kind the business will
be education, of the other, the superintendence of contests. In
speaking of education, the law means to speak of those who have the
care of order and instruction in gymnasia and schools, and of the
going to school, and of school buildings for boys and girls; and in
speaking of contests, the law refers to the judges of gymnastics and
of music; these again are divided into two classes, the one having
to do with music, the other with gymnastics; and the same who judge of
the gymnastic contests of men, shall judge of horses; but in music
there shall be one set of judges of solo singing, and of imitation-I
mean of rhapsodists, players on the harp, the flute and the like,
and another who shall judge of choral song. First of all, we must
choose directors for the choruses of boys, and men, and maidens,
whom they shall follow in the amusement of the dance, and for our
other musical arrangements; -one director will be enough for the
choruses, and he should be not less than forty years of age. One
director will also be enough to introduce the solo singers, and to
give judgment on the competitors, and he ought not to be less than
thirty years of age. The director and manager of the choruses shall be
elected after the following manner:-Let any persons who commonly
take an interest in such matters go to the meeting, and be fined if
they do not go (the guardians of the law shall judge of their
fault), but those who have no interest shall not be compelled. The
elector shall propose as director some one who understands music,
and he in the scrutiny may be challenged on the one part by those
who say he has no skill, and defended on the other hand by those who
say that he has. Ten are to be elected by vote, and he of the ten
who is chosen by lot shall undergo a scrutiny, and lead the choruses
for a year according to law. And in like manner the competitor who
wins the lot shall be leader of the solo and concert music for that
year; and he who is thus elected shall deliver the award to the
judges. In the next place, we have to choose judges in the contests of
horses and of men; these shall be selected from the third and also
from the second class of citizens, and three first classes shall be
compelled to go to the election, but the lowest may stay away with
impunity; and let there be three elected by lot out of the twenty
who have been chosen previously, and they must also have the vote
and approval of the examiners. But if any one is rejected in the
scrutiny at any ballot or decision, others shall be chosen in the same
manner, and undergo a similar scrutiny.
  There remains the minister of the education of youth, male and
female; he too will rule according to law; one such minister will be
sufficient, and he must be fifty years old, and have children lawfully
begotten, both boys and girls by preference, at any rate, one or the
other. He who is elected, and he who is the elector, should consider
that of all the great offices of state, this is the greatest; for
the first shoot of any plant, if it makes a good start towards the
attainment of its natural excellence, has the greatest effect on its
maturity; and this is not only true of plants, but of animals wild and
tame, and also of men. Man, as we say, is a tame or civilized
animal; nevertheless, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate
nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most
civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill educated he is the
most savage of earthly creatures. Wherefore the legislator ought not
to allow the education of children to become a secondary or accidental
matter. In the first place, he who would be rightly provident about
them, should begin by taking care that he is elected, who of all the
citizens is in every way best; him the legislator shall do his
utmost to appoint guardian and superintendent. To this end all the
magistrates, with the exception of the council and prytanes, shall
go to the temple of Apollo, and elect by ballot him of the guardians
of the law whom they severally think will be the best superintendent
of education. And he who has the greatest number of votes, after he
has undergone a scrutiny at the hands of all the magistrates who
have been his electors, with the exception of the guardians of the
law-shall hold office for five years; and in the sixth year let
another be chosen in like manner to fill his office.
  If any one dies while he is holding a public office, and more than
thirty days before his term of office expires, let those whose
business it is elect another to the office in the same manner as
before. And if any one who is entrusted with orphans dies, let the
relations both on the father's and mother's side, who are residing
at home, including cousins, appoint another guardian within ten
days, or be fined a drachma a day for neglect to do so.
  A city which has no regular courts of law ceases to be a city; and
again, if a judge is silent and says no more in preliminary
proceedings than the litigants, as is the case in arbitrations, he
will never be able to decide justly; wherefore a multitude of judges
will not easily judge well, nor a few if they are bad. The point in
dispute between the parties should be made clear; and time, and
deliberation, and repeated examination, greatly tend to clear up
doubts. For this reason, he who goes to law with another should go
first of all to his neighbours and friends who know best the questions
at issue. And if he be unable to obtain from them a satisfactory
decision, let him have recourse to another court; and if the two
courts cannot settle the matter, let a third put an end to the suit.
  Now the establishment of courts of justice may be regarded as a
choice of magistrates, for every magistrate must also be a judge of
some things; and the judge, though he be not a magistrate, yet in
certain respects is a very important magistrate on the day on which he
is determining a suit. Regarding then the judges also as
magistrates, let us say who are fit to be judges, and of what they are
to be judges, and how many of them are to judge in each suit. Let that
be the supreme tribunal which the litigants appoint in common for
themselves, choosing certain persons by agreement. And let there be
two other tribunals: one for private causes, when a citizen accuses
another of wronging him and wishes to get a decision; the other for
public causes, in which some citizen is of opinion that the public has
been wronged by an individual, and is willing to vindicate the
common interests. And we must not forget to mention how the judges are
to be qualified, and who they are to be. In the first place, let there
be a tribunal open to all private persons who are trying causes one
against another for the third time, and let this be composed as
follows:-All the officers of state, as well annual as those holding
office for a longer period, when the new year is about to commence, in
the month following after the summer solstice, on the last day but one
of the year, shall meet in some temple, and calling God to witness,
shall dedicate one judge from every magistracy to be their
first-fruits, choosing in each office him who seems to them to be
the best, and whom they deem likely to decide the causes of his
fellow-citizens during the ensuing year in the best and holiest
manner. And when the election is completed, a scrutiny shall be held
in the presence of the electors themselves, and if any one be rejected
another shall be chosen in the same manner. Those who have undergone
the scrutiny shall judge the causes of those who have declined the
inferior courts, and shall give their vote openly. The councillors and
other magistrates who have elected them shall be required to be
hearers and spectators of the causes; and any one else may be
present who pleases. If one man charges another with having
intentionally decided wrong, let him go to the guardians of the law
and lay his accusation before them, and he who is found guilty in such
a case shall pay damages to the injured party equal to half the
injury; but if he shall appear to deserve a greater penalty, the
judges shall determine what additional punishment he shall suffer, and
how much more he ought to pay to the public treasury, and to the party
who brought the suit.
  In the judgment of offences against the state, the people ought to
participate, for when any one wrongs the state all are wronged, and
may reasonably complain if they are not allowed to share in the
decision. Such causes ought to originate with the people, and the
ought also to have the final decision of them, but the trial of them
shall take place before three of the highest magistrates, upon whom
the plaintiff and the defendant shall agree; and if they are not
able to come to an agreement themselves, the council shall choose
one of the two proposed. And in private suits, too, as far as is
possible, all should have a share; for he who has no share in the
administration of justice, is apt to imagine that he has no share in
the state at all. And for this reason there shall be a court of law in
every tribe, and the judges shall be chosen by lot;-they shall give
their decisions at once, and shall be inaccessible to entreaties.
The final judgment shall rest with that court which, as we maintain,
has been established in the most incorruptible form of which human
things admit: this shall be the court established for those who are
unable to get rid of their suits either in the courts of neighbours or
of the tribes.
  Thus much of the courts of law, which, as I was saying, cannot be
precisely defined either as being or not being offices; a
superficial sketch has been given of them, in which some things have
been told and others omitted. For the right place of an exact
statement of the laws respecting suits, under their several heads,
will be at the end of the body of legislation;-let us then expect them
at the end. Hitherto our legislation has been chiefly occupied with
the appointment of offices. Perfect unity and exactness, extending
to the whole and every particular of political administration,
cannot be attained to the full, until the discussion shall have a
beginning, middle, and end, and is complete in every part. At
present we have reached the election of magistrates, and this may be
regarded as a sufficient termination of what preceded. And now there
need no longer be any delay or hesitation in beginning the work of
legislation.
  Cle. I like what you have said, Stranger-and I particularly like
your manner of tacking on the beginning of your new discourse to the
end of the former one.
  Ath. Thus far, then, the old men's rational pastime has gone off
well.
  Cle. You mean, I suppose, their serious and noble pursuit?
  Ath. Perhaps; but I should like to know whether you and I are agreed
about a certain thing.
  Cle. About what thing?
  Ath. You know. the endless labour which painters expend upon their
pictures-they are always putting in or taking out colours, or whatever
be the term which artists employ; they seem as if they would never
cease touching up their works, which are always being made brighter
and more beautiful.
  Cle. I know something of these matters from report, although I
have never had any great acquaintance with the art.
  Ath. No matter; we may make use of the illustration
notwithstanding:-Suppose that some one had a mind to paint a figure in
the most beautiful manner, in the hope that his work instead of losing
would always improve as time went on-do you not see that being a
mortal, unless he leaves some one to succeed him who will correct
the flaws which time may introduce, and be able to add what is left
imperfect through the defect of the artist, and who will further
brighten up and improve the picture, all his great labour will last
but a short time?
  Cle. True.
  Ath. And is not the aim of the legislator similar? First, he desires
that his laws should be written down with all possible exactness; in
the second place, as time goes on and he has made an actual trial of
his decrees, will he not find omissions? Do you imagine that there
ever was a legislator so foolish as not to know that many things are
necessarily omitted, which some one coming after him must correct,
if the constitution and the order of government is not to deteriorate,
but to improve in the state which he has established?
  Cle. Assuredly, that is the sort of thing which every one would
desire.
  Ath. And if any one possesses any means of accomplishing this by
word or deed, or has any way great or small by which he can teach a
person to understand how he can maintain and amend the laws, he should
finish what he has to say, and not leave the work incomplete.
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. And is not this what you and I have to do at the present
moment?
  Cle. What have we to do?
  Ath. As we are about to legislate and have chosen our guardians of
the law, and are ourselves in the evening of life, and they as
compared with us are young men, we ought not only to legislate for
them, but to endeavour to make them not only guardians of the law
but legislators themselves, as far as this is possible.
  Cle. Certainly; if we can.
  Ath. At any rate, we must do our best.
  Cle. Of course.
  Ath. We will say to them-O friends and saviours of our laws, in
laying down any law, there are many particulars which we shall omit,
and this cannot be helped; at the same time, we will do our utmost
to describe what is important, and will give an outline which you
shall fill up. And I will explain on what principle you are to act.
Megillus and Cleinias and I have often spoken to one another
touching these matters, and we are of opinion that we have spoken
well. And we hope that you will be of the same mind with us, and
become our disciples, and keep in view the things which in our
united opinion the legislator and guardian of the law ought to keep in
view. There was one main point about which we were agreed-that a man's
whole energies throughout life should be devoted to the acquisition of
the virtue proper to a man, whether this was to be gained by study, or
habit, or some mode of acquisition, or desire, or opinion, or
knowledge-and this applies equally to men and women, old and young-the
aim of all should always be such as I have described; anything which
may be an impediment, the good man ought to show that he utterly
disregards. And if at last necessity plainly compels him to be an
outlaw from his native land, rather than bow his neck to the yoke of
slavery and be ruled by inferiors, and he has to fly, an exile he must
be and endure all such trials, rather than accept another form of
government, which is likely to make men worse. These are our
original principles; and do you now, fixing your eyes upon the
standard of what a man and a citizen ought or ought not to be,
praise and blame the laws-blame those which have not this power of
making the citizen better, but embrace those which have; and with
gladness receive and live in them; bidding a long farewell to other
institutions which aim at goods, as they are termed, of a different
kind.
  Let us proceed to another class of laws, beginning with their
foundation in religion. And we must first return to the number
5040-the entire number had, and has, a great many convenient
divisions, and the number of the tribes which was a twelfth part of
the whole, being correctly formed by 21 X 20 [5040/(21 X 20), i.e.,
5040/420=12], also has them. And not only is the whole number
divisible by twelve, but also the number of each tribe is divisible by
twelve. Now every portion should be regarded by us as a sacred gift of
Heaven, corresponding to the months and to the revolution of the
universe. Every city has a guiding and sacred principle given by
nature, but in some the division or distribution has been more right
than in others, and has been more sacred and fortunate. In our
opinion, nothing can be more right than the selection of the number
5040, which may be divided by all numbers from one to twelve with
the single exception of eleven, and that admits of a very easy
correction; for if, turning to the dividend (5040), we deduct two
families, the defect in the division is cured. And the truth of this
may be easily proved when we have leisure. But for the present,
trusting to the mere assertion of this principle, let us divide the
state; and assigning to each portion some God or son of a God, let
us give them altars and sacred rites, and at the altars let us hold
assemblies for sacrifice twice in the month-twelve assemblies for
the tribes, and twelve for the city, according to their divisions; the
first in honour of the Gods and divine things, and the second to
promote friendship and "better acquaintance," as the phrase is, and
every sort of good fellowship with one another. For people must be
acquainted with those into whose families and whom they marry and with
those to whom they give in marriage; in such matters, as far as
possible, a man should deem it all important to avoid a mistake, and
with this serious purpose let games be instituted in which youths
and maidens shall dance together, seeing one another and being seen
naked, at a proper age, and on a suitable occasion, not
transgressing the rules of modesty.
  The directors of choruses will be the superintendents and regulators
of these games, and they, together with the guardians of the law, will
legislate in any matters which we have omitted; for, as we said, where
there are numerous and minute details, the legislator must leave out
something. And the annual officers who have experience, and know
what is wanted, must make arrangements and improvements year by
year, until such enactments and provisions are sufficiently
determined. A ten years experience of sacrifices and dances, if
extending to all particulars, will be quite sufficient; and if the
legislator be alive they shall communicate with him, but if he be dead
then the several officers shall refer the omissions which come under
their notice to the guardians of the law, and correct them, until
all is perfect; and from that time there shall be no more change,
and they shall establish and use the new laws with the others which
the legislator originally gave them, and of which they are never, if
they can help, to change aught; or, if some necessity overtakes
them, the magistrates must be called into counsel, and the whole
people, and they must go to all the oracles of the Gods; and if they
are all agreed, in that case they may make the change, but if they are
not agreed, by no manner of means, and any one who dissents shall
prevail, as the law ordains.
  Whenever any one over twenty-five years of age, having seen and been
seen by others, believes himself to have found a marriage connection
which is to his mind, and suitable for the procreation of children,
let him marry if he be still under the age of five-and-thirty years;
but let him first hear how he ought to seek after what is suitable and
appropriate. For, as Cleinias says, every law should have a suitable
prelude.
  Cle. You recollect at the right moment, Stranger, and do not miss
the opportunity which the argument affords of saying a word in season.
  Ath. I thank you. We will say to him who is born of good parents-O
my son, you ought to make such a marriage as wise men would approve.
Now they would advise you neither to avoid a poor marriage, nor
specially to desire a rich one; but if other things are equal,
always to honour inferiors, and with them to form connections;-this
will be for the benefit of the city and of the families which are
united; for the equable and symmetrical tends infinitely more to
virtue than the unmixed. And he who is conscious of being too
headstrong, and carried away more than is fitting in all his
actions, ought to desire to become the relation of orderly parents;
and he who is of the opposite temper ought to seek the opposite
alliance. Let there be one word concerning all marriages:-Every man
shall follow, not after the marriage which is most pleasing to
himself, but after that which is most beneficial to the state. For
somehow every one is by nature prone to that which is likest to
himself, and in this way the whole city becomes unequal in property
and in disposition; and hence there arise in most states the very
results which we least desire to happen. Now, to add to the law an
express provision, not only that the rich man shall not marry into the
rich family, nor the powerful into the family of the powerful, but
that the slower natures shall be compelled to enter into marriage with
the quicker, and the quicker with the slower, may awaken anger as well
as laughter in the minds of many; for there is a difficulty in
perceiving that the city ought to be well mingled like a cup, in which
the maddening wine is hot and fiery, but when chastened by a soberer
God, receives a fair associate and becomes an excellent and
temperate drink. Yet in marriage no one is able to see that the same
result occurs. Wherefore also the law must let alone such matters, but
we should try to charm the spirits of men into believing the
equability of their children's disposition to be of more importance
than equality in excessive fortune when they marry; and him who is too
desirous of making a rich marriage we should endeavour to turn aside
by reproaches, not, however, by any compulsion of written law.
  Let this then be our exhortation concerning marriage, and let us
remember what was said before-that a man should cling to
immortality, and leave behind him children's children to be the
servants of God in his place for ever. All this and much more may be
truly said by way of prelude about the duty of marriage. But if a
man will not listen and remains unsocial and alien among his
fellow-citizens, and is still unmarried at thirty-five years of age,
let him pay a yearly fine;-he who of the highest class shall pay a
fine of a hundred drachmae, and he who is of the second dass a fine of
seventy drachmae; the third class shall pay sixty drachmae, and the
fourth thirty drachmae, and let the money be sacred to Here; he who
does not pay the fine annually shall owe ten times the sum, which
the treasurer of the goddess shall exact; and if he fails in doing so,
let him be answerable and give an account of the. money at his
audit. He who refuses to marry shall be thus punished in money, and
also be deprived of all honour which the younger show to the elder;
let no young man voluntarily obey him, and if he attempt to punish any
one, let every one come to the rescue and defend the injured person,
and he who is present and does not come to the rescue, shall be
pronounced by the law to be a coward and a bad citizen. Of the
marriage portion I have already spoken; and again I say for the
instruction of poor men that he who neither gives nor receives a dowry
on account of poverty, has a compensation; for the citizens of our
state are provided with the necessaries of life, and wives will be
less likely to be insolent, and husbands to be mean and subservient to
them on account of property. And he who obeys this law will do a noble
action; but he who will not obey, and gives or receives more than
fifty drachmae as the price of the marriage garments if he be of the
lowest, or more than a mina, or a mina and-a-half, if he be of the
third or second classes, or two minae if he be of the highest class,
shall owe to the public treasury a similar sum, and that which is
given or received shall be sacred to Here and Zeus; and let the
treasurers of these Gods exact the money, as was said before about the
unmarried-that the treasurers of Here were to exact the money, or
pay the fine themselves.
  The betrothal by a father shall be valid in the first degree, that
by a grandfather in the second degree, and in the third degree,
betrothal by brothers who have the same father; but if there are
none of these alive, the betrothal by a mother shall be valid in
like manner; in cases of unexampled fatality, the next of kin and
the guardians shall have authority. What are to be the rites before
marriages, or any other sacred acts, relating either to future,
present, or past marriages, shall be referred to the interpreters; and
he who follows their advice may be satisfied. Touching the marriage
festival, they shall assemble not more than five male and five
female friends of both families; and a like number of members of the
family of either sex, and no man shall spend more than his means
will allow; he who is of the richest class may spend a mina-he who
is of the second, half a mina, and in the same proportion as the
census of each decreases: all men shall praise him who is obedient
to the law; but he who is disobedient shall be punished by the
guardians of the law as a man wanting in true taste, and
uninstructed in the laws of bridal song. Drunkenness is always
improper, except at the festivals of the God who gave wine; and
peculiarly dangerous, when a man is engaged in the business of
marriage; at such a crisis of their lives a bride and bridegroom ought
to have all their wits about them-they ought to take care that their
offspring may be born of reasonable beings; for on what day or night
Heaven will give them increase, who can say? Moreover, they ought
not to begetting children when their bodies are dissipated by
intoxication, but their offspring should be compact and solid, quiet
and compounded properly; whereas the drunkard is all abroad in all his
actions, and beside himself both in body and soul. Wherefore, also,
the drunken man is bad and unsteady in sowing the seed of increase,
and is likely to beget offspring who will be unstable and
untrustworthy, and cannot be expected to walk straight either in
body or mind. Hence during the whole year and all his life long, and
especially while he is begetting children, ought to take care and
not intentionally do what is injurious to health, or what involves
insolence and wrong; for he cannot help leaving the impression of
himself on the souls and bodies of his offspring, and he begets
children in every way inferior. And especially on the day and night of
marriage should a man abstain from such things. For the beginning,
which is also a God dwelling in man, preserves all things, if it
meet with proper respect from each individual. He who marries is
further to consider that one of the two houses in the lot is the
nest and nursery of his young, and there he is to marry and make a
home for himself and bring up his children, going away from his father
and mother. For in friendships there must be some degree of desire, in
order to cement and bind together diversities of character; but
excessive intercourse not having the desire which is created by
time, insensibly dissolves friendships from a feeling of satiety;
wherefore a man and his wife shall leave to his and her father and
mother their own dwelling-places, and themselves go as to a colony and
dwell there, and visit and be visited by their parents; and they shall
beget and bring up children, handing on the torch of life from one
generation to another, and worshipping the Gods according to law for
ever.
  In the next place, we have to consider what sort of property will be
most convenient. There is no difficulty either in understanding or
acquiring most kinds of property, but there is great difficulty in
what relates to slaves. And the reason is that we speak about them
in a way which is right and which is not right; for what we say
about our slaves is consistent and also inconsistent with our practice
about them.
  Megillus. I do not understand, Stranger, what you mean.
  Ath. I am not surprised, Megillus, for the state of the Helots among
the Lacedaemonians is of all Hellenic forms of slavery the most
controverted and disputed about, some approving and some condemning
it; there is less dispute about the slavery which exists among the
Heracleots, who have subjugated the Mariandynians, and about the
Thessalian Penestae. Looking at these and the like examples, what
ought we to do concerning property in slaves? I made a remark, in
passing, which naturally elicited a question about my meaning from
you. It was this:-We know that all would agree that we should have the
best and most attached slaves whom we can get. For many a man has
found his slaves better in every way than brethren or sons, and many
times they have saved the lives and property of their masters and
their whole house-such tales are well known.
  Meg. To be sure.
  Ath. But may we not also say that the soul of the slave is utterly
corrupt, and that no man of sense ought to trust them? And the
wisest of our poets, speaking of Zeus, says:

  Far-seeing Zeus takes away half the understanding of men whom the
day of slavery subdues.

Different persons have got these two different notions of slaves in
their minds-some of them utterly distrust their servants, and, as if
they were wild beasts, chastise them with goads and whips, and make
their souls three times, or rather many times, as slavish as they were
before;-and others do just the opposite.
  Meg. True.
  Cle. Then what are we to do in our own country, Stranger, seeing
that there are, such differences in the treatment of slaves by their
owners?
  Ath. Well, Cleinias, there can be no doubt that man is a troublesome
animal, and therefore he is not very manageable, nor likely to
become so, when you attempt to introduce the necessary division,
slave, and freeman, and master.
  Cle. That is obvious.
  Ath. He is a troublesome piece of goods, as has been often shown
by the frequent revolts of the Messenians, and the great mischiefs
which happen in states having many slaves who speak the same language,
and the numerous robberies and lawless life of the Italian banditti,
as they are called. A man who considers all this is fairly at a
loss. Two remedies alone remain to us-not to have the slaves of the
same country, nor if possible, speaking the same language; in this way
they will more easily be held in subjection: secondly, we should
tend them carefully, not only out of regard to them, but yet more
out of respect to ourselves. And the right treatment of slaves is to
behave properly to them, and to do to them, if possible, even more
justice than to those who are our equals; for he who naturally and
genuinely reverences justice, and hates injustice, is discovered in
his dealings with any class of men to whom he can easily be unjust.
And he who in regard to the natures and actions of his slaves is
undefiled by impiety and injustice, will best sow the seeds of
virtue in them; and this may be truly said of every master, and
tyrant, and of every other having authority in relation to his
inferiors. Slaves ought to be punished as they deserve, and not
admonished as if they were freemen, which will only make them
conceited. The language used to a servant ought always to be that of a
command, and we ought not to jest with them, whether they are males or
females-this is a foolish way which many people have of setting up
their slaves, and making the life of servitude more disagreeable
both for them and for their masters.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Now that each of the citizens is provided, as far as
possible, with a sufficient number of suitable slaves who can help him
in what he has to do, we may next proceed to describe their dwellings.
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. The city being new and hitherto uninhabited, care ought to be
taken of all the buildings, and the manner of building each of them,
and also of the temples and walls. These, Cleinias, were matters which
properly came before the marriages; but, as we are only talking, there
is no objection to changing the order. If, however, our plan of
legislation is ever to take effect, then the house shall precede the
marriage if God so will, and afterwards we will come to the
regulations about marriage; but at present we are only describing
these matters in a general outline.
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. The temples are to be placed all round the agora, and the whole
city built on the heights in a circle, for the sake of defence and for
the sake of purity. Near the temples are to be placed buildings for
the magistrates and the courts of law; in these plaintiff and
defendant will receive their due, and the places will be regarded as
most holy, partly because they have to do with the holy things: and
partly because they are the dwelling-places of holy Gods: and in
them will be held the courts in which cases of homicide and other
trials of capital offenses may fitly take place. As to the walls,
Megillus, I agree with Sparta in thinking that they should be
allowed to sleep in the earth, and that we should not attempt to
disinter them; there is a poetical saying, which is finely
expressed, that "walls ought to be of steel and iron, and not of
earth; besides, how ridiculous of us to be sending out our young men
annually into the country to dig and to trench, and to keep off the
enemy by fortifications, under the idea that they are not to be
allowed to set foot in our territory, and then, that we should
surround ourselves with a wall, which, in the first place, is by no
means conducive to the health of cities, and is also apt to produce
a certain effeminacy in the minds of the inhabitants, inviting men
to run thither instead of repelling their enemies, and leading them to
imagine that their safety is due not to their keeping guard day and
night, but that when they are protected by walls and gates, then
they may sleep in safety; as if they were not meant to labour, and did
not know that true repose comes from labour, and that disgraceful
indolence and a careless temper of mind is only the renewal of
trouble. But if men must have walls, the private houses ought to be so
arranged from the first that the whole city may be one wall, having
all the houses capable of defence by reason of their uniformity and
equality towards the streets. The form of the city being that of a
single dwelling will have an agreeable aspect, and being easily
guarded will be infinitely better for security. Until the original
building is completed, these should be the principal objects of the
inhabitants; and the wardens of the city should superintend the
work, and should impose a fine on him who is negligent; and in all
that relates to the city they should have a care of cleanliness, and
not allow a private person to encroach upon any public property either
by buildings or excavations. Further, they ought to take care that the
rains from heaven flow off easily, and of any other matters which
may have to be administered either within or without the city. The
guardians of the law shall pass any further enactments which their
experience may show to be necessary, and supply any other points in
which the law may be deficient. And now that these matters, and the
buildings about the agora, and the gymnasia, and places of
instruction, and theatres, are all ready and waiting for scholars
and spectators, let us proceed to the subjects which follow marriage
in the order of legislation.
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. Assuming that marriages exist already, Cleinias, the mode of
life during the year after marriage, before children are born, will
follow next in order. In what way bride and bridegroom ought to live
in a city which is to be superior to other cities, is a matter not
at all easy for us to determine. There have been many difficulties
already, but this will be the greatest of them, and the most
disagreeable to the many. Still I cannot but say what appears to me to
be right and true, Cleinias.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. He who imagines that he can give laws for the public conduct of
states, while he leaves the private life of citizens wholly to take
care of itself; who thinks that individuals may pass the day as they
please, and that there is no necessity of order in all things; he, I
say, who gives up the control of their private lives, and supposes
that they will conform to law in their common and public life, is
making a great mistake. Why have I made this remark? Why, because I am
going to enact that the bridegrooms should live at the common
tables, just as they did before marriage. This was a singularity
when first enacted by the legislator in your parts of the world,
Megillus and Cleinias, as I should suppose, on the occasion of some
war or other similar danger, which caused the passing of the law,
and which would be likely to occur in thinly-peopled places, and in
times of pressure. But when men had once tried and been accustomed
to a common table, experience showed that the institution greatly
conduced to security; and in some such manner the custom of having
common tables arose among you.
  Cle. Likely enough.
  Ath. I said that there may have been singularity and danger in
imposing such a custom at first, but that now there is not the same
difficulty. There is, however, another institution which is the
natural sequel to this, and would be excellent, if it existed
anywhere, but at present it does not. The institution of which I am
about to speak is not easily described or executed; and would be
like the legislator "combing wool into the fire," as people say, or
performing any other impossible and useless feat.
  Cle. What is the cause, Stranger, of this extreme hesitation?
  Ath. You shall hear without any fruitless loss of time. That which
has law and order in a state is the cause of every good, but that
which is disordered or ill-ordered is often the ruin of that which
is well-ordered; and at this point the argument is now waiting. For
with you, Cleinias and Megillus, the common tables of men are, as I
said, a heaven-born and admirable institution, but you are mistaken in
leaving the women unregulated by law. They have no similar institution
of public tables in the light of day, and just that part of the
human race which is by nature prone to secrecy and stealth on
account of their weakness-I mean the female sex-has been left
without regulation by the legislator, which is a great mistake. And,
in consequence of this neglect, many things have grown lax among
you, which might have been far better, if they had been only regulated
by law; for the neglect of regulations about women may not only be
regarded as a neglect of half the entire matter, but in proportion
as woman's nature is inferior to that of men in capacity for virtue,
in that degree the consequence of such neglect is more than twice as
important. The careful consideration of this matter, and the arranging
and ordering on a common principle of all our institutions relating
both to men and women, greatly conduces to the happiness of the state.
But at present, such is the unfortunate condition of mankind, that
no man of sense will even venture to speak of common tables in
places and cities in which they have never been established at all;
and how can any one avoid being utterly ridiculous, who attempts to
compel women to show in public how much they eat and drink? There is
nothing at which the sex is more likely to take offence. For women are
accustomed to creep into dark places, and when dragged out into the
light they will exert their utmost powers of resistance, and be far
too much for the legislator. And therefore, as I said before, in
most places they will not endure to have the truth spoken without
raising a tremendous outcry, but in this state perhaps they may. And
if we may assume that our whole discussion about the state has not
been mere idle talk, I should like to prove to you, if you will
consent to listen, that this institution is good and proper; but if
you had rather not, I will refrain.
  Cle. There is nothing which we should both of us like better,
Stranger, than to hear what you have to say.
  Ath. Very good; and you must not be surprised if I go back a little,
for we have plenty of leisure, and there is nothing to prevent us from
considering in every point of view the subject of law.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Then let us return once more to what we were saying at first.
Every man should understand that the human race either had no
beginning at all, and will never have an end, but always will be and
has been; or that it began an immense while ago.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Well, and have there not been constitutions and destructions of
states, and all sorts of pursuits both orderly and disorderly, and
diverse desires of meats and drinks always, and in all the world,
and all sorts of changes of the seasons in which animals may be
expected to have undergone innumerable transformations of themselves?
  Cle. No doubt.
  Ath. And may we not suppose that vines appeared, which had
previously no existence, and also olives, and the gifts of Demeter and
her daughter, of which one Triptolemus was the minister, and that,
before these existed, animals took to devouring each other as they
do still?
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Again, the practice of men sacrificing one another still exists
among many nations; while, on the other hand, we hear of other human
beings who did not even venture to taste the flesh of a cow and had no
animal sacrifices, but only cakes and fruits dipped in honey, and
similar pure offerings, but no flesh of animals; from these they
abstained under the idea that they ought not to eat them, and might
not stain the altars of the Gods with blood. For in those days men are
said to have lived a sort of Orphic life, having the use of all
lifeless things, but abstaining from all living things.
  Cle. Such has been the constant tradition, and is very likely true.
  Ath. Some one might say to us, What is the drift of all this?
  Cle. A very pertinent question, Stranger.
  Ath. And therefore I will endeavour, Cleinias, if I can, to draw the
natural inference.
  Cle. Proceed.
    Ath. I see that among men all things depend upon three wants and
desires, of which the end is virtue, if they are rightly led by
them, or the opposite if wrongly. Now these are eating and drinking,
which begin at birth-every animal has a natural desire for them, and
is violently excited, and rebels against him who says that he must not
satisfy all his pleasures and appetites, and get rid of all the
corresponding pains-and the third and greatest and sharpest want and
desire breaks out last, and is the fire of sexual lust, which
kindles in men every species of wantonness and madness. And these
three disorders we must endeavour to master by the three great
principles of fear and law and right reason; turning them away from
that which is called pleasantest to the best, using the Muses and
the Gods who preside over contests to extinguish their increase and
influx.
  But to return:-After marriage let us speak of the birth of children,
and after their birth of their nurture and education. In the course of
discussion the several laws will be perfected, and we shall at last
arrive at the common tables. Whether such associations are to be
confined to men, or extended to women also, we shall see better when
we approach and take a nearer view of them; and we may then
determine what previous institutions are required and will have to
precede them. As I said before we shall see them more in detail, and
shall be better able to lay down the laws which are proper or suited
to them.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Let us keep in mind the words which have now been spoken; for
hereafter there may be need of them.
  Cle. What do you bid us keep in mind?
  Ath. That which we comprehended under the three words-first, eating,
secondly, drinking, thirdly, the excitement of love.
  Cle. We shall be sure to remember, Stranger.
  Ath. Very good. Then let us now proceed to marriage, and teach
persons in what way they shall beget children, threatening them, if
they disobey, with the terrors of the law.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. The bride and bridegroom should consider that they are to
produce for the state the best and fairest specimens of children which
they can. Now all men who are associated any action always succeed
when they attend and give their mind to what they are doing, but
when they do not give their mind or have no mind, they fail; wherefore
let the bridegroom give his mind to the bride and to the begetting
of children, and the bride in like manner give her mind to the
bridegroom, and particularly at the time when their children are not
yet born. And let the women whom we have chosen be the overseers of
such matters, and let them in whatever number, large or small, and
at whatever time the magistrates may command, assemble every day in
the temple of Eileithyia during a third part of the day, and being
there assembled, let them inform one another of any one whom they see,
whether man or woman, of those who are begetting children,
disregarding the ordinances given at the time when the nuptial
sacrifices and ceremonies were performed. Let the begetting of
children and the supervision of those who are begetting them
continue ten years and no longer, during the time when marriage is
fruitful. But if any continue without children up to this time, let
them take counsel with their kindred and with the women holding the
office of overseer and be divorced for their mutual benefit. If,
however, any dispute arises about what is proper and for the
interest of either party, they shall choose ten of the guardians of
the law and abide by their permission and appointment. The women who
preside over these matters shall enter into the houses of the young,
and partly by admonitions and partly by threats make them give over
their folly and error: if they persist, let the women go and tell
the guardians of the law, and the guardians shall prevent them. But if
they too cannot prevent them, they shall bring the matter before the
people; and let them write up their names and make oath that they
cannot reform such and such an one; and let him who is thus written
up, if he cannot in a court of law convict those who have inscribed
his name, be deprived of the privileges of a citizen in the
following respects:-let him not go to weddings nor to the
thanksgivings after the birth of children; and if he go, let any one
who pleases strike him with impunity; and let the same regulations
hold about women: let not a woman be allowed to appear abroad, or
receive honour, or go to nuptial and birthday festivals, if she in
like manner be written up as acting disorderly and cannot obtain a
verdict. And if, when they themselves have done begetting children
according to the law, a man or woman have connection with another
man or woman who are still begetting children, let the same
penalties be inflicted upon them as upon those who are still having
a family; and when the time for procreation has passed let the man
or woman who refrains in such matters be held in esteem, and let those
who do not refrain be held in the contrary of esteem-that is to say,
disesteem. Now, if the greater part of mankind behave modestly, the
enactments of law may be left to slumber; but, if they are disorderly,
the enactments having been passed, let them be carried into execution.
To every man the first year is the beginning of life, and the time
of birth ought to be written down in the temples of their fathers as
the beginning of existence to every child, whether boy or girl. Let
every phratria have inscribed on a whited wall the names of the
successive archons by whom the years are reckoned. And near to them
let the living members of the phratria be inscribed, and when they
depart life let them be erased. The limit of marriageable ages for a
woman shall be from sixteen to twenty years at the longest-for a
man, from thirty to thirty-five years; and let a woman hold office
at forty, and a man at thirty years. Let a man go out to war from
twenty to sixty years, and for a woman, if there appear any need to
make use of her in military service, let the time of service be
after she shall have brought forth children up to fifty years of
age; and let regard be had to what is possible and suitable to each.
  BOOK VII

  And now, assuming children of both sexes to have been born, it
will be proper for us to consider, in the next place, their nurture
and education; this cannot be left altogether unnoticed, and yet may
be thought a subject fitted rather for precept and admonition than for
law. In private life there are many little things, not always
apparent, arising out of the pleasures and pains and desires of
individuals, which run counter to the intention of the legislator, and
make the characters of the citizens various and dissimilar:-this is an
evil in states; for by reason of their smallness and frequent
occurrence, there would be an unseemliness and want of propriety in
making them penal by law; and if made penal, they are the
destruction of the written law because mankind get the habit of
frequently transgressing the law in small matters. The result is
that you cannot legislate about them, and still less can you be
silent. I speak somewhat darkly, but I shall endeavour also to bring
my wares into the light of day, for I acknowledge that at present
there is a want of clearness in what I am saying.
  Cleinias. Very true.
  Athenian. Stranger. Am I not right in maintaining that a good
education is that which tends most, to the improvement of mind and
body?
  Cle. Undoubtedly.
  Ath. And nothing can be plainer than that the fairest bodies are
those which grow up from infancy in the best and straightest manner?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And do we not further observe that the first shoot of every
living thing is by far the greatest and fullest? Many will even
contend that a man at twenty-five does not reach twice the height
which he attained at five.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Well, and is not rapid growth without proper and abundant
exercise the source endless evils in the body?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. And the body should have the most exercise when it receives
most nourishment?
  Cle. But, Stranger, are we to impose this great amount of exercise
upon newly-born infants?
  Ath. Nay, rather on the bodies of infants still unborn.
  Cle. What do you mean, my good sir? In the process of gestation?
  Ath. Exactly. I am not at all surprised that you have never heard of
this very peculiar sort of gymnastic applied to such little creatures,
which, although strange, I will endeavour to explain to you.
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. The practice is more easy for us to understand than for you, by
reason of certain amusements which are carried to excess by us at
Athens. Not only boys, but often older persons, are in the habit of
keeping quails and cocks, which they train to fight one another. And
they are far from thinking that the contests in which they stir them
up to fight with one another are sufficient exercise; for, in addition
to this, they carry them about tucked beneath their armpits, holding
the smaller birds in their hands, the larger under their arms, and
go for a walk of a great many miles for the sake of health, that is to
say, not their own, health, but the health of the birds; whereby
they prove to any intelligent person, that all bodies are benefited by
shakings and movements, when they are moved without weariness, whether
motion proceeds from themselves, or is caused by a swing, or at sea,
or on horseback, or by other bodies in whatever way moving, and that
thus gaining the mastery over food and drink, they are able to
impart beauty and health and strength. But admitting all this, what
follows? Shall we make a ridiculous law that the pregnant woman
shall walk about and fashion the embryo within as we fashion wax
before it hardens, and after birth swathe the infant for two years?
Suppose that we compel nurses, under penalty of a legal fine, to be
always carrying the children somewhere or other, either to the
temples, or into the country, or to their relations, houses, until
they are well able to stand, and to take care that their limbs are not
distorted by leaning on them when they are too young-they should
continue to carry them until the infant has completed its third
year; the nurses should be strong, and there should be more than one
of them. Shall these be our rules, and shall we impose a penalty for
the neglect of them? No, no; the penalty of which we were speaking
will fall upon our own heads more than enough.
  Cle. What penalty?
  Ath. Ridicule, and the difficulty of getting the feminine and
servant-like dispositions of the nurses to comply.
  Cle. Then why was there any need to speak of the matter at all?
  Ath. The reason is that masters and freemen in states, when they
hear of it, are very likely to arrive at a true conviction that
without due regulation of private life in cities, stability in the
laying down of laws is hardly to be expected; and he who makes this
reflection may himself adopt the laws just now mentioned, and,
adopting them, may order his house and state well and be happy.
  Cle. Likely enough.
  Ath. And therefore let us proceed with our legislation until we have
determined the exercises which are suited to the souls of young
children, in the same manner in which we have begun to go through
the rules relating to their bodies.
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. Let us assume, then, as a first principle in relation both to
the body and soul of very young creatures, that nursing and moving
about by day and night is good for them all, and that the younger they
are, the more they will need it; infants should live, if that were
possible, as if they were always rocking at sea. This is the lesson
which we may gather from the experience of nurses, and likewise from
the use of the remedy of motion in the rites of the Corybantes; for
when mothers want their restless children to go to sleep they do not
employ rest, but, on the contrary, motion-rocking them in their
arms; nor do they give them silence, but they sing to them and lap
them in sweet strains; and the Bacchic women are cured of their frenzy
in the same manner by the use of the dance and of music.
  Cle. Well, Stranger, and what is the reason of this?
  Ath. The reason is obvious.
  Cle. What?
  Ath. The affection both of the Bacchantes and of the children is
an emotion of fear, which springs out of an evil habit of the soul.
And when some one applies external agitation to affections of this
sort, the motion coming from without gets the better of the terrible
and violent internal one, and produces a peace and calm in the soul,
and quiets the restless palpitation of the heart, which is a thing
much to be desired, sending the children to sleep, and making the
Bacchantes, although they remain awake, to dance to the pipe with
the help of the Gods to whom they offer acceptable sacrifices, and
producing in them a sound mind, which takes the place of their frenzy.
And, to express what I mean in a word, there is a good deal to be said
in favour of this treatment.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. But if fear has such a power we ought to infer from these
facts, that every soul which from youth upward has been familiar
with fears, will be made more liable to fear, and every one will allow
that this is the way to form a habit of cowardice and not of courage.
  Cle. No doubt.
  Ath. And, on the other hand, the habit of overcoming, from our youth
upwards, the fears and terrors which beset us, may be said to be an
exercise of courage.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. And we may say that the use of exercise and motion in the
earliest years of life greatly contributes to create a part of
virtue in the soul.
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. Further, a cheerful temper, or the reverse, may be regarded
as having much to do with high spirit on the one hand, or with
cowardice on the other.
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. Then now we must endeavour to show how and to what extent we
may, if we please, without difficulty implant either character in
the young.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. There is a common opinion, that luxury makes the disposition of
youth discontented and irascible and vehemently excited by trifles;
that on the other hand excessive and savage servitude makes men mean
and abject, and haters of their kind, and therefore makes them
undesirable associates.
  Cle. But how must the state educate those who do not as yet
understand the language of the country, and are therefore incapable of
appreciating any sort of instruction?
  Ath. I will tell you how:-Every animal that is born is wont to utter
some cry, and this is especially the case with man, and he is also
affected with the inclination to weep more than any other animal.
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. Do not nurses, when they want to know what an infant desires,
judge by these signs?-when anything is brought to the infant and he is
silent, then he is supposed to be pleased, but, when he weeps and
cries out, then he is not pleased. For tears and cries are the
inauspicious signs by which children show what they love and hate. Now
the time which is thus spent is no less than three years, and is a
very considerable portion of life to be passed ill or well.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Does not the discontented and ungracious nature appear to you
to be full of lamentations and sorrows more than a good man ought to
be?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Well, but if during these three years every possible care
were taken that our nursling should have as little of sorrow and fear,
and in general of pain as was possible, might we not expect in early
childhood to make his soul more gentle and cheerful?
  Cle. To be sure, Stranger-more especially if we could procure him
a variety of pleasures.
  Ath. There I can no longer agree, Cleinias: you amaze me. To bring
him up in such a way would be his utter ruin; for the beginning is
always the most critical part of education. Let us see whether I am
right.
  Cle. Proceed.
  Ath. The point about which you and I differ is of great
importance, and I hope that you, Megillus, will help to decide between
us. For I maintain that the true life should neither seek for
pleasures, nor, on the other hand, entirely avoid pains, but should
embrace the middle state, which I just spoke of as gentle and
benign, and is a state which we by some divine presage and inspiration
rightly ascribe to God. Now, I say, he among men, too, who would be
divine ought to pursue after this mean habit-he should not rush
headlong into pleasures, for he will not be free from pains; nor
should we allow any one, young or old, male or female, to be thus
given any more than ourselves, and least of all the newly-born infant,
for in infancy more than at any other time the character is
engrained by habit. Nay, more, if I were not afraid of appearing to be
ridiculous, I would say that a woman during her year of pregnancy
should of all women be most carefully tended, and kept from violent or
excessive pleasures and pains, and should at that time cultivate
gentleness and benevolence and kindness.
  Cle. You need not, ask Megillus, Stranger, which of us has most
truly spoken; for I myself agree that all men ought to avoid the
life of unmingled pain or pleasure, and pursue always a middle course.
And having spoken well, may I add that you have been well answered?
  Ath. Very good, Cleinias; and now let us all three consider a
further point.
  Cle. What is it?
  Ath. That all the matters which we are now describing are commonly
called by the general name of unwritten customs, and what are termed
the laws of our ancestors are all of similar nature. And the
reflection which lately arose in our minds, that we can neither call
these things laws, nor yet leave them unmentioned, is justified; for
they are the bonds of the whole state, and come in between the written
laws which are or are hereafter to be laid down; they are just
ancestral customs of great antiquity, which, if they are rightly
ordered and made habitual, shield and preserve the previously existing
written law; but if they depart from right and fall into disorder,
then they are like the props of builders which slip away out of
their Place and cause a universal ruin-one part drags another down,
and the fair super-structure falls because the old foundations are
undermined. Reflecting upon this, Cleinias, you ought to bind together
the new state in every possible way, omitting nothing, whether great
or small, of what are called laws or manners or pursuits, for by these
means a city is bound together, and all these things are only
lasting when they depend upon one another; and, therefore, we must not
wonder if we find that many apparently trifling customs or usages come
pouring in and lengthening out our laws.
  Cle. Very true: we are disposed to agree with you.
  Ath. Up to the age of three years, whether of boy or girl, if a
person strictly carries out our previous regulations and makes them
a principal aim, he will do much for the advantage of the young
creatures. But at three, four, five, and even six years the childish
nature will require sports; now is the time to get rid of self-will in
him, punishing him, but not so as to disgrace him. We were saying
about slaves, that we ought neither to add insult to punishment so
as to anger them, nor yet to leave them unpunished lest they become
self-willed; and a like rule is to be observed in the case of the
free-born. Children at that age have certain natural modes of
amusement which they find out for themselves when they meet. And all
the children who are between the ages of three and six ought to meet
at the temples the villages, the several families of a village uniting
on one spot. The nurses are to see that the children behave properly
and orderly-they themselves and all their companies are to be under
the control of twelve matrons, one for each company, who are
annually selected to inspect them from the women previously mentioned,
[i.e., the women who have authority over marriage], whom the guardians
of the law appoint. These matrons shall be chosen by the women who
have authority over marriage, one out of each tribe; all are to be
of the same age; and let each of them, as soon as she is appointed,
hold office and go to the temples every day, punishing all
offenders, male or female, who are slaves or strangers, by the help of
some of the public slaves; but if any citizen disputes the punishment,
let her bring him before the wardens of the city; or, if there be no
dispute, let her punish him herself. After the age of six years the
time has arrived for the separation of the sexes-let boys live with
boys, and girls in like manner with girls. Now they must begin to
learn-the boys going to teachers of horsemanship and the use of the
bow, the javelin, and sling, and the girls too, if they do not object,
at any rate until they know how to manage these weapons, and
especially how to handle heavy arms; for I may note, that the practice
which now prevails is almost universally misunderstood.
  Cle. In what respect?
  Ath. In that the right and left hand are supposed to be by nature
differently suited for our various uses of them; whereas no difference
is found in the use of the feet and the lower limbs; but in the use of
the hands we are, as it were, maimed by the folly of nurses and
mothers; for although our several limbs are by nature balanced, we
create a difference in them by bad habit. In some cases this is of
no consequence, as, for example, when we hold the lyre in the left
hand, and the plectrum in the right, but it is downright folly to make
the same distinction in other cases. The custom of the Scythians
proves our error; for they not only hold the bow from them with the
left hand and draw the arrow to them with their right, but use
either hand for both purposes. And there are many similar examples
in charioteering and other things, from which we may learn that
those who make the left side weaker than the right act contrary to
nature. In the case of the plectrum, which is of horn only, and
similar instruments, as I was saying, it is of no consequence, but
makes a great difference, and may be of very great importance to the
warrior who has to use iron weapons, bows and javelins, and the
like; above all, when in heavy armour, he has to fight against heavy
armour. And there is a very great difference between one who has
learnt and one who has not, and between one who has been trained in
gymnastic exercises and one who has not been. For as he who is
perfectly skilled in the Pancratium or boxing or wrestling, is not
unable to fight from his left side, and does not limp and draggle in
confusion when his opponent makes him change his position, so in
heavy-armed fighting, and in all other things if I am not mistaken,
the like holds-he who has these double powers of attack and defence
ought not in any case to leave them either unused or untrained, if
he can help; and if a person had the nature of Geryon or Briareus he
ought to be able with his hundred hands to throw a hundred darts. Now,
the magistrates, male and female, should see to all these things,
the women superintending the nursing and amusements of the children,
and the men superintending their education, that all of them, boys and
girls alike, may be sound hand and foot, and may not, if they can
help, spoil the gifts of nature by bad habits.
  Education has two branches-one of gymnastic, which is concerned with
the body, and the other of music, which is designed for the
improvement of the soul. And gymnastic has also two branches-dancing
and wrestling; and one sort of dancing imitates musical recitation,
and aims at preserving dignity and freedom, the other aims at
producing health, agility, and beauty in the limbs and parts of the
body, giving the proper flexion and extension to each of them, a
harmonious motion being diffused everywhere, and forming a suitable
accompaniment to the dance. As regards wrestling, the tricks which
Antaeus and Cercyon devised in their systems out of a vain spirit of
competition, or the tricks of boxing which Epeius or Amycus
invented, are useless and unsuitable for war, and do not deserve to
have much said about them; but the art of wrestling erect and
keeping free the neck and hands and sides, working with energy and
constancy, with a composed strength, and for the sake of
health-these are always useful, and are not to be neglected, but to be
enjoined alike on masters and scholars, when we reach that part of
legislation; and we will desire the one to give their instructions
freely, and the others to receive them thankfully. Nor, again, must we
omit suitable imitations of war in our choruses; here in Crete you
have the armed dances if the Curetes, and the Lacedaemonians have
those of the Dioscuri. And our virgin lady, delighting in the
amusement of the dance, thought it not fit to amuse herself with empty
hands; she must be clothed in a complete suit of armour, and in this
attire go through the dance; and youths and maidens should in every
respect imitate her, esteeming highly the favour of the Goddess,
both with a view to the necessities of war, and to festive
occasions: it will be right also for the boys, until such time as they
go out to war, to make processions and supplications to all the Gods
in goodly array, armed and on horseback, in dances, and marches,
fast or slow, offering up prayers to the Gods and to the sons of Gods;
and also engaging in contests and preludes of contests, if at all,
with these objects: For these sorts of exercises, and no others, are
useful both in peace and war, and are beneficial alike to states and
to private houses. But other labours and sports and exercises of the
body are unworthy of freemen, O Megillus and Cleinias.
  I have now completely described the kind of gymnastic which I said
at first ought to be described; if you know of any better, will you
communicate your thoughts?
  Cle. It is not easy, Stranger, to put aside these principles of
gymnastic and wrestling and to enunciate better ones.
  Ath. Now we must say what has yet to be said about the gifts of
the Muses and of Apollo: before, we fancied that we had said all,
and that gymnastic alone remained; but now we see clearly what
points have been omitted, and should be first proclaimed; of these,
then, let us proceed to speak.
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. Let me tell you once more-although you have heard me say the
same before that caution must be always exercised, both by the speaker
and by the hearer, about anything that is very singular and unusual.
For my tale is one, which many a man would be afraid to tell, and
yet I have a confidence which makes me go on.
  Cle. What have you to say, Stranger?
  Ath. I say that in states generally no one has observed that the
plays of childhood have a great deal to do with the permanence or want
of permanence in legislation. For when plays are ordered with a view
to children having the same plays, and amusing themselves after the
same manner, and finding delight in the same playthings, the more
solemn institutions of the state are allowed to remain undisturbed.
Whereas if sports are disturbed, and innovations are made in them, and
they constantly change, and the young never speak of their having
the same likings, or the same established notions of good and bad
taste, either in the bearing of their bodies or in their dress, but he
who devises something new and out of the way in figures and colours
and the like is held in special honour, we may truly say that no
greater evil can happen in a state; for he who changes the sports is
secretly changing the manners of the young, and making the old to be
dishonoured among them and the new to be honoured. And I affirm that
there is nothing which is a greater injury to all states than saying
or thinking thus. Will you hear me tell how great I deem the evil to
be?
  Cle. You mean the evil of blaming antiquity in states?
  Ath. Exactly.
  Cle. If you are speaking of that, you will find in us hearers who
are disposed to receive what you say not unfavourably but most
favourably.
  Ath. I should expect so.
  Cle. Proceed.
  Ath. Well, then, let us give all the greater heed to one another's
words. The argument affirms that any change whatever except from
evil is the most dangerous of all things; this is true in the case
of the seasons and of the winds, in the management of our bodies and
the habits of our minds-true of all things except, as I said before,
of the bad. He who looks at the constitution of individuals accustomed
to eat any sort of meat, or drink any drink, or to do any work which
they can get, may see that they are at first disordered by them, but
afterwards, as time goes on, their bodies grow adapted to them, and
they learn to know and like variety, and have good health and
enjoyment of life; and if ever afterwards they are confined again to a
superior diet, at first they are troubled with disorders, and with
difficulty become habituated to their new food. A similar principle we
may imagine to hold good about the minds of men and the natures of
their souls. For when they have been brought up in certain laws, which
by some Divine Providence have remained unchanged during long ages, so
that no one has any memory or tradition of their ever having been
otherwise than they are, then every one is afraid and ashamed to
change that which is established. The legislator must somehow find a
way of implanting this reverence for antiquity, and I would propose
the following way:-People are apt to fancy, as I was saying before,
that when the plays of children are altered they are merely plays, not
seeing that the most serious and detrimental consequences arise out of
the change; and they readily comply with the child's wishes instead of
deterring him, not considering that these children who make
innovations in their games, when they grow up to be men, will be
different from the last generation of children, and, being
different, will desire a different sort of life, and under the
influence of this desire will want other institutions and laws; and no
one of them reflects that there will follow what I just now called the
greatest of evils to states. Changes in bodily fashions are no such
serious evils, but frequent changes in the praise and censure of
manners are the greatest of evils, and require the utmost prevision.
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. And now do we still hold to our former assertion, that
rhythms and music in general are imitations of good and evil
characters in men? What say you?
  Cle. That is the only doctrine which we can admit.
  Ath. Must we not, then, try in every possible way to prevent our
youth from even desiring to imitate new modes either in dance or song?
nor must any one be allowed to offer them varieties of pleasures.
  Cle. Most true.
  Ath. Can any of us imagine a better mode of effecting this object
than that of the Egyptians?
  Cle. What is their method?
  Ath. To consecrate every sort of dance or melody. First we should
ordain festivals-calculating for the year what they ought to be, and
at what time, and in honour of what Gods, sons of Gods, and heroes
they ought to be celebrated; and, in the next place, what hymns
ought to be sung at the several sacrifices, and with what dances the
particular festival is to be honoured. This has to be arranged at
first by certain persons, and, when arranged, the whole assembly of
the citizens are to offer sacrifices and libations to the Fates and
all the other Gods, and to consecrate the several odes to gods and
heroes: and if any one offers any other hymns or dances to any one
of the Gods, the priests and priestesses, acting in concert with the
guardians of the law, shall, with the sanction of religion and the
law, exclude him, and he who is excluded, if he do not submit, shall
be liable all his life long to have a suit of impiety brought
against him by any one who likes.
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. In the consideration of this subject, let us remember what is
due to ourselves.
  Cle. To what are you referring?
  Ath. I mean that any young man, and much more any old one, when he
sees or hears anything strange or unaccustomed, does not at once run
to embrace the paradox, but he stands considering, like a person who
is at a place where three paths meet, and does not very well know
his way-he may be alone or he may be walking with others, and he
will say to himself and them, "Which is the way?" and will not move
forward until he is satisfied that he is going right. And this is what
we must do in the present instance:-A strange discussion on the
subject of law has arisen, which requires the utmost consideration,
and we should not at our age be too ready to speak about such great
matters, or be confident that we can say anything certain all in a
moment.
  Cle. Most true.
  Ath. Then we will allow time for reflection, and decide when we have
given the subject sufficient consideration. But that we may not be
hindered from completing the natural arrangement of our laws, let us
proceed to the conclusion of them in due order; for very possibly,
if God will, the exposition of them, when completed, may throw light
on our present perplexity.
  Cle. Excellent, Stranger; let us do as you propose.
  Ath. Let us then affirm the paradox that strains of music are our
laws (nomoi), and this latter being the name which the ancients gave
to lyric songs, they probably would not have very much objected to our
proposed application of the word. Some one, either asleep or awake,
must have had a dreamy suspicion of their nature. And let our decree
be as follows:-No one in singing or dancing shall offend against
public and consecrated models, and the general fashion among the
youth, any more than he would offend against any other law. And he who
observes this law shall be blameless; but he who is disobedient, as
I was saying, shall be punished by the guardians of the laws, and by
the priests and priestesses. Suppose that we imagine this to be our
law.
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. Can any one who makes such laws escape ridicule? Let us see.
I think that our only safety will be in first framing certain models
for composers. One of these models shall be as follows:-If when a
sacrifice is going on, and the victims are being burnt according to
law-if, I say, any one who may be a son or brother, standing by
another at the altar and over the victims, horribly blasphemes, will
not his words inspire despondency and evil omens and forebodings in
the mind of his father and of his other kinsmen?
  Cle. Of course.
  Ath. And this is just what takes place in almost all our cities. A
magistrate offers a public sacrifice, and there come in not one but
many choruses, who take up a position a little way from the altar, and
from time to time pour forth all sorts of horrible blasphemies on
the sacred rites, exciting the souls of the audience with words and
rhythms and melodies most sorrowful to hear; and he who at the
moment when the city is offering sacrifice makes the citizens weep
most, carries away the palm of victory. Now, ought we not to forbid
such strains as these? And if ever our citizens must hear such
lamentations, then on some unblest and inauspicious day let there be
choruses of foreign and hired minstrels, like those hirelings who
accompany the departed at funerals with barbarous Carian chants.
That is the sort of thing which will be appropriate if we have such
strains at all; and let the apparel of the singers be, not circlets
and ornaments of gold, but the reverse. Enough of all this. I will
simply ask once more whether we shall lay down as one of our
principles of song-
  Cle. What?
  Ath. That we should avoid every word of evil omen; let that kind
of song which is of good omen be heard everywhere and always in our
state. I need hardly ask again, but shall assume that you agree with
me.
  Cle. By all means; that law is approved by the suffrages of us all.
  Ath. But what shall be our next musical law or type? Ought not
prayers to be offered up to the Gods when we sacrifice?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And our third law, if I am not mistaken, will be to the
effect that our poets, understanding prayers to be requests which we
make to the Gods, will take especial heed that they do not by
mistake ask for evil instead of good. To make such a prayer would
surely be too ridiculous.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Were we not a little while ago quite convinced that no silver
or golden Plutus should dwell in our state?
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. And what has it been the object of our argument to show? Did we
not imply that the poets are not always quite capable of knowing
what is good or evil? And if one of them utters a mistaken prayer in
song or words, he will make our citizens pray for the opposite of what
is good in matters of the highest import; than which, as I was saying,
there can be few greater mistakes. Shall we then propose as one of our
laws and models relating to the Muses-
  Cle. What?-will you explain the law more precisely?
  Ath. Shall we make a law that the poet shall compose nothing
contrary to the ideas of the lawful, or just, or beautiful, or good,
which are allowed in the state? nor shall he be permitted to
communicate his compositions to any private individuals, until he
shall have shown them to the appointed judges and the guardians of the
law, and they are satisfied with them. As to the persons whom we
appoint to be our legislators about music and as to the director of
education, these have been already indicated. Once more then, as I
have asked more than once, shall this be our third law, and type,
and model-What do you say?
  Cle. Let it be so, by all means.
  Ath. Then it will be proper to have hymns and praises of the Gods,
intermingled with prayers; and after the Gods prayers and praises
should be offered in like manner to demigods and heroes, suitable to
their several characters.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. In the next place there will be no objection to a law, that
citizens who are departed and have done good and energetic deeds,
either with their souls or with their bodies, and have been obedient
to the laws, should receive eulogies; this will be very fitting.
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. But to honour with hymns and panegyrics those who are still
alive is not safe; a man should run his course, and make a fair
ending, and then we will praise him; and let praise be given equally
to women as well as men who have been distinguished in virtue. The
order of songs and dances shall be as follows:-There are many
ancient musical compositions and dances which are excellent, and
from these the newly-founded city may freely select what is proper and
suitable; and they shall choose judges of not less than fifty years of
age, who shall make the selection, and any of the old poems which they
deem sufficient they shall include; any that are deficient or
altogether unsuitable, they shall either utterly throw aside, or
examine and amend, taking into their counsel poets and musicians,
and making use of their poetical genius; but explaining to them the
wishes of the legislator in order that they may regulate dancing,
music, and all choral strains, according to the mind of the judges;
and not allowing them to indulge, except in some few matters, their
individual pleasures and fancies. Now the irregular strain of music is
always made ten thousand times better by attaining to law and order,
and rejecting the honeyed Muse-not however that we mean wholly to
exclude pleasure, which is the characteristic of all music. And if a
man be brought up from childhood to the age of discretion and maturity
in the use of the orderly and severe music, when he hears the opposite
he detests it, and calls it illiberal; but if trained in the sweet and
vulgar music, he deems the severer kind cold and displeasing. So that,
as I was saying before, while he who hears them gains no more pleasure
from the one than from the other, the one has the advantage of
making those who are trained in it better men, whereas the other makes
them worse.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Again, we must distinguish and determine on some general
principle what songs are suitable to women, and what to men, and
must assign to them their proper melodies and rhythms. It is
shocking for a whole harmony to be inharmonical, or for a rhythm to be
unrhythmical, and this will happen when the melody is inappropriate to
them. And therefore the legislator must assign to these also their
forms. Now both sexes have melodies and rhythms which of necessity
belong to them; and those of women are clearly enough indicated by
their natural difference. The grand, and that which tends to
courage, may be fairly called manly; but that which inclines to
moderation and temperance, may be declared both in law and in ordinary
speech to be the more womanly quality. This, then, will be the general
order of them.
  Let us now speak of the manner of teaching and imparting them, and
the persons to whom, and the time when, they are severally to be
imparted. As the shipwright first lays down the lines of the keel, and
thus, as it were, draws the ship in outline, so do I seek to
distinguish the patterns of life, and lay down their keels according
to the nature of different men's souls; seeking truly to consider by
what means, and in what ways, we may go through the voyage of life
best. Now human affairs are hardly worth considering in earnest, and
yet we must be in earnest about them-a sad necessity constrains us.
And having got thus far, there will be a fitness in our completing the
matter, if we can only find some suitable method of doing so. But what
do I mean? Some one may ask this very question, and quite rightly,
too.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. I say that about serious matters a man should be serious, and
about a matter which is not serious he should not be, serious; and
that God is the natural and worthy object of our most serious and
blessed endeavours, for man, as I said before, is made to be the
plaything of God, and this, truly considered, is the best of him;
wherefore also every man and woman should walk seriously, and pass
life in the noblest of pastimes, and be of another mind from what they
are at present.
  Cle. In what respect?
  Ath. At present they think that their serious suits should be for
the sake of their sports, for they deem war a serious. pursuit,
which must be managed well for the sake of peace; but the truth is,
that there neither is, nor has been, nor ever will be, either
amusement or instruction in any degree worth, speaking of in war,
which is nevertheless deemed by us to be the most serious of our
pursuits. And therefore, as we say, every one of us should live the
life of peace as long and as well as he can. And what is the right way
of living? Are we to live in sports always? If so, in what kind of
sports? We ought to live sacrificing, and singing, and dancing, and
then a man will be able to propitiate the Gods, and to defend
himself against his enemies and conquer them in battle. The type of
song or dance by which he will propitiate them has been described, and
the paths along which he is to proceed have been cut for him. He
will go forward in the spirit of the poet:

  Telemachus, some things thou wilt thyself find in thy heart, but
other things God will suggest; for I deem that thou wast not brought
up without the will of the Gods.

And this ought to be the view of our alumni; they ought to think
that what has been said is enough for them, and that any other
things their Genius and God will suggest to them-he will tell them
to whom, and when, and to what Gods severally they are to sacrifice
and perform dances, and how they may propitiate the deities, and
live according to the appointment of nature; being for the most part
puppets, but having some little share of reality.
  Megillus. You have a low opinion of mankind, Stranger.
  Ath. Nay, Megillus, be not amazed, but forgive me:-I was comparing
them with the Gods; and under that feeling I spoke. Let us grant, if
you wish, that the human race is not to be despised, but is worthy
of some consideration.
  Next follow the buildings for gymnasia and schools open to all;
these are to be in three places in the midst of the city; and
outside the city and in the surrounding country, also in three places,
there shall be schools for horse exercise, and large grounds
arranged with a view to archery and the throwing of missiles, at which
young men may learn and practise. Of these mention has already been
made, and if the mention be not sufficiently explicit, let us speak,
further of them and embody them in laws. In these several schools
let there be dwellings for teachers, who shall be brought from foreign
parts by pay, and let them teach those who attend the schools the
art of war and the art of music, and the children shall come not
only if their parents please, but if they do not please; there shall
be compulsory education, as the saying is, of all and sundry, as far
this is possible; and the pupils shall be regarded as belonging to the
state rather than to their parents. My law would apply to females as
well as males; they shall both go through the same exercises. I assert
without fear of contradiction that gymnastic and horsemanship are as
suitable to women as to men. Of the truth of this I am persuaded
from ancient tradition, and at the present day there are said to be
countless myriads of women in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea,
called Sauromatides, who not only ride on horseback like men, but have
enjoined upon them the use of bows and other weapons equally with
the men. And I further affirm, that if these things are possible,
nothing can be more absurd than the practice which prevails in our own
country, of men and women not following the same pursuits with all
their strength and with one mind, for thus the state, instead of being
a whole, is reduced to a half, but has the same imposts to pay and the
same toils to undergo; and what can be a greater mistake for any
legislator to make than this?
  Cle. Very true; yet much of what has been asserted by us, Stranger
is contrary to the custom of states; still, in saying that the
discourse should be allowed to proceed, and that when the discussion
is completed, we should choose what seems best, you spoke very
properly, and I now feel compunction for what I have said. Tell me,
then, what you would next wish to say.
  Ath. I should wish to say, Cleinias, as I said before, that if the
possibility of these things were not sufficiently proven in fact, then
there might be an objection to the argument, but the fact being as I
have said, he who rejects the law must find some other ground of
objection; and, failing this, our exhortation will still hold good,
nor will any one deny that women ought to share as far as possible
in education and in other ways with men. For consider;-if women do not
share in their whole life with men, then they must have some other
order of life.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And what arrangement of life to be found anywhere is preferable
to this community which we are now assigning to them? Shall we
prefer that which is adopted by the Thracians and many other races who
use their women to till the ground and to be shepherds of their
herds and flocks, and to minister to them like slaves?-Or shall we
do as we and people in our part of the world do-getting together, as
the phrase is, all our goods and chattels into one dwelling, we
entrust them to our women, who are the stewards of them, and who
also preside over the shuttles and the whole art of spinning? Or shall
we take a middle course, in Lacedaemon, Megillus-letting the girls
share in gymnastic and music, while the grown-up women, no longer
employed in spinning wool, are hard at work weaving the web of life,
which will be no cheap or mean employment, and in the duty of
serving and taking care of the household and bringing up children,
in which they will observe a sort of mean, not participating in the
toils of war; and if there were any necessity that they should fight
for their city and families, unlike the Amazons, they would be
unable to take part in archery or any other skilled use of missiles,
nor could they, after the example of the Goddess, carry shield or
spear, or stand up nobly for their country when it was being
destroyed, and strike terror into their enemies, if only because
they were seen in regular order? Living as they do, they would never
dare at all to imitate the Sauromatides, who, when compared with
ordinary women, would appear to be like men. Let him who will,
praise your legislators, but I must say what I think. The legislator
ought to be whole and perfect, and not half a man only; he ought not
to let the female sex live softly and waste money and have no order of
life, while he takes the utmost care of the male sex, and leaves
half of life only blest with happiness, when he might have made the
whole state happy.
  Meg. What shall we do, Cleinias? Shall we allow a stranger to run
down Sparta in this fashion?
  Cle. Yes; for as we have given him liberty of speech we must let him
go on until we have perfected the work of legislation.
  Meg. Very true.
  Ath. Then now I may proceed?
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. What will be the manner of life among men who may be supposed
to have their food and clothing provided for them in moderation, and
who have entrusted the practice of the arts to others, and whose
husbandry, committed to slaves paying a part of the produce, brings
them a return sufficient for men living temperately; who, moreover,
have common tables in which the men are placed apart, and near them
are the common tables of their families, of their daughters and
mothers, which day by day, the officers, male and female, are to
inspect-they shall see to the behaviour of the company, and so dismiss
them; after which the presiding magistrate and his attendants shall
honour with libations those Gods to whom that day and night are
dedicated, and then go home? To men whose lives are thus ordered, is
there no work remaining to be done which is necessary and fitting, but
shall each one of them live fattening like a beast? Such a life is
neither just nor honourable, nor can he who lives it fail of meeting
his due; and the due reward of the idle fatted beast is that he should
be torn in pieces by some other valiant beast whose fatness is worn
down by brave deeds and toil. These regulations, if we duly consider
them, will never be exactly carried into execution under present
circumstances, nor as long as women and children and houses and all
other things are the private property of individuals; but if we can
attain the second-best form of polity, we shall be very well off.
And to men living under this second polity there remains a work to
be accomplished which is far from being small or insignificant, but is
the greatest of all works, and ordained by the appointment of
righteous law. For the life which may be truly said to be concerned
with the virtue of body and soul is twice, or more than twice, as full
of toil and trouble as the pursuit after Pythian and Olympic
victories, which debars a man from every employment of life. For there
ought to be no bye-work interfering with the greater work of providing
the necessary exercise and nourishment for the body, and instruction
and education for the soul. Night and day are not long enough for
the accomplishment of their perfection and consummation; and therefore
to this end all freemen ought to arrange the way in which they will
spend their time during the whole course of the day, from morning till
evening and from evening till the morning of the next sunrise. There
may seem to be some impropriety in the legislator determining minutely
the numberless details of the management of the house, including
such particulars as the duty of wakefulness in those who are to be
perpetual watchmen of the whole city; for that any citizen should
continue during the whole of any night in sleep, instead of being seen
by all his servants, always the first to awake and get up-this,
whether the regulation is to be called a law or only a practice,
should be deemed base and unworthy of a freeman; also that the
mistress of the house should be awakened by her handmaidens instead of
herself first awakening them, is what the slaves, male and female, and
the serving-boys, and, if that were possible, everybody and everything
in the house should regard as base. If they rise early, they may all
of them do much of their public and of their household business, as
magistrates in the city, and masters and mistresses in their private
houses, before the sun is up. Much sleep is not required by nature,
either for our souls or bodies, or for the actions which they perform.
For no one who is asleep is good for anything, any more than if he
were dead; but he of us who has the most regard for life and reason
keeps awake as long he can, reserving only so much time for sleep as
is expedient for health; and much sleep is not required, if the
habit of moderation be once rightly formed. Magistrates in states
who keep awake at night are terrible to the bad, whether enemies or
citizens, and are honoured and reverenced by the just and temperate,
and are useful to themselves and to the whole state.
  A night which is passed in such a manner, in addition to all the
above-mentioned advantages, infuses a sort of courage into the minds
of the citizens. When the day breaks, the time has arrived for youth
to go to their schoolmasters. Now neither sheep nor any other
animals can live without a shepherd, nor can children be left
without tutors, or slaves without masters. And of all animals the
boy is the most unmanageable, inasmuch as he has the fountain of
reason in him not yet regulated; he is the most insidious,
sharp-witted, and insubordinate of animals. Wherefore he must be bound
with many bridles; in the first place, when he gets away from
mothers and nurses, he must be under the management of tutors on
account of his childishness and foolishness; then, again, being a
freeman, he must be controlled by teachers, no matter what they teach,
and by studies; but he is also a slave, and in that regard any freeman
who comes in his way may punish him and his tutor and his
instructor, if any of them does anything wrong; and he who comes
across him and does not inflict upon him the punishment which he
deserves, shall incur the greatest disgrace; and let the guardian of
the law, who is the director of education, see to him who coming in
the way of the offences which we have mentioned, does not chastise
them when he ought, or chastises them in a way which he ought not; let
him keep a sharp look-out, and take especial care of the training of
our children, directing their natures, and always turning them to good
according to the law.
  But how can our law sufficiently train the director of education.
himself; for as yet all has been imperfect, and nothing has been
said either clear or satisfactory? Now, as far as possible, the law
ought to leave nothing to him, but to explain everything, that he
may be an interpreter and tutor to others. About dances and music
and choral strains, I have already spoken both to the character of the
selection of them, and the manner in which they are to be amended
and consecrated. But we have not as yet spoken, O illustrious guardian
of education, of the manner in which your pupils are to use those
strains which are written in prose, although you have been informed
what martial strains they are to learn and practise; what relates in
the first place to the learning of letters, and secondly, to the lyre,
and also to calculation, which, as we were saying, is needful for them
all to learn, and any other things which are required with a view to
war and the management of house and city, and, looking to the same
object, what is useful in the revolutions of the heavenly bodies-the
stars and sun and moon, and the various regulations about these
matters which are necessary for the whole state-I am speaking of the
arrangements of; days in periods of months, and of months in years,
which are to be observed, in order that seasons and sacrifices and
festivals may have their regular and natural order, and keep the
city alive and awake, the Gods receiving the honours due to them,
and men having a better understanding about them: all these things,
O my friend, have not yet been sufficiently declared to you by the
legislator. Attend, then, to what I am now going to say:-We were
telling you, in the first place, that you were not sufficiently
informed about letters, and the objection was to this effect-that
you were never told whether he who was meant to be a respectable
citizen should apply himself in detail to that sort of learning, or
not apply himself at all; and the same remark holds good of the
study of the lyre. But now we say that he ought to attend to them. A
fair time for a boy of ten years old to spend in letters is three
years; the age of thirteen is the proper time for him to begin to
handle the lyre, and he may continue at this for another three
years, neither more nor less, and whether his father or himself like
or dislike the study, he is not to be allowed to spend more or less
time in learning music than the law allows. And let him who disobeys
the law be deprived of those youthful honours of which we shall
hereafter speak. Hear, however, first of all, what the young ought
to learn in the early years of life, and what their instructors
ought to teach them. They ought to be occupied with their letters
until they are to read and write; but the acquisition of perfect
beauty or quickness in writinig, if nature has not stimulated them
to acquire these accomplishments in the given number of years, they
should let alone. And as to the learning of compositions committed
to writing which are not set to the lyre, whether metrical or
without rhythmical divisions, compositions in prose, as they are
termed, having no rhythm or harmony-seeing how dangerous are the
writings handed down to us by many writers of this class-what will you
do with them, O most excellent guardians of the law? or how can the
lawgiver rightly direct you about them? I believe that he will be in
great difficulty.
  Cle. What troubles you, Stranger? and why are you so perplexed in
your mind?
  Ath. You naturally ask, Cleinias, and to you and Megillus, who are
my partners in the work of legislation, I must state the more
difficult as well as the easier parts of the task.
  Cle. To what do you refer in this instance?
  Ath. I will tell you. There is a difficulty in opposing many myriads
of mouths.
  Cle. Well, and have we not already opposed the popular voice in many
important enactments?
  Ath. That is quite true; and you mean to imply, that the road
which we are taking may be disagreeable to some but is agreeable to as
many others, or if not to as many, at any rate to persons not inferior
to the others, and in company with them you bid me, at whatever
risk, to proceed along the path of legislation which has opened out of
our present discourse, and to be of good cheer, and not to faint.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And I do not faint; I say, indeed, that we have a great many
poets writing in hexameter, trimeter, and all sorts of measures-some
who are serious, others who aim only at raising a laugh-and all
mankind declare that the youth who are rightly educated should be
brought up in them and saturated with them; some insist that they
should be constantly hearing them read aloud, and always learning
them, so as to get by heart entire poets; while others select choice
passages and long speeches, and make compendiums of them, saying
that these ought to be committed to memory, if a man is to be made
good and wise by experience and learning of many things. And you
want me now to tell them plainly in what they are right and in what
they are wrong.
  Cle. Yes, I do.
 Ath. But how can I in one word rightly comprehend all of them? I am
of opinion, and, if I am not mistaken, there is a general agreement,
that every one of these poets has said many things well and many
things the reverse of well; and if this be true, then I do affirm that
much learning is dangerous to youth.
  Cle. How would you advise the guardian of the law to act?
  Ath. In what respect?
  Cle. I mean to what pattern should he look as his guide in
permitting the young to learn some things and forbidding them to learn
others. Do not shrink from answering.
  Ath. My good Cleinias, I rather think that I am fortunate.
  Cle. How so?
  Ath. I think that I am not wholly in want of a pattern, for when I
consider the words which we have spoken from early dawn until now, and
which, as I believe, have been inspired by Heaven, they appear to me
to be quite like a poem. When I reflected upon all these words of
ours. I naturally felt pleasure, for of all the discourses which I
have ever learnt or heard, either in poetry or prose, this seemed to
me to be the justest, and most suitable for young men to hear; I
cannot imagine any better pattern than this which the guardian of
the law who is also the director of education can have. He cannot do
better than advise the teachers to teach the young these words and any
which are of a like nature, if he should happen to find them, either
in poetry or prose, or if he come across unwritten discourses akin
to ours, he should certainly preserve them, and commit them to
writing. And, first of all, he shall constrain the teachers themselves
to learn and approve them, and any of them who will not, shall not
be employed by him, but those whom he finds agreeing in his
judgment, he shall make use of and shall commit to them the
instruction and education of youth. And here and on this wise let my
fanciful tale about letters and teachers of letters come to an end.
  Cle. I do not think, Stranger, that we have wandered out of the
proposed limits of the argument; but whether we are right or not in
our whole conception, I cannot be very certain.
  Ath. The truth, Cleinias, may be expected to become clearer when, as
we have often said, we arrive at the end of the whole discussion about
laws.
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. And now that we have done with the teacher of letters, the
teacher of the lyre has to receive orders from us.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. I think that we have only to recollect our previous
discussions, and we shall be able to give suitable regulations
touching all this part of instruction and education to the teachers of
the lyre.
  Cle. To what do you refer?
  Ath. We were saying, if I remember rightly, that the
sixty-year-old choristers of Dionysus were to be specially quick in
their perceptions of rhythm and musical composition, that they might
be able to distinguish good and bad imitation, that is to say, the
imitation of the good or bad soul when under the influence of passion,
rejecting the one and displaying the other in hymns and songs,
charming the souls of youth, and inviting them to follow and attain
virtue by the way of imitation.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. And with this view, the teacher and the learner ought to use
the sounds of the lyre, because its notes are pure, the player who
teaches and his pupil rendering note for note in unison; but
complexity, and variation of notes, when the strings give one sound
and the poet or composer of the melody gives another-also when they
make concords and harmonies in which lesser and greater intervals,
slow and quick, or high and low notes, are combined-or, again, when
they make complex variations of rhythms, which they adapt to the notes
of the lyre-all that sort of thing is not suited to those who have
to acquire a speedy and useful knowledge of music in three years;
for opposite principles are confusing, and create a difficulty in
learning, and our young men should learn quickly, and their mere
necessary acquirements are not few or trifling, as will be shown in
due course. Let the director of education attend to the principles
concerning music which we are laying down. As to the songs and words
themselves which the masters of choruses are to teach and the
character of them, they have been already described by us, and are the
same which, when consecrated and adapted to the different festivals,
we said were to benefit cities by affording them an innocent
amusement.
  Cle. That, again, is true.
  Ath. Then let him who has been elected a director of music receive
these rules from us as containing the very truth; and may he prosper
in his office! Let us now proceed to lay down other rules in
addition to the preceding about dancing and gymnastic exercise in
general. Having said what remained to be said about the teaching of
music, let us speak in like manner about gymnastic. For boys and girls
ought to learn to dance and practise gymnastic exercises-ought they
not?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. Then the boys ought to have dancing masters, and the girls
dancing mistresses to exercise them.
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. Then once more let us summon him who has the chief concern in
the business, the superintendent of youth [i.e., the director of
education]; he will have plenty to do, if he is to have the charge
of music and gymnastic.
  Cle. But how will old man be able to attend to such great charges?
  Ath. O my friend, there will be no difficulty, for the law has
already given and will give him permission to select as his assistants
in this charge any citizens, male or female, whom he desires; and he
will know whom he ought to choose, and will be anxious not to make a
mistake, from a due sense of responsibility, and from a
consciousness of the importance of his office, and also because he
will consider that if young men have been and are well brought up,
then all things go swimmingly, but if not, it is not meet to say,
nor do we say, what will follow, lest the regarders of omens should
take alarm about our infant state. Many things have been said by us
about dancing and about gymnastic movements in general; for we include
under gymnastics all military exercises, such as archery, and all
hurling of weapons, and the use of the light shield, and all
fighting with heavy arms, and military evolutions, and movements of
armies, and encampings, and all that relates to horsemanship. Of all
these things there ought to be public teachers, receiving pay from the
state, and their pupils should be the men and boys in the state, and
also the girls and women, who are to know all these things. While they
are yet girls they should have practised dancing in arms and the whole
art of fighting-when grown-up women, they should apply themselves to
evolutions and tactics, and the mode of grounding and taking up
arms; if for no other reason, yet in case the whole military force
should have to leave the city and carry on operations of war
outside, that those who will have to guard the young and the rest of
the city may be equal to the task; and, on the other hand, when
enemies, whether barbarian or Hellenic, come from without with
mighty force and make a violent assault upon them, and thus compel
them to fight for the possession of the city, which is far from
being an impossibility, great would be the disgrace to the state, if
the women had been so miserably trained that they could not fight
for their young, as birds will, against any creature however strong,
and die or undergo any danger, but must instantly rush to the
temples and crowd at the altars and shrines, and bring upon human
nature the reproach, that of all animals man is the most cowardly!
  Cle. Such a want of education, Stranger, is certainly an unseemly
thing to happen in a state, as well as a great misfortune.
  Ath. Suppose that we carry our law to the extent of saying that
women ought not to neglect military matters, but that all citizens,
male and female alike, shall attend to them?
  Cle. I quite agree.
  Ath. Of wrestling we have spoken in part, but of what I should
call the most important part we have not spoken, and cannot easily
speak without showing at the same time by gesture as well as in word
what we mean; when word and action combine, and not till then, we
shall explain clearly what has been said, pointing out that of all
movements wrestling is most akin to the military art, and is to be
pursued for the sake of this, and not this for the sake of wrestling.
  Cle. Excellent.
  Ath. Enough of wrestling; we will now proceed to speak of other
movements of the body. Such motion may be in general called dancing,
and is of two kinds: one of nobler figures, imitating the
honourable, the other of the more ignoble figures, imitating the mean;
and of both these there are two further subdivisions. Of the
serious, one kind is of those engaged in war and vehement action,
and is the exercise of a noble person and a manly heart; the other
exhibits a temperate soul in the enjoyment of prosperity and modest
pleasures, and may be truly called and is the dance of peace. The
warrior dance is different from the peaceful one, and may be rightly
termed Pyrrhic; this imitates the modes of avoiding blows and missiles
by dropping or giving way, or springing aside, or rising up or falling
down; also the opposite postures which are those of action, as, for
example, the imitation of archery and the hurling of javelins, and
of all sorts of blows. And when the imitation is of brave bodies and
souls, and the action is direct and muscular, giving for the most part
a straight movement to the limbs of the body-that, I say, is the
true sort; but the opposite is not right. In the dance of peace what
we have to consider is whether a man bears himself naturally and
gracefully, and after the manner of men who duly conform to the law.
But before proceeding I must distinguish the dancing about which there
is any doubt, from that about which there is no doubt. Which is the
doubtful kind, and how are the two to be distinguished? There are
dances of the Bacchic sort, both those in which, as they say, they
imitate drunken men, and which are named after the Nymphs, and Pan,
and Silenuses, and Satyrs; and also those in which purifications are
made or mysteries celebrated-all this sort of dancing cannot be
rightly defined as having either a peaceful or a warlike character, or
indeed as having any meaning whatever and may, I think, be most
truly described as distinct from the warlike dance, and distinct
from the peaceful, and not suited for a city at all. There let it lie;
and so leaving it to lie, we will proceed to the dances of war and
peace, for with these we are undoubtedly concerned. Now the
unwarlike muse, which honours in dance the Gods and the sons of the
Gods, is entirely associated with the consciousness of prosperity;
this class may be subdivided into two lesser classes, of which one
is expressive of an escape from some labour or danger into good, and
has greater pleasures, the other expressive of preservation and
increase of former good, in which the pleasure is less exciting;-in
all these cases, every man when the pleasure is greater, moves his
body more, and less when the pleasure is less; and, again, if he be
more orderly and has learned courage from discipline he waves less,
but if he be a coward, and has no training or self-control, he makes
greater and more violent movements, and in general when he is speaking
or singing he is not altogether able to keep his body still; and so
out of the imitation of words in gestures the whole art of dancing has
arisen. And in these various kinds of imitation one man moves in an
orderly, another in a disorderly manner; and as the ancients may be
observed to have given many names which are according to nature and
deserving of praise, so there is an excellent one which they have
given to the dances of men who in their times of prosperity are
moderate in their pleasures-the giver of names, whoever he was,
assigned to them a very true, and poetical, and rational name, when he
called them Emmeleiai, or dances of order, thus establishing two kinds
of dances of the nobler sort, the dance of war which he called the
Pyrrhic, and the dance of peace which he called Emmeleia, or the dance
of order; giving to each their appropriate and becoming name. These
things the legislator should indicate in general outline, and the
guardian of the law should enquire into them and search them out,
combining dancing with music, and assigning to the several sacrificial
feasts that which is suitable to them; and when he has consecrated all
of them in due order, he shall for the future change nothing,
whether of dance or song. Thenceforward the city and the citizens
shall continue to have the same pleasures, themselves being as far
as possible alike, and shall live well and happily.
  I have described the dances which are appropriate to noble bodies
and generous souls. But it is necessary also to consider and know
uncomely persons and thoughts, and those which are intended to produce
laughter in comedy, and have a comic character in respect of style,
song, and dance, and of the imitations which these afford. For serious
things cannot be understood without laughable things, nor opposites at
all without opposites, if a man is really to have intelligence of
either; but he can not carry out both in action, if he is to have
any degree of virtue. And for this very reason he should learn them
both, in order that he may not in ignorance do or say anything which
is ridiculous and out of place-he should command slaves and hired
strangers to imitate such things, but he should never take any serious
interest in them himself, nor should any freeman or freewoman be
discovered taking pains to learn them; and there should always be some
element of novelty in the imitation. Let these then be laid down, both
in law and in our discourse, as the regulations of laughable
amusements which are generally called comedy. And, if any of the
serious poets, as they are termed, who write tragedy, come to us and
say-"O strangers, may we go to your city and country or may we not,
and shall we bring with us our poetry-what is your will about these
matters?"-how shall we answer the divine men? I think that our
answer should be as follows:-Best of strangers, we will say to them,
we also according to our ability are tragic poets, and our tragedy
is the best and noblest; for our whole state is an imitation of the
best and noblest life, which we affirm to be indeed the very truth
of tragedy. You are poets and we are poets, both makers of the same
strains, rivals and antagonists in the noblest of dramas, which true
law can alone perfect, as our hope is. Do not then suppose that we
shall all in a moment allow you to erect your stage in the agora, or
introduce the fair voices of your actors, speaking above our own,
and permit you to harangue our women and children, and the common
people, about our institutions, in language other than our own, and
very often the opposite of our own. For a state would be mad which
gave you this licence, until the magistrates had determined whether
your poetry might be recited, and was fit for publication or not.
Wherefore, O ye sons and scions of the softer Muses, first of all show
your songs to the magistrates, and let them compare them with our own,
and if they are the same or better we will give you a chorus; but if
not, then, my friends, we cannot. Let these, then, be the customs
ordained by law about all dances and the teaching of them, and let
matters relating to slaves be separated from those relating to
masters, if you do not object.
  Cle. We can have no hesitation in assenting when you put the
matter thus.
  Ath. There still remain three studies suitable for freemen.
Arithmetic is one of them; the measurement of length, surface, and
depth is the second; and the third has to do with the revolutions of
the stars in relation to one another. Not every one has need to toil
through all these things in a strictly scientific manner, but only a
few, and who they are to be we will hereafter indicate at the end,
which will be the proper place; not to know what is necessary for
mankind in general, and what is the truth, is disgraceful to every
one: and yet to enter into these matters minutely is neither easy, nor
at all possible for every one; but there is something in them which is
necessary and cannot be set aside, and probably he who made the
proverb about God originally had this in view when he said, that
"not even God himself can fight against necessity";-he meant, if I
am not mistaken, divine necessity; for as to the human necessities
of which the many speak, when they talk in this manner, nothing can be
more ridiculous than such an application of the words.
  Cle. And what necessities of knowledge are there, Stranger, which
are divine and not human?
  Ath. I conceive them to be those of which he who has no use nor
any knowledge at all cannot be a God, or demi-god, or hero to mankind,
or able to take any serious thought or charge of them. And very unlike
a divine man would he be, who is unable to count one, two, three, or
to distinguish odd and even numbers, or is unable to count at all,
or reckon night and day, and who is totally unacquainted with the
revolution of the sun and moon, and the other stars. There would be
great folly in supposing that all these are not necessary parts of
knowledge to him who intends to know anything about the highest
kinds of knowledge; but which these are, and how many there are of
them, and when they are to be learned, and what is to be learned
together and what apart, and the whole correlation of them, must be
rightly apprehended first; and these leading the way we may proceed to
the other parts of knowledge. For so necessity grounded in nature
constrains us, against which we say that no God contends, or ever will
contend.
  Cle. I think, Stranger, that what you have now said is very true and
agreeable to nature.
  Ath. Yes, Cleinias, that is so. But it is difficult for the
legislator to begin with these studies; at a more convenient time we
will make regulations for them.
  Cle. You seem, Stranger, to be afraid of our habitual ignorance of
the subject: there is no reason why that should prevent you from
speaking out.
  Ath. I certainly am afraid of the difficulties to which you
allude, but I am still more afraid of those who apply themselves to
this sort of knowledge, and apply themselves badly. For entire
ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being
the greatest of all; too much cleverness and too much learning,
accompanied with an ill bringing up, are far more fatal.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. All freemen, I conceive, should learn as much of these branches
of knowledge as every child in Egypt is taught when he learns the
alphabet. In that country arithmetical games have been invented for
the use of mere children, which they learn as a pleasure and
amusement. They have to distribute apples and garlands, using the same
number sometimes for a larger and sometimes for a lesser number of
persons; and they arrange pugilists, and wrestlers as they pair
together by lot or remain over, and show how their turns come in
natural order. Another mode of amusing them is to distribute
vessels, sometimes of gold, brass, silver, and the like, intermixed
with one another, sometimes of one metal only; as I was saying they
adapt to their amusement the numbers in common use, and in this way
make more intelligible to their pupils the arrangements and
movements of armies and expeditions, in the management of a
household they make people more useful to themselves, and more wide
awake; and again in measurements of things which have length, and
breadth, and depth, they free us from that natural ignorance of all
these things which is so ludicrous and disgraceful.
  Cle. What kind of ignorance do you mean?
  Ath. O my dear Cleinias, I, like yourself, have late in life heard
with amazement of our ignorance in these matters; to me we appear to
be more like pigs than men, and I am quite ashamed, not only of
myself, but of all Hellenes.
  Cle. About what? Say, Stranger, what you mean.
  Ath. I will; or rather I will show you my meaning by a question, and
do you please to answer me: You know, I suppose, what length is?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And what breadth is?
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. And you know that these are two distinct things, and that there
is a third thing called depth?
  Cle. Of course.
  Ath. And do not all these seem to you to be commensurable with
themselves?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. That is to say, length is naturally commensurable with
length, and breadth with breadth, and depth in like manner with depth?
  Cle. Undoubtedly.
  Ath. But if some things are commensurable and others wholly
incommensurable, and you think that all things are commensurable, what
is your position in regard to them?
  Cle. Clearly, far from good.
  Ath. Concerning length and breadth when compared with depth, or
breadth when and length when compared with one another, are not all
the Hellenes agreed that these are commensurable with one in some way?
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. But if they are absolutely incommensurable, and yet all of us
regard them as commensurable, have we not reason to be ashamed of
our compatriots; and might we not say to them:-O ye best of
Hellenes, is not this one of the things of which we were saying that
not to know them is disgraceful, and of which to have a bare knowledge
only is no great distinction?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And there are other things akin to these, in which there spring
up other errors of the same family.
  Cle. What are they?
  Ath. The natures of commensurable and incommensurable quantities
in their relation to one another. A man who is good for a thing
ought to be able, when he thinks, to distinguish them; and different
persons should compete with one another in asking questions, which
will be a fair, better and more graceful way of passing their time
than the old man's game of draughts.
  Cle. I dare say; and these pastimes are not so very unlike a game of
draughts.
  Ath. And these, as I maintain, Cleinias, are the studies which our
youth ought to learn, for they are innocent and not difficult; the
learning of them will be an amusement, and they will benefit the
state. If anyone is of another mind, let him say what he has to say.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Then if these studies are such as we maintain we will include
them; if not, they shall be excluded.
  Cle. Assuredly: but may we not now, Stranger, prescribe these
studies as necessary, and so fill up the lacunae of our laws?
  Ath. They shall be regarded as pledges which may be hereafter
redeemed and removed from our state, if they do not please either us
who give them, or you who accept them.
  Cle. A fair condition.
  Ath. Next let us see whether we are or are not willing that the
study of astronomy shall be proposed for our youth.
  Cle. Proceed.
  Ath. Here occurs a strange phenomenon, which certainly cannot in any
point of view be tolerated.
  Cle. To what are you referring?
  Ath. Men say that we ought not to enquire into the supreme God and
the nature of the universe, nor busy ourselves in searching out the
causes of things, and that such enquiries are impious; whereas the
very opposite is the truth.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. Perhaps what I am saying may seem paradoxical, and at
variance with the usual language of age. But when any one has any good
and true notion which is for the advantage of the state and in every
way acceptable to God, he cannot abstain from expressing it.
  Cle. Your words are reasonable enough; but shall we find any good or
true notion about the stars?
  Ath. My good friends, at this hour all of us Hellenes tell lies,
if I may use such an expression, about those great Gods, the Sun and
the Moon.
  Cle. Lies of what nature?
  Ath. We say that they and divers other stars do not keep the same
path, and we call them planets or wanderers.
  Cle. Very true, Stranger; and in the course of my life I have
often myself seen the morning star and the evening star and divers
others not moving in their accustomed course, but wandering out of
their path in all manner of ways, and I have seen the sun and moon
doing what we all know that they do.
  Ath. Just so, Megillus and Cleinias; and I maintain that our
citizens and our youth ought to learn about the nature of the Gods
in heaven, so far as to be able to offer sacrifices and pray to them
in pious language, and not to blaspheme about them.
  Cle. There you are right if such a knowledge be only attainable; and
if we are wrong in our mode of speaking now, and can be better
instructed and learn to use better language, then I quite agree with
you that such a degree of knowledge as will enable us to speak rightly
should be acquired by us. And now do you try to explain to us your
whole meaning, and we, on our part, will endeavour to understand you.
  Ath. There is some difficulty in understanding my meaning, but not a
very great one, nor will any great length of time be required. And
of this I am myself a proof; for I did not know these things long ago,
nor in the days of my youth, and yet I can explain them to you in a
brief space of time; whereas if they had been difficult I could
certainly never have explained them all, old as I am, to old men
like yourselves.
  Cle. True; but what is this study which you describe as wonderful
and fitting for youth to learn, but of which we are ignorant? Try
and explain the nature of it to us as clearly as you can.
  Ath. I will. For, O my good friends, that other doctrine about the
wandering of the sun and the moon and the other stars is not the
truth, but the very reverse of the truth. Each of them moves in the
same path-not in many paths, but in one only, which is circular, and
the varieties are only apparent. Nor are we right in supposing that
the swiftest of them is the slowest, nor conversely, that the
slowest is the quickest. And if what I say is true, only just
imagine that we had a similar notion about horses running at
Olympia, or about men who ran in the long course, and that we
addressed the swiftest as the slowest and the slowest as the swiftest,
and sang the praises of the vanquished as though he were the
victor,-in that case our praises would not be true, nor very agreeable
to the runners, though they be but men; and now, to commit the same
error about the Gods which would have been ludicrous and erroneous
in the case of men-is not that ludicrous and erroneous?
  Cle. Worse than ludicrous, I should say.
  Ath. At all events, the Gods cannot like us to be spreading a
false report of them.
  Cle. Most true, if such is the fact.
  Ath. And if we can show that such is really the fact, then all these
matters ought to be learned so far as is necessary for the avoidance
of impiety; but if we cannot, they may be let alone, and let this be
our decision.
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. Enough of laws relating to education and learning. But
hunting and similar pursuits in like manner claim our attention. For
the legislator appears to have a duty imposed upon him which goes
beyond mere legislation. There is something over and above law which
lies in a region between admonition and law, and has several times
occurred to us in the course of discussion; for example, in the
education of very young children there were things, as we maintain,
which are not to be defined, and to regard them as matters of positive
law is a great absurdity. Now, our laws and the whole constitution
of our state having been thus delineated, the praise of the virtuous
citizen is not complete when he is described as the person who
serves the laws best and obeys them most, but the higher form of
praise is that which describes him as the good citizen who passes
through life undefiled and is obedient to the words of the legislator,
both when he is giving laws and when he assigns praise and blame. This
is the truest word that can be spoken in praise of a citizen; and
the true legislator ought not only to write his laws, but also to
interweave with them all such things as seem to him honourable and
dishonourable. And the perfect citizen ought to seek to strengthen
these no less than the principles of law which are sanctioned by
punishments. I will adduce an example which will clear up my
meaning, and will be a sort of witness to my words. Hunting is of wide
extent, and has a name under which many things are included, for there
is a hunting of creatures in the water, and of creatures in the air,
and there is a great deal of hunting of land animals of all kinds, and
not of wild beasts only. The hunting after man is also worthy of
consideration; there is the hunting after him in war, and there is
often a hunting after him in the way of friendship, which is praised
and also blamed; and there is thieving, and the hunting which is
practised by robbers, and that of armies against armies. Now the
legislator, in laying down laws about hunting, can neither abstain
from noting these things, nor can he make threatening ordinances which
will assign rules and penalties about all of them. What is he to do?
He will have to praise and blame hunting with a view to the exercise
and pursuits of youth. And, on the other hand, the young man must
listen obediently; neither pleasure nor pain should hinder him, and he
should regard as his standard of action the praises and injunctions of
the legislator rather than the punishments which he imposes by law.
This being premised, there will follow next in order moderate praise
and censure of hunting; the praise being assigned to that kind which
will make the souls of young men better, and the censure to that which
has the opposite effect.
  And now let us address young men in the form of a prayer for their
welfare: O friends, we will say to them, may no desire or love of
hunting in the sea, or of angling or of catching the creatures in
the waters, ever take possession of you, either when you are awake
or when you are asleep, by hook or with weels, which latter is a
very lazy contrivance; and let not any desire of catching men and of
piracy by sea enter into your souls and make you cruel and lawless
hunters. And as to the desire of thieving in town or country, may it
never enter into your most passing thoughts; nor let the insidious
fancy of catching birds, which is hardly worthy of freemen, come
into the head of any youth. There remains therefore for our athletes
only the hunting and catching of land animals, of which the one sort
is called hunting by night, in which the hunters sleep in turn and are
lazy; this is not to be commended any more than that which has
intervals of rest, in which the will strength of beasts is subdued
by nets and snares, and not by the victory of a laborious spirit.
Thus, only the best kind of hunting is allowed at all-that of
quadrupeds, which is carried on with horses and dogs and men's own
persons, and they get the victory over the animals by running them
down and striking them and hurling at them, those who have a care of
godlike manhood taking them with their own hands. The praise and blame
which is assigned to all these things has now been declared; and let
the law be as follows:-Let no one hinder these who verily are sacred
hunters from following the chase wherever and whither soever they
will; but the hunter by night, who trusts to his nets and gins,
shall not be allowed to hunt anywhere. The fowler in the mountains and
waste places shall be permitted, but on cultivated ground and on
consecrated wilds he shall not be permitted; and any one who meets him
may stop him. As to the hunter in waters, he may hunt anywhere
except in harbours or sacred streams or marshes or pools, provided
only that he do not pollute the water with poisonous juices. And now
we may say that all our enactments about education are complete.
  Cle. Very good.
  BOOK VIIII

  Athenian Stranger. Next, with the help of the Delphian oracle, we
have to institute festivals and make laws about them, and to determine
what sacrifices will be for the good of the city, and to what Gods
they shall be offered; but when they shall be offered, and how
often, may be partly regulated by us.
  Cleinias. The number-yes.
  Ath. Then we will first determine the number; and let the whole
number be 365-one for every day-so that one magistrate at least will
sacrifice daily to some God or demi-god on behalf of the city, and the
citizens, and their possessions. And the interpreters, and priests,
and priestesses, and prophets shall meet, and, in company with the
guardians of the law, ordain those things which the legislator of
necessity omits; and I may remark that they are the very persons who
ought to take note of what is omitted. The law will say that there are
twelve feasts dedicated to the twelve Gods, after whom the several
tribes are named; and that to each of them they shall sacrifice
every month, and appoint choruses, and musical and gymnastic contests,
assigning them so as to suit the Gods and seasons of the year. And
they shall have festivals for women, distinguishing those which
ought to be separated from the men's festivals, and those which
ought not. Further, they shall not confuse the infernal deities and
their rites with the Gods who are termed heavenly and their rites, but
shall separate them, giving to Pluto his own in the twelfth month,
which is sacred to him, according to the law. To such a deity
warlike men should entertain no aversion, but they should honour him
as being always the best friend of man. For the connection of soul and
body is no way better than the dissolution of them, as I am ready to
maintain quite seriously. Moreover, those who would regulate these
matters rightly should consider, that our city among existing cities
has fellow, either in respect of leisure or comin and of the
necessaries of life, and that like an individual she ought to live
happily. And those who would live happily should in the first place do
no wrong to one another, and ought not themselves to be wronged by
others; to attain the first is not difficult, but there is great
difficulty, in acquiring the power of not being wronged. No man can be
perfectly secure against wrong, unless he has become perfectly good;
and cities are like individuals in this, for a city if good has a life
of peace, but if evil, a life of war within and without. Wherefore the
citizens ought to practise war-not in time of war, but rather while
they are at peace. And every city which has any sense, should take the
field at least for one day in every month; and for more if the
magistrates think fit, having no regard to winter cold or summer heat;
and they should go out en masse, including their wives and their
children, when the magistrates determine to lead forth the whole
people, or in separate portions when summoned by them; and they should
always provide that there should be games and sacrificial feasts,
and they should have tournaments, imitating in as lively a manner as
they can real battles. And they should distribute prizes of victory
and valour to the competitors, passing censures and encomiums on one
another according to the characters which they bear in the contests
and their whole life, honouring him who seems to be the best, and
blaming him who is the opposite. And let poets celebrate the
victors-not however every poet, but only one who in the first place is
not less than fifty years of age; nor should he be one who, although
he may have musical and poetical gifts, has never in his life done any
noble or illustrious action; but those who are themselves good and
also honourable in the state, creators of noble actions-let their
poems be sung, even though they be not very musical. And let the
judgment of them rest with the instructor of youth and the other
guardians of the laws, who shall give them this privilege, and they
alone shall be free to sing; but the rest of the world shall not
have this liberty. Nor shall any one dare to sing a song which has not
been approved by the judgment of the guardians of the laws, not even
if his strain be sweeter than the songs of Thamyras and Orpheus; but
only and Orpheus; but only such poems as have been judged sacred and
dedicated to the Gods, and such as are the works of good men, which
praise of blame has been awarded and which have been deemed to
fulfil their design fairly.
  The regulations about and about liberty of speech in poitry, ought
to apply equally to men and women. The legislator may be supposed to
argue the question in his own mind:-Who are my citizens for whom I
have set in order the city? Are they not competitors in the greatest
of all contests, and have they not innumerable rivals? To be sure,
will be the natural, reply. Well, but if we were training boxers, or
pancratiasts, or any other sort of athletes, would they never meet
until the hour of contest arrived; and should we do nothing to prepare
ourselves previously by daily practice? Surely, if we were boxers we
should have been learning to fight for many days before, and
exercising ourselves in imitating all those blows and wards which we
were intending to use in the hour of conflict; and in order that we
might come as near to reality as possible, instead of cestuses we
should put on boxing gloves, that the blows and the wards might be
practised by us to the utmost of our power. And if there were a lack
of competitors, the ridicule of fools would ryot deter us from hanging
up a lifeless image and practising at that. Or if we had no
adversary at all, animate or inanimate, should we not venture in the
dearth of antagonists to spar by ourselves? In what other manner could
we ever study the art of self-defence?
  Cle. The way which you mention Stranger, would be the only way.
  Ath. And shall the warriors of our city, who are destined when
occasion calli to enter the greatest of all contests, and to fight for
their lives, and their children, and their property, and the whole
city, be worse prepared than boxers? And will the legislator,
because he is afraid that their practising with one another may appear
to some ridiculous, abstain from commanding them to go out and
fight; will he not ordain that soldiers shall perform lesser exercises
without arms every day, making dancing and all gymnastic tend to
this end; and also will he not require that they shall practise some
gymnastic exercises, greater as well as lesser, as often as every
month; and that they shall have contests one with another in every
part of the country, seizing upon posts and lying in ambush, and
imitating in every respect the reality of war; fighting with
boxing-gloves and hurling javelins, and using weapons somewhat
dangerous, and as nearly as possible like the true ones, in order that
the sport may not be altogether without fear, but may have terrors and
to a certain degree show the man who has and who has not courage;
and that the honour and dishonour which are assigned to them
respectively, may prepare the whole city for the true conflict of
life? If any one dies in these mimic contests, the homicide is
involuntary, and we will make the slayer, when he has been purified
according to law, to be pure of blood, considering that if a few men
should die, others as good as they will be born; but that if fear is
dead then the citizens will never find a test of superior and inferior
natures, which is a far greater evil to the state than the loss of a
few.
  Cle. We are quite agreed, Stranger, that we should legislate about
such things, and that the whole state should practise them supposed
  Ath. And what is the reason that dances and contests of this sort
hardly ever exist in states, at least not to any extent worth speaking
of? Is this due to the ignorance of mankind and their legislators?
  Cle. Perhaps.
  Ath. Certainly not, sweet Cleinias; there are two causes, which
are quite enough to account for the deficiency.
  Cle. What are they?
  Ath. One cause is the love of wealth, which wholly absorbs men,
and never for a moment allows them to think of anything but their
own private possessions; on this the soul of every citizen hangs
suspended, and can attend to nothing but his daily gain; mankind are
ready to learn any branch of knowledge, and to follow any pursuit
which tends to this end, and they laugh at every other:-that is one
reason why a city will not be in earnest about such contests or any
other good and honourable pursuit. But from an insatiable love of gold
and silver, every man will stoop to any art or contrivance, seemly
or unseemly, in the hope of becoming rich; and will make no
objection to performing any action, holy, or unholy and utterly
base, if only like a beast he have the power of eating and drinking
all kinds of things, and procuring for himself in every sort of way
the gratification of his lusts.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Let this, then, be deemed one of the causes which prevent
states from pursuing in an efficient manner the art of war, or any
other noble aim, but makes the orderly and temperate part of mankind
into merchants, and captains of ships, and servants, and converts
the valiant sort into thieves and burglars and robbers of temples, and
violent, tyrannical persons; many of whom are not without ability, but
they are unfortunate.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. Must not they be truly unfortunate whose souls are compelled to
pass through life always hungering?
  Cle. Then that is one cause, Stranger; but you spoke of another.
  Ath. Thank you for reminding me.
  Cle. The insatiable life long love of wealth, as you were saying
is one clause which absorbs mankind, and prevents them from rightly
practising the arts of war:-Granted; and now tell me, what is the
other?
  Ath. Do you imagine that I delay because I am in a perplexity?
  Cle. No; but we think that you are too severe upon the
money-loving temper, of which you seem in the present discussion to
have a peculiar dislike.
   Ath. That is a very fair rebuke, Cleinias; and I will now proceed
to the second cause.
  Cle. Proceed.
  Ath. I say that governments are a cause-democracy, oligarchy,
tyranny, concerning which I have often spoken in the previous
discourse; or rather governments they are not, for none of them
exercises a voluntary rule over voluntary subjects; but they may be
truly called states of discord, in which while the government is
voluntary, the subjects always obey against their will, and have to be
coerced; and the ruler fears the subject, and will not, if he can
help, allow him to become either noble, or rich, or strong, or
valiant, or warlike at all. These two are the chief causes of almost
all evils, and of the evils of which I have been speaking they are
notably the causes. But our state has escaped both of them; for her
citizens have the greatest leisure, and they are not subject to one
another, and will, I think, be made by these laws the reverse of
lovers of money. Such a constitution may be reasonably supposed to
be the only one existing which will accept the education which we have
described, and the martial pastimes which have been perfected
according to our idea.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Then next we must remember, about all gymnastic contests,
that only the warlike sort of them are to be practised and to have
prizes of victory; and those which are not military are to be given
up. The military sort had better be completely described and
established by law; and first, let us speak of running and swiftness.
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. Certainly the most military of all qualities is general
activity of body, whether of foot or hand. For escaping or for
capturing an enemy, quickness of foot is required; but hand-to-hand
conflict and combat need vigour and strength.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Neither of them can attain their greatest efficiency without
arms.
  Cle. How can they?
   Ath. Then our herald, in accordance with the prevailing practice,
will first summon the runner;-he will appear armed, for to an
unarmed competitor we will not give a prize. And he shall enter
first who is to run the single course bearing arms; next, he who is to
run the double course; third, he who is to run the horse-course; and
fourthly, he who is to run the long course; the fifth whom we start,
shall be the first sent forth in heavy armour, and shall run a
course of sixty stadia to some temple of Ares-and we will send forth
another, whom we will style the more heavily armed, to run over
smoother ground. There remains the archer; and he shall run in the
full equipments of an archer a distance of 100 stadia over
mountains, and across every sort of country, to a temple of Apollo and
Artemis; this shall be the order of the contest, and we will wait
for them until they return, and will give a prize to the conqueror
in each.
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. Let us suppose that there are three kinds of contests-one of
boys, another of beardless youths, and a third of men. For the
youths we will fix the length of the contest at two-thirds, and for
the boys at half of the entire course, whether they contend as archers
or as heavy armed. Touching the women, let the girls who are not grown
up compete naked in the stadium and the double course, and the
horse-course and the long course, and let them run on the
race-ground itself; those who are thirteen years of age and upwards
until their marriage shall continue to share in contests if they are
not more than twenty, and shall be compelled to run up to eighteen;
and they shall descend into the arena in suitable dresses. Let these
be the regulations about contests in running both for men and women.
  Respecting contests of strength, instead of wrestling and similar
contests of the heavier sort, we will institute conflicts in armour of
one against one, and two against two, and so on up to ten against ten.
As to what a man ought not to suffer or do, and to what extent, in
order to gain the victory-as in wrestling, the masters of the art have
laid down what is fair and what is not fair, so in fighting in
armour-we ought to call in skilful persons, who shall judge for us and
be our assessors in the work of legislation; they shall say who
deserves to be victor in combats of this sort, and what he is not to
do or have done to him, and in like manner what rule determines who is
defeated; and let these ordinances apply to women until they married
as well as to men. The pancration shall have a counterpart in a combat
of the light armed; they shall contend with bows and with light
shields and with javelins and in the throwing of stones by slings
and by hand: and laws shall be made about it, and rewards and prizes
given to him who best fulfils the ordinances of the law.
  Next in order we shall have to legislate about the horse contests.
Now we do not need many horses, for they cannot be of much use in a
country like Crete, and hence we naturally do not take great pains
about the rearing of them or about horse races. There is no one who
keeps a chariot among us, and any rivalry in such matters would be
altogether out of place; there would be no sense nor any shadow of
sense in instituting contests which are not after the manner of our
country. And therefore we give our prizes for single horses-for
colts who have not yet cast their teeth, and for those who are
intermediate, and for the full-grown horses themselves; and thus our
equestrian games will accord with the nature of the country. Let
them have conflict and rivalry in these matters in accordance with the
law, and let the colonels and generals of horse decide together
about all courses and about the armed competitors in them. But we have
nothing to say to the unarmed either in gymnastic exercises or in
these contests. On the other hand, the Cretan bowman or javelin-man
who fights in armour on horseback is useful, and therefore we may as
well place a competition of this sort among amusements. Women are
not to be forced to compete by laws and ordinances; but if from
previous training they have acquired the habit and are strong enough
and like to take part, let them do so, girls as well as boys, and no
blame to them.
  Thus the competition in gymnastic and the mode of learning it have
been described; and we have spoken also of the toils of the contest,
and of daily exercises under the superintendence of masters. Likewise,
what relates to music has been, for the most part, completed. But as
to rhapsodes and the like, and the contests of choruses which are to
perform at feasts, all this shall be arranged when the months and days
and years have been appointed for Gods and demi-gods, whether every
third year, or again every fifth year, or in whatever way or manner
the Gods may put into men's minds the distribution and order of
them. At the same time, we may expect that the musical contests will
be celebrated in their turn by the command of the judges and the
director of education and the guardians of the law meeting together
for this purpose, and themselves becoming legislators of the times and
nature and conditions of the choral contests and of dancing in
general. What they ought severally to be in language and song, and
in the admixture of harmony with rhythm and the dance, has been
often declared by the original legislator; and his successors ought to
follow him, making the games and sacrifices duly to correspond at
fitting times, and appointing public festivals. It is not difficult to
determine how these and the like matters may have a regular order;
nor, again, will the alteration of them do any great good or harm to
the state. There is, however, another matter of great importance and
difficulty, concerning which God should legislate, if there were any
possibility of obtaining from him an ordinance about it. But seeing
that divine aid is not to be had, there appears to be a need of some
bold man who specially honours plainness of speech, and will say
outright what he thinks best for the city and citizens-ordaining
what is good and convenient for the whole state amid the corruptions
of human souls, opposing the mightiest lusts, and having no man his
helper but himself standing alone and following reason only.
  Cle. What is this, Stranger, that you are saying? For we do not as
yet understand your meaning.
  Ath. Very likely; I will endeavour to explain myself more clearly.
When I came to the subject of education, I beheld young men and
maidens holding friendly intercourse with one another. And there
naturally arose in my mind a sort of apprehension-I could not help
thinking how one is to deal with a city in which youths and maidens
are well nurtured, and have nothing to do, and are not undergoing
the excessive and servile toils which extinguish wantonness, and whose
only cares during their whole life are sacrifices and festivals and
dances. How, in such a state as this, will they abstain from desires
which thrust many a man and woman into perdition; and from which
reason, assuming the functions of law, commands them to abstain? The
ordinances already made may possibly get the better of most of these
desires; the prohibition of excessive wealth is a very considerable
gain in the direction of temperance, and the whole education of our
youth imposes a law of moderation on them; moreover, the eye of the
rulers is required always to watch over the young, and never to lose
sight of them; and these provisions do, as far as human means can
effect anything, exercise a regulating influence upon the desires in
general. But how can we take precautions against the unnatural loves
of either sex, from which innumerable evils have come upon individuals
and cities? How shall we devise a remedy and way of escape out of so
great a danger? Truly, Cleinias, here is a difficulty. In many ways
Crete and Lacedaemon furnish a great help to those who make peculiar
laws; but in the matter of love, as we are alone, I must confess
that they are quite against us. For if any one following nature should
lay down the law which existed before the days of Laius, and
denounce these lusts as contrary to nature, adducing the animals as
a proof that such unions were monstrous, he might prove his point, but
he would be wholly at variance with the custom of your states.
Further, they are repugnant to a principle which we say that a
legislator should always observe; for we are always enquiring which of
our enactments tends to virtue and which not. And suppose we grant
that these loves are accounted by law to be honourable, or at least
not disgraceful, in what degree will they contribute to virtue? Will
such passions implant in the soul of him who is seduced the habit of
courage, or in the soul of the seducer the principle of temperance?
Who will ever believe this?-or rather, who will not blame the
effeminacy of him who yields to pleasures and is unable to hold out
against them? Will not all men censure as womanly him who imitates the
woman? And who would ever think of establishing such a practice by
law? Certainly no one who had in his mind the image of true law. How
can we prove, that what I am saying is true? He who would rightly
consider these matters must see the nature of friendship and desire,
and of these so-called loves, for they are of two kinds, and out of
the two arises a third kind, having the same name; and this similarity
of name causes all the difficulty and obscurity.
  Cle. How is that?
  Ath. Dear is the like in virtue to the like, and the equal to the
equal; dear also, though unlike, is he who has abundance to him who is
in want. And when either of these friendships becomes excessive, we
term the excess love.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. The friendship which arises from contraries is horrible and
coarse, and has often no tie of communion; but that which, arises from
likeness is gentle, and has a tie of communion which lasts through
life. As to the mixed sort which is made up of them both, there is,
first of all, a in determining what he who is possessed by this
third love desires; moreover, he is drawn different ways, and is in
doubt between the two principles; the one exhorting him to enjoy the
beauty of youth, and the other forbidding him. For the one is a
lover of the body, and hungers after beauty, like ripe fruit, and
would fain satisfy himself without any regard to the character of
the beloved; the other holds the desire of the body to be a
secondary matter, and looking rather than loving and with his soul
desiring the soul of the other in a becoming manner, regards the
satisfaction of the bodily love as wantonness; he reverences and
respects temperance and courage and magnanimity and wisdom, and wishes
to live chastely with the chaste object of his affection. Now the sort
of love which is made up of the other two is that which we have
described as the third. Seeing then that there are these three sorts
of love, ought the law to prohibit and forbid them all to exist
among us? Is it not rather clear that we should wish to have in the
state the love which is of virtue and which desires the beloved
youth to be the best possible; and the other two, if possible, we
should hinder? What do you say, friend Megillus?
  Megillus. I think, Stranger, that you are perfectly right in what
you have been now saying.
  Ath. I knew well, my friend, that I should obtain your assent, which
I accept, and therefore have no need to analyse your custom any
further. Cleinias shall be prevailed upon to give me his assent at
some other time. Enough of this; and now let us proceed to the laws.
  Meg. Very good.
  Ath. Upon reflection I see a way of imposing the law, which, in
one respect, is easy, but, in another, is of the utmost difficulty.
  Meg. What do you mean?
   Ath. We are all aware that most men, in spite of their lawless
natures, are very strictly and precisely restrained from intercourse
with the fair, and this is not at all against their will, but entirely
with their will.
  Meg. When do you mean?
  Ath. When any one has a brother or sister who is fair; and about a
son or daughter the same unwritten law holds, and is a most perfect
safeguard, so that no open or secret connection ever takes place
between them. Nor does the thought of such a thing ever enter at all
into the minds of most of them.
  Meg. Very true.
  Ath. Does not a little word extinguish all pleasures of that sort?
  Meg. What word?
  Ath. The declaration that they are unholy, hated of God, and most
infamous; and is not the reason of this that no one has ever said
the opposite, but every one from his earliest childhood has heard
men speaking in the same manner about them always and everywhere,
whether in comedy or in the graver language of tragedy? When the
poet introduces on the stage a Thyestes or an Oedipus, or a Macareus
having secret intercourse with his sister, he represents him, when
found out, ready to kill himself as the penalty of his sin.
  Meg. You are very right in saying that tradition, if no breath of
opposition ever assails it, has a marvellous power.
  Ath. Am I not also right in saying that the legislator who wants
to master any of the passions which master man may easily know how
to subdue them? He will consecrate the tradition of their evil
character among all, slaves and freemen, women and children,
throughout the city:-that will be the surest foundation of the law
which he can make.
  Meg. Yes; but will he ever succeed in making all mankind use the
same language about them?
  Ath. A good objection; but was I not just now saying that I had a
way to make men use natural love and abstain from unnatural, not
intentionally destroying the seeds of human increase, or sowing them
in stony places, in which they will take no root; and that I would
command them to abstain too from any female field of increase in which
that which is sown is not likely to grow? Now if a law to this
effect could only be made perpetual, and gain an authority such as
already prevents intercourse of parents and children-such a law,
extending to other sensual desires, and conquering them, would be
the source of ten thousand blessings. For, in the first place,
moderation is the appointment of nature, and deters men from all
frenzy and madness of love, and from all adulteries and immoderate use
of meats and drinks, and makes them good friends to their own wives.
And innumerable other benefits would result if such a could only be
enforced. I can imagine some lusty youth who is standing by, and
who, on hearing this enactment, declares in scurrilous terms that we
are making foolish and impossible laws, and fills the world with his
outcry. And therefore I said that I knew a way of enacting and
perpetuating such a law, which was very easy in one respect, but in
another most difficult. There is no difficulty in seeing that such a
law is possible, and in what way; for, as I was saying, the
ordinance once consecrated would master the soul of, every man, and
terrify him into obedience. But matters have now come to such a pass
that even then the desired result seems as if it could not be
attained, just as the continuance of an entire state in the practice
of common meals is also deemed impossible. And although this latter is
partly disproven by the fact of their existence among you, still
even in your cities the common meals of women would be regarded as
unnatural and impossible. I was thinking of the rebelliousness of
the human heart when I said that the permanent establishment of
these things is very difficult.
  Meg. Very true.
  Ath. Shall I try and find some sort of persuasive argument which
will prove to you that such enactments are possible, and not beyond
human nature?
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. Is a man more likely to abstain from the pleasures of love
and to do what he is bidden about them, when his body is in a good
condition, or when he is in an ill condition, and out of training?
  Cle. He will be far more temperate when he is in training.
  Ath. And have we not heard of Iccus of Tarentum, who, with a view to
the Olympic and other contests, in his zeal for his art, ind also
because he was of a manly and temperate disposition, never had any
connection with a woman or a youth during the whole time of his
training? And the same is said of Crison and Astylus and Diopompus and
many others; and yet, Cleinias, they were far worse educated in
their minds than your and my citizens, and in their bodies far more
lusty.
  Cle. No doubt this fact has been often affirmed positively by the
ancients of these athletes.
  Ath. And had they; courage to abstain from what is ordinarilly
deemed a pleasure for the sake of a victory in wrestling, running, and
the like; and shall our young men be incapable of a similar
endurance for the sake of a much nobler victory, which is the
noblest of all, as from their youth upwards we will tell them,
charming them, as we hope, into the belief of this by tales and
sayings and songs?
  Cle. Of what victory are you speaking?
  Ath. Of the victory over pleasure, which if they win, they will live
happily; or if they are conquered, the reverse of happily. And,
further, may we not suppose that the fear of impiety will enable
them to master that which other inferior people have mastered?
  Cle. I dare say.
  Ath. And since we have reached this point in our legislation, and
have fallen into a difficulty by reason of the vices of mankind, I
affirm that our ordinance should simply run in the following terms:
Our citizens ought not to fall below the nature of birds and beasts in
general, who are born in great multitudes, and yet remain until the
age for procreation virgin and unmarried, but when they have reached
the proper time of life are coupled, male and female, and lovingly
pair together, and live the rest of their lives in holiness and
innocence, abiding firmly in their original compact:-surely, we will
say to them, you should be better than the animals. But if they are
corrupted by the other Hellenes and the common practice of barbarians,
and they see with their eyes and hear with their ears of the so-called
free love everywhere prevailing among them, and they themselves are
not able to get the better of the temptation, the guardians of the
law, exercising the functions of lawgivers, shall devise a second
law against them.
  Cle. And what law would you advise them to pass if this one failed?
  Ath. Clearly, Cleinias, the one which would naturally follow.
  Cle. What is that?
  Ath. Our citizens should not allow pleasures to strengthen with
indulgence, but should by toil divert the aliment and exuberance of
them into other parts of the body; and this will happen if no
immodesty be allowed in the practice of love. Then they will be
ashamed of frequent intercourse, and they will find pleasure, if
seldom enjoyed, to be a less imperious mistress. They should not be
found out doing anything of the sort. Concealment shall be honourable,
and sanctioned by custom and made law by unwritten prescription; on
the other hand, to be detected shall be esteemed dishonourable, but
not, to abstain wholly. In this way there will be a second legal
standard of honourable and dishonourable, involving a second notion of
right. Three principles will comprehend all those corrupt natures whom
we call inferior to themselves, and who form but one dass, and will
compel them not to transgress.
  Cle. What are they?
  Ath. The principle of piety, the love of honour, and the desire of
beauty, not in the body but in the soul. These are, perhaps,
romantic aspirations; but they are the noblest of aspirations, if they
could only be realized in all states, and, God willing, in the
matter of love we may be able to enforce one of two things-either that
no one shall venture to touch any person of the freeborn or noble
class except his wedded wife, or sow the unconsecrated and bastard
seed among harlots, or in barren and unnatural lusts; or at least we
may abolish altogether the connection of men with men; and as to
women, if any man has to do with any but those who come into his house
duly married by sacred rites, whether they be bought or acquired in
any other way, and he offends publicly in the face of all mankind,
we shall be right in enacting that he be deprived of civic honours and
privileges, and be deemed to be, as he truly is, a stranger. Let
this law, then, whether it is one, or ought rather to be called two,
be laid down respecting love in general, and the intercourse of the
sexes which arises out of the desires, whether rightly or wrongly
indulged.
   Meg. I, for my part, Stranger, would gladly receive this law.
Cleinias shall speak for himself, and tell you what is his opinion.
  Cle. I will, Megillus, when an opportunity offers; at present, I
think that we had better allow the Stranger to proceed with his laws.
  Meg. Very good.
  Ath. We had got about as far as the establishment of the common
tables, which in most places would be difficult, but in Crete no one
would think of introducing any other custom. There might arise a
question about the manner of them-whether they shall be such as they
are here in Crete, or such as they are in Lacedaemon,-or is there a
third kind which may be better than either of them? The answer to this
question might be easily discovered, but the discovery would do no
great good, for at present they are very well ordered.
  Leaving the common tables, we may therefore proceed to the means
of providing food. Now, in cities the means of life are gained in many
ways and from divers sources, and in general from two sources, whereas
our city has only one. For most of the Hellenes obtain their food from
sea and land, but our citizens from land only. And this makes the task
of the legislator less difficult-half as many laws will be enough, and
much less than half; and they will be of a kind better suited to
free men. For he has nothing to do with laws about shipowners and
merchants and retailers and innkeepers and tax collectors and mines
and moneylending and compound interest and innumerable other
things-bidding good-bye to these, he gives laws to husbandmen and
shepherds and bee-keepers, and to the guardians and superintendents of
their implements; and he has already legislated for greater matters,
as for example, respecting marriage and the procreation and nurture of
children, and for education, and the establishment of offices-and
now he must direct his laws to those who provide food and labour in
preparing it.
  Let us first of all, then, have a class of laws which shall be
called the laws of husbandmen. And let the first of them be the law of
Zeus, the god of boundaries. Let no one shift the boundary line either
of a fellow-citizen who is a neighbour, or, if he dwells at the
extremity of the land, of any stranger who is conterminous with him,
considering that this is truly "to move the immovable," and every
one should be more willing to move the largest rock which is not a
landmark, than the least stone which is the sworn mark of friendship
and hatred between neighbours; for Zeus, the god of kindred, is the
witness of the citizen, and Zeus, the god of strangers, of the
stranger, and when aroused, terrible are the wars which they stir
up. He who obeys the law will never know the fatal consequences of
disobedience, but he who despises the law shall be liable to a
double penalty, the first coming from the Gods, and the second from
the law. For let no one wilfully remove the boundaries of his
neighbour's land, and if any one does, let him who will inform the
landowners, and let them bring him into court, and if he be
convicted of re-dividing the land by stealth or by force, let the
court determine what he ought to suffer or pay. In the next place,
many small injuries done by neighbours to one another, through their
multiplication, may cause a weight of enmity, and make neighbourhood a
very disagreeable and bitter thing. Wherefore a man ought to be very
careful of committing any offence against his neighbour, and
especially of encroaching on his neighbour's land; for any man may
easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another. He who
encroaches on his neighbour's land, and transgresses his boundaries,
shall make good the damage, and, to cure him of his impudence and also
of his meanness, he shall pay a double penalty to the injured party.
Of these and the like matters the wardens of the country shall take
cognizance, and be the judges of them and assessors of the damage;
in the more important cases, as has been already said, the whole
number of them belonging to any one of the twelve divisions shall
decide, and in the lesser cases the commanders: or, again, if any
one pastures his cattle on his neighbour's land, they shall see the
injury, and adjudge the penalty. And if any one, by decoying the bees,
gets possession of another's swarms, and draws them to himself by
making noises, he shall pay the damage; or if anyone sets fire to
his own wood and takes no care of his neighbour's property, he shall
be fined at the discretion of the magistrates. And if in planting he
does not leave a fair distance between his own and his neighbour's
land, he shall be punished, in accordance with the enactments of
many law givers, which we may use, not deeming it necessary that the
great legislator of our state should determine all the trifles which
might be decided by any body; for example, husbandmen have had of
old excellent laws about waters, and there is no reason why we
should propose to divert their course: who likes may draw water from
the fountain-head of the common stream on to his own land, if he do
not cut off the spring which clearly belongs to some other owner;
and he may take the water in any direction which he pleases, except
through a house or temple or sepulchre, but he must be careful to do
no harm beyond the channel. And if there be in any place a natural
dryness of the earth, which keeps in the rain from heaven, and
causes a deficiency in the supply of water, let him dig down on his
own land as far as the clay, and if at this depth he finds no water,
let him obtain water from his neighbours, as much, as is required
for his servants' drinking, and if his neighbours, too, are limited in
their supply, let him have a fixed measure, which shall be
determined by the wardens of the country. This he shall receive each
day, and on these terms have a share of his neighbours' water. If
there be heavy rain, and one of those on the lower ground injures some
tiller of the upper ground, or some one who has a common wall, by
refusing to give the man outlet for water; or, again, if some one
living on the higher ground recklessly lets off the water on his lower
neighbour, and they cannot come to terms with one another, let him who
will call in a warden of the city, if he be in the city, or if he be
in the country, warden of the country, and let him obtain a decision
determining what each of them is to do. And he who will not abide by
the decision shall suffer for his malignant and morose temper, and pay
a fine to the injured party, equivalent to double the value of the
injury, because he was unwilling to submit to the magistrates.
  Now the participation of fruits shall be ordered on this wise. The
goddess of Autumn has two gracious gifts: one, the joy of Dionysus
which is not treasured up; the other, which nature intends to be
stored. Let this be the law, then, concerning the fruits of autumn: He
who tastes the common or storing fruits of autumn, whether grapes or
figs, before the season of vintage which coincides with Arcturus,
either on his own land or on that of others-let him pay fifty
drachmae, which shall be sacred to Dionysus, if he pluck them from his
own land; and if from his neighbour's land, a mina, and if from any
others', two-thirds of a mina. And he who would gather the "choice"
grapes or the "choice" figs, as they are now termed, if he take them
off his own land, let him pluck them how and when he likes; but if
he take them from the ground of others without their leave, let him in
that case be always punished in accordance with the law which
ordains that he should not move what he has not laid down. And if a
slave touches any fruit of this sort, without the consent of the owner
of the land, he shall be beaten with as many blows as there are grapes
on the bunch, or figs on the fig-tree. Let a metic purchase the
"choice" autumnal fruit, and then, if he pleases, he may gather it;
but if a stranger is passing along the road, and desires to eat, let
him take of the "choice" grapes for himself and a single follower
without payment, as a tribute of hospitality. The law however
forbids strangers from sharing in the sort which is not used for
eating; and if any one, whether he be master or slave, takes of them
in ignorance, let the slave be beaten, and the freeman dismissed
with admonitions, and instructed to take of the other autumnal
fruits which are unfit for making raisins and wine, or for laying by
as dried figs. As to pears, and apples, and pomegranates, and
similar fruits, there shall be no disgrace in taking them secretly;
but he who is caught, if he be of less than thirty years of age, shall
be struck and beaten off, but not wounded; and no freeman shall have
any right of satisfaction for such blows. Of these fruits the stranger
may partake, just as he may of the fruits of autumn. And if an
elder, who is more than thirty years of age, eat of them on the
spot, let him, like the stranger, be allowed to partake of all such
fruits, but he must carry away nothing. If, however, he will not
obey the law, let him run risk of failing in the competition of
virtue, in case any one takes notice of his actions before the
judges at the time.
  Water is the greatest element of nutrition in gardens, but is easily
polluted. You cannot poison the soil, or the soil, or the sun, or
the air, which are other elements of nutrition in plants, or divert
them, or steal them; but all these things may very likely happen in
regard to water, which must therefore be protected by law. And let
this be the law:-If any one intentionally pollutes the water of
another, whether the water of a spring, or collected in reservoirs,
either by poisonous substances, or by digging or by theft, let the
injured party bring the cause before the wardens of the city, and
claim in writing the value of the loss; if the accused be found guilty
of injuring the water by deleterious substances, let him not only
pay damages, but purify the stream or the cistern which contains the
water, in such manner as the laws of the interpreters order the
purification to be made by the offender in each case.
  With respect to the gathering in of the fruits of the soil, let a
man, if he pleases, carry his own fruits through any place in which he
either does no harm to any one, or himself gains three times as much
as his neighbour loses. Now of these things the magistrates should
be cognisant, as of all other things in which a man intentionally does
injury to another or to the property of another, by fraud or force, in
the use which he makes of his own property. All these matters a man
should lay before the magistrates, and receive damages, supposing
the injury to be not more than three minae; or if he have a charge
against another which involves a larger amount, let him bring his suit
into the public courts and have the evil-doer punished. But if any
of the magistrates appear to adjudge the penalties which he imposes in
an unjust spirit, let him be liable to pay double to the injured
party. Any one may bring the offences of magistrates, in any
particular case, before the public courts. There are innumerable
little matters relating to the modes of punishment, and applications
for suits, and summonses and the witnesses to summonses-for example,
whether two witnesses should be required for a summons, or how
many-and all such details, which cannot be omitted in legislation, but
are beneath the wisdom of an aged legislator. These lesser matters, as
they indeed are in comparison with the greater ones, let a younger
generation regulate by law, after the patterns which have preceded,
and according to their own experience of the usefulness and
necessity of such laws; and when they are duly regulated let there
be no alteration, but let the citizens live in the observance of them.
  Now of artisans, let the regulations be as follows:-In the first
place, let no citizen or servant of a citizen be occupied in
handicraft arts; for he who is to secure and preserve the public order
of the state, has an art which requires much study and many kinds of
knowledge, and does not admit of being made a secondary occupation;
and hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or
two arts rightly, or of practising one art himself, and superintending
some one else who is practising another. Let this, then, be our
first principle in the state:-No one who is a smith shall also be a
carpenter, and if he be a carpenter, he shall not superintend the
smith's art rather than his own, under the pretext that in
superintending many servants who are working for him, he is likely
to superintend them better, because more revenue will accrue to him
from them than from his own art; but let every man in the state have
one art, and get his living by that. Let the wardens of the city
labour to maintain this law, and if any citizen incline to any other
art than the study of virtue, let them punish him with disgrace and
infamy, until they bring him back into his own right course; and if
any stranger profess two arts, let them chastise him with bonds and
money penalties, and expulsion from the state, until they compel him
to be one only and not many.
  But as touching payments for hire, and contracts of work, or in case
any one does wrong to any of the citizens or they do wrong to any
other, up to fifty drachmae, let the wardens of the city decide the
case; but if greater amount be involved, then let the public courts
decide according to law. Let no one pay any duty either on the
importation or exportation of goods; and as to frankincense and
similar perfumes, used in the service of the Gods, which come from
abroad, and purple and other dyes which are not produced in the
country, or the materials of any art which have to be imported, and
which are not necessary-no one should import them; nor again, should
any one export anything which is wanted in the country. Of all these
things let there be inspectors and superintendents, taken from the
guardians of the law; and they shall be the twelve next in order to
the five seniors. Concerning arms, and all implements which are for
military purposes, if there be need of introducing any art, or
plant, or metal, or chains of any kind, or animals for use in war, let
the commanders of the horse and the generals have authority over their
importation and exportation; the city shall send them out and also
receive them, and the guardians of the law shall make fit and proper
laws about them. But let there be no retail trade for the sake of
money-making, either in these or any other articles, in the city or
country at all.
  With respect to food and the distribution of the produce of the
country, the right and proper way seems to be nearly that which is the
custom of Crete; for all should be required to distribute the fruits
of the soil into twelve parts, and in this way consume them. Let the
twelfth portion of each (as for instance of wheat and barley, to which
the rest of the fruits of the earth shall be added, as well as the
animals which are for sale in each of the twelve divisions) be divided
in due proportion into three parts; one part for freemen, another
for their servants, and a third for craftsmen and in general for
strangers, whether sojourners who may be dwelling in the city, and
like other men must live, or those who come on some business which
they have with the state, or with some individual. Let only this third
part of all necessaries be required to be sold; out of the other
two-thirds no one shall be compelled to sell. And how will they be
best distributed? In the first place, we see clearly that the
distribution will be of equals in one point of view, and in another
point of view of unequals.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. I mean that the earth of necessity produces and nourishes the
various articles of food, sometimes better and sometimes worse.
  Cle. Of course.
  Ath. Such being the case, let no one of the three portions be
greater than either of the other two-neither that which is assigned to
masters or to slaves, nor again that of the stranger; but let the
distribution to all be equal and alike, and let every citizen take his
two portions and distribute them among slaves and freemen, he having
power to determine the quantity and quality. And what remains he shall
distribute by measure and numb among the animals who have to be
sustained from the earth, taking the whole number of them.
  In the second place, our citizens should have separate houses duly
ordered, and this will be the order proper for men like them. There
shall be twelve hamlets, one in the middle of each twelfth portion,
and in each hamlet they shall first set apart a market-place, and
the temples of the Gods, and of their attendant demigods; and if there
be any local deities of the Magnetes, or holy seats of other ancient
deities, whose memory has been preserved, to these let them pay
their ancient honours. But Hestia, and Zeus, and Athene will have
temples everywhere together with the God who presides in each of the
twelve districts. And the first erection of houses shall be around
these temples, where the ground is highest, in order to provide the
safest and most defensible place of retreat for the guards. All the
rest of the country they shall settle in the following manner:-They
shall make thirteen divisions of the craftsmen; one of them they shall
establish in the city, and this, again, they shall subdivide into
twelve lesser divisions, among the twelve districts of the city, and
the remainder shall be distributed in the country round about; and
in each village they shall settle various classes of craftsmen, with a
view to the convenience of the husbandmen. And the chief officers of
the wardens of the country shall superintend all these matters, and
see how many of them, and which class of them, each place requires;
and fix them where they are likely to be least troublesome, and most
useful to the husbandman. And the wardens of the city shall see to
similar matters in the city.
  Now the wardens of the agora ought to see to the details of the
agora. Their first care, after the temples which are in the agora have
been seen to, should be to prevent any one from doing any in
dealings between man and man; in the second; place, as being
inspectors of temperance and violence, they should chastise him who
requires chastisement. Touching articles of gale, they should first
see whether the articles which the citizens are under regulations to
sell to strangers are sold to them, as the law ordains. And let the
law be as follows:-on the first day of the month, the persons in
charge, whoever they are, whether strangers or slaves, who have the
charge on behalf of the citizens, shall produce to the strangers the
portion which falls to them, in the first place, a twelfth portion
of the corn;-the stranger shall purchase corn for the whole month, and
other cereals, on the first market day; and on the tenth day of the
month the one party shall sell, and the other buy, liquids
sufficient to last during the whole month; and on the twenty-third day
there shall be a sale of animals by those who are willing to sell to
the people who want to buy, and of implements and other things which
husbandmen sell (such as skins and all kinds of clothing, either woven
or made of felt and other goods of the same sort), and which strangers
are compelled to buy and purchase of others. As to the retail trade in
these things, whether of barley or wheat set apart for meal and flour,
or any other kind of food, no one shall sell them to citizens or their
slaves, nor shall any one buy of a citizen; but let the stranger
sell them in the market of strangers, to artisans and their slaves,
making an exchange of wine and food, which is commonly called retail
trade. And butchers shall offer for sale parts of dismembered
animals to the strangers, and artisans, and their servants. Let any
stranger who likes buy fuel from day to day wholesale, from those
who have the care of it in the country, and let him sell to the
strangers as much he pleases and when he pleases. As to other goods
and implements which are likely to be wanted, they shall sell them
in common market, at any place which the guardians of the law and
the wardens of the market and city, choosing according to their
judgment, shall determine; at such places they shall exchange money
for goods, and goods for money, neither party giving credit to the
other; and he who gives credit must be satisfied, whether he obtain
his money not, for in such exchanges he will not be protected by
law. But whenever property has been bought or sold, greater in
quantity or value than is allowed by the law, which has determined
within what limited a man may increase and diminish his possessions,
let the excess be registered in the books of the guardians of the law;
in case of diminution, let there be an erasure made. And let the
same rule be observed about the registration of the property of the
metics. Any one who likes may come and be a metic on certain
conditions; a foreigner, if he likes, and is able to settle, may dwell
in the land, but he must practise an art, and not abide more than
twenty years from the time at which he has registered himself; and
he shall pay no sojourner's tax, however small, except good conduct,
nor any other tax for buying and selling. But when the twenty years
have expired, he shall take his property with him and depart. And if
in the course of these years he should chance to distinguish himself
by any considerable benefit which he confers on the state, and he
thinks that he can persuade the council and assembly, either to
grant him delay in leaving the country, or to allow him to remain
for the whole of his life, let him go and persuade the city, and
whatever they assent to at his instance shall take effect. For the
children of the metics, being artisans, and of fifteen years of age,
let the time of their sojourn commence after their fifteenth year; and
let them remain for twenty years, and then go where they like; but any
of them who wishes to remain, may do so, if he can persuade the
council and assembly. And if he depart, let him erase all the
entries which have been made by him in the register kept by the
magistrates.
  BOOK IX

  Next to all the matters which have preceded in the natural order
of legislation will come suits of law. Of suits those which relate
to agriculture have been already described, but the more important
have not been described. Having mentioned them severally under their
usual names, we will proceed to say what punishments are to be
inflicted for each offence, and who are to be the judges of them.
  Cleinias. Very good.
  Athenian Stranger. There is a sense of disgrace in legislating, as
we are about to do, for all the details of crime in a state which,
as we say, is to be well regulated and will be perfectly adapted to
the practice of virtue. To assume that in such a state there will
arise some one who will be guilty of crimes as heinous as any which
are ever perpetrated in other states, and that we must legislate for
him by anticipation, and threaten and make laws against him if he
should arise, in order to deter him, and punish his acts, under the
idea that he will arise-this, as I was saying, is in a manner
disgraceful. Yet seeing that we are not like the ancient
legislators, who gave laws to heroes and sons of gods, being,
according to the popular belief, themselves the offspring of the gods,
and legislating for others, who were also the children of divine
parents, but that we are only men who are legislating for the sons
of men, there is no uncharitableness in apprehending that some one
of our citizens may be like a seed which has touched the ox's horn,
having a heart so hard that it cannot be softened any more than
those seeds can be softened by fire. Among our citizens there may be
those who cannot be subdued by all the strength of the laws; and for
their sake, though an ungracious task, I will proclaim my first law
about the robbing of temples, in case any one should dare to commit
such a crime. I do not expect or imagine that any well-brought-up
citizen will ever take the infection, but their servants, and
strangers, and strangers' servants may be guilty of many impieties.
And with a view to them especially, and yet not without a provident
eye to the weakness of human nature generally, I will proclaim the law
about robbers of temples and similar incurable, or almost incurable,
criminals. Having already agreed that such enactments ought always
to have a short prelude, we may speak to the criminal, whom some
tormenting desire by night and by day tempts to go and rob a temple,
the fewest possible words of admonition and exhortation:-O sir, we
will say to him, the impulse which moves you to rob temples is not
an ordinary human malady, nor yet a visitation of heaven, but a
madness which is begotten in a man from ancient and unexpiated
crimes of his race, an ever-recurring curse;-against this you must
guard with all your might, and how you are to guard we will explain to
you. When any such thought comes into your mind, go and perform
expiations, go as a suppliant to the temples of the Gods who avert
evils, go to the society of those who are called good men among you;
hear them tell and yourself try to repeat after them, that every man
should honour the noble and the just. Fly from the company of the
wicked-fly and turn not back; and if your disorder is lightened by
these remedies, well and good, but if not, then acknowledge death to
be nobler than life, and depart hence.
  Such are the preludes which we sing to all who have thoughts of
unholy and treasonable actions, and to him who hearkens to them the
law has nothing to say. But to him who is disobedient when the prelude
is over, cry with a loud voice,-He who is taken in the act of
robbing temples, if he be a slave or stranger, shall have his evil
deed engraven on his face and hands, and shall be beaten with as
many stripes as may seem good to the judges, and be cast naked
beyond the borders of the land. And if he suffers this punishment he
will probably return to his right mind and be improved; for no penalty
which the law inflicts is designed for evil, but always makes him
who suffers either better or not so much worse as he would have
been. But if any citizen be found guilty of any great or unmentionable
wrong, either in relation to the gods, or his parents, or the state,
let the judge deem him to be incurable, remembering that after
receiving such an excellent education and training from youth
upward, he has not abstained from the greatest of crimes. His
punishment shall be death, which to him will be the least of evils;
and his example will benefit others, if he perish ingloriously, and be
cast beyond the borders of the land. But let his children and
family, if they avoid the ways of their father, have glory, and let
honourable mention be made of them, as having nobly and manfully
escaped out of evil into good. None of them should have their goods
confiscated to the state, for the lots of the citizens ought always to
continue the same and equal.
  Touching the exaction of penalties, when a man appears to have
done anything which deserves a fine, he shall pay the fine, if he have
anything in excess of the lot which is assigned to him; but more
than that he shall not pay. And to secure exactness, let the guardians
of the law refer to the registers, and inform the judges of the
precise truth, in order that none of the lots may go uncultivated
for want of money. But if any one seems to deserve a greater
penalty, let him undergo a long and public imprisonment and be
dishonoured, unless some of his friends are willing to be surety for
him, and liberate him by assisting him to pay the fine. No criminal
shall go unpunished, not even for a single offence, nor if he have
fled the country; but let the penalty be according to his
deserts-death, or bonds, or blows, or degrading places of sitting or
standing, or removal to some temple on the borders of the land; or let
him pay fines, as we said before. In cases of death, let the judges be
the guardians of the law, and a court selected by merit from the
last year's magistrates. But how the causes are to be brought into
to court, how the summonses are to be served, the like, these things
may be left to the younger generation of legislators to determine; the
manner of voting we must determine ourselves.
  Let the vote be given openly; but before they come to the vote let
the judges sit in order of seniority over against plaintiff and
defendant, and let all the citizens who can spare time hear and take a
serious interest in listening to such causes. First of all the
plaintiff shall make one speech, and then the defendant shall make
another; and after the speeches have been made the eldest judge
shall begin to examine the parties, and proceed to make an adequate
enquiry into what has been said; and after the oldest has spoken,
the rest shall proceed in order to examine either party as to what
he finds defective in the evidence, whether of statement or
omission; and he who has nothing to ask shall hand over the
examination to another. And on so much of what has been said as is
to the purpose all the judges shall set their seals, and place the
writings on the altar of Hestia. On the next day they shall meet
again, and in like manner put their questions and go through the
cause, and again set their seals upon the evidence; and when they have
three times done this, and have had witnesses and evidence enough,
they shall each of them give a holy vote, after promising by Hestia
that they will decide justly and truly to the utmost of their power;
and so they shall put an end to the suit.
  Next, after what relates to the Gods, follows what relates to the
dissolution of the state:-Whoever by promoting a man to power enslaves
the laws, and subjects the city to factions, using violence and
stirring up sedition contrary to law, him we will deem the greatest
enemy of the whole state. But he who takes no part in such
proceedings, and, being one of the chief magistrates of the state, has
no knowledge of the treason, or, having knowledge of it, by reason
of cowardice does not interfere on behalf of his country, such an
one we must consider nearly as bad. Every man who is worth anything
will inform the magistrates, and bring the conspirator to trial for
making a violent and illegal attempt to change the government. The
judges of such cases shall be the same as of the robbers of temples;
and let the whole proceeding be carried on in the same way, and the
vote of the majority condemn to death. But let there be a general
rule, that the disgrace and punishment of the father is not to be
visited on the children, except in the case of some one whose
father, grandfather, and great-grandfather have successively undergone
the penalty of death. Such persons the city shall send away with all
their possessions to the city and country of their ancestors,
retaining only and wholly their appointed lot. And out of the citizens
who have more than one son of not less than ten years of age, they
shall select ten whom their father or grandfather by the mother's or
father's side shall appoint, and let them send to Delphi the names
of those who are selected, and him whom the God chooses they shall
establish as heir of the house which has failed; and may he have
better fortune than his predecessors!
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. Once more let there be a third general law respecting the
judges who are to give judgment, and the manner of conducting suits
against those who are tried on an accusation of treason; and as
concerning the remaining or departure of their descendants-there shall
be one law for all three, for the traitor, and the robber of
temples, and the subverter by violence of the laws of the state. For a
thief, whether he steal much or little, let there be one law, and
one punishment for all alike: in the first place, let him pay double
the amount of the theft if he be convicted, and if he have so much
over and above the allotment;-if he have not, he shall be bound
until he pay the penalty, or persuade him has obtained the sentence
against him to forgive him. But if a person be convicted of a theft
against the state, then if he can persuade the city, or if he will pay
back twice the amount of the theft, he shall be set free from his
bonds.
  Cle. What makes you say, Stranger, that a theft is all one,
whether the thief may have taken much or little, and either from
sacred or secular places-and these are not the only differences in
thefts:-seeing, then, that they are of many kinds, ought not the
legislator to adapt himself to them, and impose upon them entirely
different penalties?
  Ath. Excellent. I was running on too fast, Cleinias, and you
impinged upon me, and brought me to my senses, reminding me of what,
indeed, had occurred to mind already, that legislation was never yet
rightly worked out, as I may say in passing.-Do you remember the image
in which I likened the men for whom laws are now made to slaves who
are doctored by slaves? For of this you may be very sure, that if
one of those empirical physicians, who practise medicine without
science, were to come upon the gentleman physician talking to his
gentleman patient, and using the language almost of philosophy,
beginning at the beginning of the disease and discoursing about the
whole nature of the body, he would burst into a hearty laugh-he
would say what most of those who are called doctors always have at
their tongue's end:-Foolish fellow, he would say, you are not
healing the sick man, but you are educating him; and he does not
want to be made a doctor, but to get well.
  Cle. And would he not be right?
  Ath. Perhaps he would; and he might remark upon us that he who
discourses about laws, as we are now doing, is giving the citizens
education and not laws; that would be rather a telling observation.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. But we are fortunate.
  Cle. In what way?
  Ath. Inasmuch as we are not compelled to give laws, but we may
take into consideration every form of government, and ascertain what
is best and what is most needful, and how they may both be carried
into execution; and we may also, if we please, at this very moment
choose what is best, or, if we prefer, what is most necessary-which
shall we do?
   Cle. There is something ridiculous, Stranger, in our proposing such
an alternative as if we were legislators, simply bound under some
great necessity which cannot be deferred to the morrow. But we, as I
may by grace of Heaven affirm, like, gatherers of stones or
beginners of some composite work, may gather a heap of materials,
and out of this, at our leisure, select what is suitable for our
projected construction. Let us then suppose ourselves to be at
leisure, not of necessity building, but rather like men who are partly
providing materials, and partly putting them together. And we may
truly say that some of our laws, like stones, are already fixed in
their places, and others lie at hand.
  Ath. Certainly, in that case, Cleinias, our view of law will be more
in accordance with nature. For there is another matter affecting
legislators, which I must earnestly entreat you to consider.
  Cle. What is it?
  Ath. There are many writings to be found in cities, and among them
there, are composed by legislators as well as by other persons.
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. Shall we give heed rather to the writings of those others-poets
and the like, who either in metre or out of metre have recorded
their advice about the conduct of life, and not to the writings of
legislators? or shall we give heed to them above all?
  Cle. Yes; to them far above all others.
  Ath. And ought the legislator alone among writers to withhold his
opinion about the beautiful, the good, and the just, and not to
teach what they are, and how they are to be pursued by those who
intend to be happy?
  Cle. Certainly not.
  Ath. And is it disgraceful for Homer and Tyrtaeus and other poets to
lay down evil precepts in their writings respecting life and the
pursuits of men, but not so disgraceful for Lycurgus and Solon and
others who were legislators as well as writers? Is it not true that of
all the writings to be found in cities, those which relate to laws,
when you unfold and read them, ought to be by far the noblest and
the best? and should not other writings either agree with them, or
if they disagree, be deemed ridiculous? We should consider whether the
laws of states ought not to have the character of loving and wise
parents, rather than of tyrants and masters, who command and threaten,
and, after writing their decrees on walls, go their ways; and whether,
in discoursing of laws, we should not take the gentler view of them
which may or may not be attainable-at any rate, we will show our
readiness to entertain such a view, and be prepared to undergo
whatever may be the result. And may the result be good, and if God
be gracious, it will be good!
  Cle. Excellent; let us do as you say.
  Ath. Then we will now consider accurately, as we proposed, what
relates to robbers of temples, and all kinds of thefts, and offences
in general; and we must not be annoyed if, in the course of
legislation, we have enacted some things, and have not made up our
minds about some others; for as yet we are not legislators, but we may
soon be. Let us, if you please, consider these matters.
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. Concerning all things honourable and just, let us then
endeavour to ascertain how far we are consistent with ourselves, and
how far we are inconsistent, and how far the many, from whom at any
rate we should profess a desire to differ, agree and disagree among
themselves.
  Cle. What are the inconsistencies which you observe in us?
  Ath. I will endeavour to explain. If I am not mistaken, we are all
agreed that justice, and just men and things and actions, are all
fair, and, if a person were to maintain that just men, even when
they are deformed in body, are still perfectly beautiful in respect of
the excellent justice of their minds, no one would say that there
was any inconsistency in this.
  Cle. They would be quite right.
  Ath. Perhaps; but let us consider further, that if all things
which are just are fair and honourable, in the term "all" we must
include just sufferings which are the correlatives of just actions.
  Cle. And what is the inference?
  Ath. The inference is, that a just action in partaking of the just
partakes also in the same degree of the fair and honourable.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And must not a suffering which partakes of the just principle
be admitted to be in the same degree fair and honourable, if the
argument is consistently carried out?
  Cle. True.
  Ath. But then if we admit suffering to be just and yet
dishonourable, and the term "dishonourable" is applied to justice,
will not the just and the honourable disagree?
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. A thing not difficult to understand; the laws which have been
already enacted would seem to announce principles directly opposed
to what we are saying.
  Cle. To what?
  Ath. We had enacted, if I am not mistaken, that the robber of
temples, and he who was the enemy of law and order, might justly be
put to death, and we were proceeding to make divers other enactments
of a similar nature. But we stopped short, because we saw that these
sufferings are infinite in number and degree, and that they are, at
once, the most just and also the most dishonourable of all sufferings.
And if this be true, are not the just and the honourable at one time
all the same, and at another time in the most diametrical opposition?
  Cle. Such appears to be the case.
  Ath. In this discordant and inconsistent fashion does the language
of the many rend asunder the honourable and just.
  Cle. Very true, Stranger.
  Ath. Then now, Cleinias, let us see how far we ourselves are
consistent about these matters.
  Cle. Consistent in what?
  Ath. I think that I have clearly stated in the former part of the
discussion, but if I did not, let me now state-
  Cle. What?
  Ath. That all bad men are always involuntarily bad; and from this
must proceed to draw a further inference.
  Cle. What is it?
  Ath. That the unjust man may be bad, but that he is bad against
his will. Now that an action which is voluntary should be done
involuntarily is a contradiction; wherefore he who maintains that
injustice is involuntary will deem that the unjust does injustice
involuntarily. I too admit that all men do injustice involuntarily,
and if any contentious or disputatious person says that men are unjust
against their will, and yet that many do injustice willingly, I do not
agree with him. But, then, how can I avoid being inconsistent with
myself, if you, Cleinias, and you, Megillus, say to me-Well, Stranger,
if all this be as you say, how about legislating for the city of the
Magnetes-shall we legislate or not-what do you advise? Certainly we
will, I should reply. Then will you determine for them what are
voluntary and what are involuntary crimes, and shall we make the
punishments greater of voluntary errors and crimes and less for the
involuntary? or shall we make the punishment of all to be alike, under
the idea that there is no such thing as voluntary crime?
  Cle. Very good, Stranger; and what shall we say in answer to these
objections?
  Ath. That is a very fair question. In the first place, let us-
  Cle. Do what?
  Ath. Let us remember what has been well said by us already, that our
ideas of justice are in the highest degree confused and contradictory.
Bearing this in mind, let us proceed to ask ourselves once more
whether we have discovered a way out of the difficulty. Have we ever
determined in what respect these two classes of actions differ from
one another? For in all states and by all legislators whatsoever,
two kinds of actions have been distinguished-the one, voluntary, the
other, involuntary; and they have legislated about them accordingly.
But shall this new word of ours, like an oracle of God, be only
spoken, and get away without giving any explanation or verification of
itself? How can a word not understood be the basis of legislation?
Impossible. Before proceeding to legislate, then, we must prove that
they are two, and what is the difference between them, that when we
impose the penalty upon either, every one may understand our proposal,
and be able in some way to judge whether the penalty is fitly or
unfitly inflicted.
  Cle. I agree with you, Stranger; for one of two things is certain:
either we must not say that all unjust acts are involuntary, or we
must show the meaning and truth of this statement.
  Ath. Of these two alternatives, the one is quite intolerable-not
to speak what I believe to be the truth would be to me unlawful and
unholy. But if acts of injustice cannot be divided into voluntary
and involuntary, I must endeavour to find some other distinction
between them.
  Cle. Very true, Stranger; there cannot be two opinions among us upon
that point.
  Ath. Reflect, then; there are hurts of various kinds done by the
citizens to one another in the intercourse of life, affording
plentiful examples both of the voluntary and involuntary.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. I would not have any one suppose that all these hurts are
injuries, and that these injuries are of two kinds-one, voluntary, and
the other, involuntary; for the involuntary hurts of all men are quite
as many and as great as the voluntary? And please to consider
whether I am right or quite wrong in what I am going to say; for I
deny, Cleinias and Megillus, that he who harms another involuntarily
does him an injury involuntarily, nor should I legislate about such an
act under the idea that I am legislating for an involuntary injury.
But I should rather say that such a hurt, whether great or small, is
not an injury at all; and, on the other hand, if I am right, when a
benefit is wrongly conferred, the author of the benefit may often be
said to injure. For I maintain, O my friends, that the mere giving
or taking away of anything is not to be described either as just or
unjust; but the legislator has to consider whether mankind do good
or harm to one another out of a just principle and intention. On the
distinction between injustice and hurt he must fix his eye; and when
there is hurt, he must, as far as he can, make the hurt good by law,
and save that which is ruined, and raise up that which is fallen,
and make that which is dead or wounded whole. And when compensation
has been given for injustice, the law must always seek to win over the
doers and sufferers of the several hurts from feelings of enmity to
those of friendship.
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. Then as to unjust hurts (and gains also, supposing the
injustice to bring gain), of these we may heal as many as are
capable of being healed, regarding them as diseases of the soul; and
the cure of injustice will take the following direction.
  Cle. What direction?
  Ath. When any one commits any injustice, small or great, the law
will admonish and compel him either never at all to do the like again,
or never voluntarily, or at any rate in a far less degree; and he must
in addition pay for the hurt. Whether the end is to be attained by
word or action, with pleasure or pain, by giving or taking away
privileges, by means of fines or gifts, or in whatsoever way the law
shall proceed to make a man hate injustice, and love or not hate the
nature of the just-this is quite the noblest work of law. But if the
legislator sees any one who is incurable, for him he will appoint a
law and a penalty. He knows quite well that to such men themselves
there is no profit in the continuance of their lives, and that they
would do a double good to the rest of mankind if they would take their
departure, inasmuch as they would be an example to other men not to
offend, and they would relieve the city of bad citizens. In such
cases, and in such cases only, the legislator ought to inflict death
as the punishment of offences.
  Cle. What you have said appears to me to be very reasonable, but
will you favour me by stating a little more clearly the difference
between hurt and injustice, and the various complications of the
voluntary and involuntary which enter into them?
   Ath. I will endeavour to do as you wish:-Concerning the soul,
thus much would be generally said and allowed, that one element in her
nature is passion, which may be described either as a state or a
part of her, and is hard to be striven against and contended with, and
by irrational force overturns many things.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. And pleasure is not the same with passion, but has an
opposite power, working her will by persuasion and by the force of
deceit in all things.
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. A man may truly say that ignorance is a third cause of
crimes. Ignorance, however, may be conveniently divided by the
legislator into two sorts: there is simple ignorance, which is the
source of lighter offences, and double ignorance, which is accompanied
by a conceit of wisdom; and he who is under the influence of the
latter fancies that he knows all about matters of which he knows
nothing. This second kind of ignorance, when possessed of power and
strength, will be held by the legislator to be the source of great and
monstrous times, but when attended with weakness, will only result
in the errors of children and old men; and these he will treat as
errors, and will make laws accordingly for those who commit them,
which will be the mildest and most merciful of all laws.
  Cle. You are perfectly right.
  Ath. We all of us remark of one man that he is superior to
pleasure and passion, and of another that he is inferior to them;
and this is true.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. But no one was ever yet heard to say that one of us is superior
and another inferior to ignorance.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. We are speaking of motives which incite men to the fulfilment
of their will; although an individual may be often drawn by them in
opposite directions at the same time.
  Cle. Yes, often.
  Ath. And now I can define to you clearly, and without ambiguity,
what I mean by the just and unjust, according to my notion of
them:-When anger and fear, and pleasure and pain, and jealousies and
desires, tyrannize over the soul, whether they do any harm or not-I
call all this injustice. But when the opinion of the best, in whatever
part of human nature states or individuals may suppose that to
dwell, has dominion in the soul and orders the life of every man, even
if it be sometimes mistaken, yet what is done in accordance therewith,
the principle in individuals which obeys this rule, and is best for
the whole life of man, is to be called just; although the hurt done by
mistake is thought by many to be involuntary injustice. Leaving the
question of names, about which we are not going to quarrel, and having
already delineated three sources of error, we may begin by recalling
them somewhat more vividly to our memory:-One of them was of the
painful sort, which we denominate anger and fear.
  Cle. Quite right.
  Ath. There was a second consisting of pleasures and desires, and a
third of hopes, which aimed at true opinion about the best. The latter
being subdivided into three, we now get five sources of actions; and
for these five we will make laws of two kinds.
  Cle. What are the two kinds?
  Ath. There is one kind of actions done by violence and in the
light of day, and another kind of actions which are done in darkness
and with secret deceit, or sometimes both with violence and deceit;
the laws concerning these last ought to have a character of severity.
  Cle. Naturally.
  Ath. And now let us return from this digression and complete the
work of legislation. Laws have been already enacted by us concerning
the robbers of the Gods, and concerning traitors, and also
concerning those who corrupt the laws for the purpose of subverting
the government. A man may very likely commit some of these crimes,
either in a state of madness or when affected by disease, or under the
influence of extreme old age, or in a fit of childish wantonness,
himself no better than a child. And if this be made evident to the
judges elected to try the cause, on the appeal of the criminal or
his advocate, and he be judged to have been in this state when he
committed the offence, he shall simply pay for the hurt which he may
have done to another; but he shall be exempt from other penalties,
unless he have slain some one, and have on his hands the stain of
blood. And in that case he shall go to another land and country, and
there dwell for a year; and if he return before the expiration of
the time which the law appoints, or even set his foot at all on his
native land, he shall be bound by the guardians of the law in the
public prison for two years, and then go free.
  Having begun to speak of homicide, let us endeavour to lay down laws
concerning every different kind of homicides, and, first of all,
concerning violent and involuntary homicides. If any one in an
athletic contest, and at the public games, involuntarily kills a
friend, and he dies either at the time or afterwards of the blows
which he has received; or if the like misfortune happens to any one in
war, or military exercises, or mimic contests. of which the
magistrates enjoin the practice, whether with or without arms, when he
has been purified according to the law brought from Delphi relating to
these matters, he shall be innocent. And so in the case of physicians:
if their patient dies against their will, they shall be held guiltless
by the law. And if one slay another with his own hand, but
unintentionally, whether he be unarmed or have some instrument or dart
in his hand; or if he kill him by administering food or drink or by
the application of fire or cold, or by suffocating him, whether he
do the deed by his own hand, or by the agency of others, he shall be
deemed the agent, and shall suffer one of the following
penalties:-If he kill the slave of another in the belief that he is
his own, he shall bear the master of the dead man harmless from
loss, or shall pay a penalty of twice the value of the dead man, which
the judges shall assess; but purifications must be used greater and
more numerous than for those who committed homicide at the games;-what
they are to be, the interpreters whom the God appoints shall be
authorized to declare. And if a man kills his own slave, when he has
been purified according to laws he shall be quit of the homicide.
And if a man kills a freeman unintentionally, he shall undergo the
same purification as he did who killed the slave. But let him not
forget also a tale of olden time, which is to this effect:-He who
has suffered a violent end, when newly dead, if he has had the soul of
a freeman in life, is angry with the author of his death; and being
himself full of fear and panic by reason of his violent end, when he
sees his murderer walking about in his own accustomed haunts, he is
stricken with terror and becomes disordered, and this disorder of his,
aided by the guilty recollection of is communicated by him with
overwhelming force to the murderer and his deeds. Wherefore also the
murderer must go out of the way of his victim for the entire period of
a year, and not himself be found in any spot which was familiar to him
throughout the country. And if the dead man be a stranger, the
homicide shall be kept from the country of the stranger during a
like period. If any one voluntarily obeys this law, the next of kin to
the deceased, seeing all that has happened, shall take pity on him,
and make peace with him, and show him all gentleness. But if any one
is disobedient, either ventures to go to any of the temples and
sacrifice unpurified, or will not continue in exile during the
appointed time, the next of kin to the deceased shall proceed
against him for murder; and if he be convicted, every part of his
punishment shall be doubled.
  And if the next of kin do not proceed against the perpetrator of the
crime, then the pollution shall be deemed to fall upon his own
head;-the murdered man will fix the guilt upon his kinsman, and he who
has a mind to proceed against him may compel him to be absent from his
country during five years, according to law. If a stranger
unintentionally kill a stranger who is dwelling in the city, he who
likes shall prosecute the cause according to the same rules. If he
be a metic, let him be absent for a year, or if he be an entire
stranger, in addition to the purification, whether he have slain a
stranger, or a metic, or a citizen, he shall be banished for life from
the country which is in possession of our laws. And if he return
contrary to law, let the guardians of the law punish him with death;
and let them hand over his property, if he have any, to him who is
next of kin to the sufferer. And if he be wrecked, and driven on the
coast against his will, he shall take up his abode on the seashore,
wetting his feet in the sea, and watching for an opportunity of
sailing; but if he be brought by land, and is not his own master,
let the magistrate whom he first comes across in the city, release him
and send him unharmed over the border.
  If any one slays a freeman with his own hand and the deed be done in
passion, in the case of such actions we must begin by making a
distinction. For a deed is done from passion either when men suddenly,
and without intention to kill, cause the death of another by blows and
the like on a momentary impulse, and are sorry for the deed
immediately afterwards; or again, when after having been insulted in
deed or word, men pursue revenge, and kill a person intentionally, and
are not sorry for the act. And, therefore, we must assume that these
homicides are of two kinds, both of them arising from passion, which
may be justly said to be in a mean between the voluntary and
involuntary; at the same time, they are neither of them anything
more than a likeness or shadow of either. He who treasures up his
anger, and avenges himself, not immediately and at the moment, but
with insidious design, and after an interval, is like the voluntary;
but he who does not treasure up his anger, and takes vengeance on
the instant, and without malice prepense, approaches to the
involuntary; and yet even he is not altogether involuntary, but only
the image or shadow of the involuntary; wherefore about homicides
committed in hot blood, there is a difficulty in determining whether
in legislating we shall reckon them as voluntary or as partly
involuntary. The best and truest view is to regard them respectively
as likenesses only of the voluntary and involuntary, and to
distinguish them accordingly as they are done with or without
premeditation. And we should make the penalties heavier for those
who commit homicide with angry premeditation, and lighter for those
who do not premeditate, but smite upon the instant; for that which
is like a greater evil should be punished more severely, and that
which is like a less evil should be punished less severely: this shall
be the rule of our laws.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Let us proceed:-If any one slays a free man with his own
hand, and the deed be done in a moment of anger, and without
premeditation, let the offender suffer in other respects as the
involuntary homicide would have suffered, and also undergo an exile of
two years, that he may learn to school his passions. But he who
slays another from passion, yet with premeditation, shall in other
respects suffer as the former; and to this shall be added an exile
of three instead of two years-his punishment is to be longer because
his passion is greater. The manner of their return shall be on this
wise: (and here the law has difficulty in determining exactly; for
in some cases the murderer who is judged by the law to be the worse
may really be the less cruel, and he who is judged the less cruel
may be really the worse, and may have executed the murder in a more
savage manner, whereas the other may have been gentler. But in general
the degrees of guilt will be such as we have described them. Of all
these things the guardians of the law must take cognisance):-When a
homicide of either kind has completed his term of exile, the guardians
shall send twelve judges to the borders of the land; these during
the interval shall have informed themselves of the actions of the
criminals, and they shall judge respecting their pardon and reception;
and the homicides shall abide by their judgment. But if after they
have returned home, any one of them in a moment of anger repeats the
deed, let him be an exile, and return no more; or if he returns, let
him suffer as the stranger was to suffer in a similar case. He who
kills his own slave shall undergo a purification, but if he kills
the slave of another in anger, he shall pay twice the amount of the
loss to his owner. And if any homicide is disobedient to the law,
and without purification pollutes the agora, or the games, or the
temples, he who pleases may bring to trial the next of kin to the dead
man for permitting him, and the murderer with him, and may compel
the one to exact and the other to suffer a double amount of fines
and purifications; and the accuser shall himself receive the fine in
accordance with the law. If a slave in a fit of passion kills his
master, the kindred of the deceased man may do with the murderer
(provided only they do not spare his life) whatever they please, and
they will be pure; or if he kills a freeman, who is not his master,
the owner shall give up the slave to the relatives of the deceased,
and they shall be under an obligation to put him to death, but this
may be done in any manner which they please.
  And if (which is a rare occurrence, but does sometimes happen) a
father or a mother in a moment of passion slays a son or daughter by
blows, or some other violence, the slayer shall undergo the same
purification as in other cases, and be exiled during three years;
but when the exile returns the wife shall separate from the husband,
and the husband from the wife, and they shall never afterwards beget
children together, or live under the same roof, or partake of the same
sacred rites with those whom they have deprived of a child or of a
brother. And he who is impious and disobedient in such a case shall be
brought to trial for impiety by any one who pleases. If in a fit of
anger a husband kills his wedded wife, or the wife her husband, the
slayer shall undergo the same purification, and the term of exile
shall be three years. And when he who has committed any such crime
returns, let him have no communication in sacred rites with his
children, neither let him sit at the same table with them, and the
father or son who disobeys shall be liable to be brought to trial
for impiety by any one who pleases. If a brother or a sister in a
fit of passion kills a brother or a sister, they shall undergo
purification and exile, as was the case with parents who killed
their offspring: they shall not come under the same roof, or share
in the sacred rites of those whom they have deprived of their
brethren, or of their children.
  And he who is disobedient shall be justly liable to the law
concerning impiety, which relates to these matters. If any one is so
violent in his passion against his parents, that in the madness of his
anger he dares to kill one of them, if the murdered person before
dying freely forgives the murderer, let him undergo the purification
which is assigned to those who have been guilty of involuntary
homicide, and do as they do, and he shall be pure. But if he be not
acquitted, the perpetrator of such a deed shall be amenable to many
laws;-he shall be amenable to the extreme punishments for assault, and
impiety, and robbing of temples, for he has robbed his parent of life;
and if a man could be slain more than once, most justly would he who
in a fit of passion has slain father or mother, undergo many deaths.
How can he, whom, alone of all men, even in defence of his life, and
when about to suffer death at the hands of his parents, no law will
allow to kill his father or his mother who are the authors of his
being, and whom the legislator will command to endure any extremity
rather than do this-how can he, I say, lawfully receive any other
punishment? Let death then be the appointed punishment of him who in a
fit of passion slays his father or his mother. But if brother kills
brother in a civil broil, or under other like circumstances, if the
other has begun, and he only defends himself, let him be free from
guilt, as he would be if he had slain an enemy; and the same rule will
apply if a citizen kill a citizen, or a stranger a stranger. Or if a
stranger kill a citizen or a citizen a stranger in self-defence, let
him be free from guilt in like manner; and so in the case of a slave
who has killed a slave; but if a slave have killed a freeman in
self-defence, let him be subject to the same law as he who has
killed a father; and let the law about the remission of penalties in
the case of parricide apply equally to every other remission. Whenever
any sufferer of his own accord remits the guilt of homicide to
another, under the idea that his act was involuntary, let the
perpetrator of the deed undergo a purification and remain in exile for
a year, according to law.
  Enough has been said of murders violent and involuntary and
committed in passion: we have now to speak of voluntary crimes done
with injustice of every kind and with premeditation, through the
influence of pleasures, and desires, and jealousies.
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. Let us first speak, as far as we are able, of their various
kinds. The greatest cause of them is lust, which gets the mastery of
the soul maddened by desire; and this is most commonly found to
exist where the passion reigns which is strongest and most prevalent
among mass of mankind: I mean where the power of wealth breeds endless
desires of never-to-be-satisfied acquisition, originating in natural
disposition, and a miserable want of education. Of this want of
education, the false praise of wealth which is bruited about both
among Hellenes and barbarians is the cause; they deem that to be the
first of goods which in reality is only the third. And in this way
they wrong both posterity and themselves, for nothing can be nobler
and better than that the truth about wealth should be spoken in all
states-namely, that riches are for the sake of the body, as the body
is for the sake of the soul. They are good, and wealth is intended
by nature to be for the sake of them, and is therefore inferior to
them both, and third in order of excellence. This argument teaches
us that he who would be happy ought not to seek to be rich, or
rather he should seek to be rich justly and temperately, and then
there would be no murders in states requiring to be purged away by
other murders. But now, as I said at first, avarice is the chiefest
cause and source of the worst trials for voluntary homicide. A
second cause is ambition: this creates jealousies, which are
troublesome companions, above all to the jealous man himself, and in a
less degree to the chiefs of the state. And a third cause is
cowardly and unjust fear, which has been the occasion of many murders.
When a man is doing or has done something which he desires that no one
should know him to be doing or to have done, he will take the life
of those who are likely to inform of such things, if he have no
other means of getting rid of them. Let this be said as a prelude
concerning crimes of violence in general; and I must not omit to
mention a tradition which is firmly believed by many, and has been
received by them from those who are learned in the mysteries: they say
that such deeds will be punished in the world below, and also that
when the perpetrators return to this world they will pay the natural
penalty which is due to the sufferer, and end their lives in like
manner by the hand of another. If he who is about to commit murder
believes this, and is made by the mere prelude to dread such a
penalty, there is no need to proceed with the proclamation of the law.
But if he will not listen, let the following law be declared and
registered against him:
  Whoever shall wrongfully and of design slay with his own hand any of
his kinsmen, shall in the first place be deprived of legal privileges;
and he shall not pollute the temples, or the agora, or the harbours,
or any other place of meeting, whether he is forbidden of men or
not; for the law, which represents the whole state, forbids him, and
always is and will be in the attitude of forbidding him. And if a
cousin or nearer relative of the deceased, whether on the male or
female side, does not prosecute the homicide when he ought, and have
him proclaimed an outlaw, he shall in the first place be involved in
the pollution, and incur the hatred of the Gods, even as the curse
of the law stirs up the voices of men against him; and in the second
place he shall be liable to be prosecuted by any one who is willing to
inflict retribution on behalf of the dead. And he who would avenge a
murder shall observe all the precautionary ceremonies of lavation, and
any others which the God commands in cases of this kind. Let him
have proclamation made, and then go forth and compel the perpetrator
to suffer the execution of justice according to the law. Now the
legislator may easily show that these things must be accomplished by
prayers and sacrifices to certain Gods, who are concerned with the
prevention of murders in states. But who these Gods are, and what
should be the true manner of instituting such trials with due regard
to religion, the guardians of the law, aided by the interpreters,
and the prophets, and the God, shall determine, and when they have
determined let them carry on the prosecution at law. The cause shall
have the same judges who are appointed to decide in the case of
those who plunder temples. Let him who is convicted be punished with
death, and let him not be buried in the country of the murdered man,
for this would be shameless as well as impious. But if he fly and will
not stand his trial, let him fly for ever; or, if he set foot anywhere
on any part of the murdered man's country, let any relation of the
deceased, or any other citizen who may first happen to meet with
him, kill him with impunity, or bind and deliver him to those among
the judges of the case who are magistrates, that they may put him to
death. And let the prosecutor demand surety of him whom he prosecutes;
three sureties sufficient in the opinion of the magistrates who try
the cause shall be provided by him, and they shall undertake to
produce him at the trial. But if he be unwilling or unable to
provide sureties, then the magistrates shall take him and keep him
in bonds, and produce him at the day of trial.
  If a man do not commit a murder with his own hand, but contrives the
death of another, and is the author of the deed in intention and
design, and he continues to dwell in the city, having his soul not
pure of the guilt of murder, let him be tried in the same way,
except in what relates to the sureties; and also, if he be found
guilty, his body after execution may have burial in his native land,
but in all other respects his case shall be as the former; and whether
a stranger shall kill a citizen, or a citizen a stranger, or a slave a
slave, there shall be no difference as touching murder by one's own
hand or by contrivance, except in the matter of sureties; and these,
as has been said, shall be required of the actual murderer only, and
he who brings the accusation shall bind them over at the time. If a
slave be convicted of slaying a freeman voluntarily, either by his own
hand or by contrivance, let the public executioner take him in the
direction of the sepulchre, to a place whence he can see the tomb of
the dead man, and inflict upon him as many stripes as the person who
caught him orders, and if he survive, let him put him to death. And if
any one kills a slave who has done no wrong, because he is afraid that
he may inform of some base and evil deeds of his own, or for any
similar reason, in such a case let him pay the penalty of murder, as
he would have done if he had slain a citizen. There are things about
which it is terrible and unpleasant to legislate, but impossible not
to legislate. If, for example, there should be murders of kinsmen,
either perpetrated by the hands of kinsmen, or by their contrivance,
voluntary and purely malicious, which most often happen in
ill-regulated and ill-educated states, and may perhaps occur even in a
country where a man would not expect to find them, we must repeat once
more the tale which we narrated a little while ago, in the hope that
he who hears us will be the more disposed to abstain voluntarily on
these grounds from murders which are utterly abominable. For the myth,
or saying, or whatever we ought to call it, has been plainly set forth
by priests of old; they have pronounced that the justice which
guards and avenges the blood of kindred, follows the law of
retaliation, and ordains that he who has done any murderous act should
of necessity suffer that which he has done. He who has slain a
father shall himself be slain at some time or other by his children-if
a mother, he shall of necessity take a woman's nature, and lose his
life at the hands of his offspring in after ages; for where the
blood of a family has been polluted there is no other purification,
nor can the pollution be washed out until the homicidal soul which the
deed has given life for life, and has propitiated and laid to sleep
the wrath of the whole family. These are the retributions of Heaven,
and by such punishments men should be deterred. But if they are not
deterred, and any one should be incited by some fatality to deprive
his father or mother, or brethren, or children, of life voluntarily
and of purpose, for him the earthly lawgiver legislates as
follows:-There shall be the same proclamations about outlawry, and
there shall be the same sureties which have been enacted in the former
cases. But in his case, if he be convicted, the servants of the judges
and the magistrates shall slay him at an appointed place without the
city where three ways meet, and there expose his body naked, and
each of the magistrates on behalf of the whole city shall take a stone
and cast it upon the head of the dead man, and so deliver the city
from pollution; after that, they shall bear him to the borders of
the land, and cast him forth unburied, according to law. And what
shall he suffer who slays him who of all men, as they say, is his
own best friend? I mean the suicide, who deprives himself by
violence of his appointed share of life, not because the law of the
state requires him, nor yet under the compulsion of some painful and
inevitable misfortune which has come upon him, nor because he has
had to suffer from irremediable and intolerable shame, but who from
sloth or want of manliness imposes upon himself an unjust penalty. For
him, what ceremonies there are to be of purification and burial God
knows, and about these the next of kin should enquire of the
interpreters and of the laws thereto relating, and do according to
their injunctions. They who meet their death in this way shall be
buried alone, and none shall be laid by their side; they shall be
buried ingloriously in the borders of the twelve portions the land, in
such places as are uncultivated and nameless, and no column or
inscription shall mark the place of their interment. And if a beast of
burden or other animal cause the death of any one, except in the
case of anything of that kind happening to a competitor in the
public contests, the kinsmen of the deceased shall prosecute the
slayer for murder, and the wardens of the country, such, and so many
as the kinsmen appoint, shall try the cause, and let the beast when
condemned be slain by them, and let them cast it beyond the borders.
And if any lifeless thing deprive a man of life, except in the case of
a thunderbolt or other fatal dart sent from the Gods-whether a man
is killed by lifeless objects, falling upon him, or by his falling
upon them, the nearest of kin shall appoint the nearest neighbour to
be a judge, and thereby acquit himself and the whole family of
guilt. And he shall cast forth the guilty thing beyond the border,
as has been said about the animals.
  If a man is found dead, and his murderer be unknown, and after a
diligent search cannot be detected, there shall be the same
proclamation as in the previous cases, and the same interdict on the
murderer; and having proceeded against him, they shall proclaim in the
agora by a herald, that he who has slain such and such a person, and
has been convicted of murder, shall not set his foot in the temples,
nor at all in the country of the murdered man, and if he appears and
is discovered, he shall die, and be cast forth unburied beyond the
border. Let this one law then be laid down by us about murder; and let
cases of this sort be so regarded.
  And now let us say in what cases and under what circumstances the
murderer is rightly free from guilt:-If a man catch a thief coming,
into his house by night to steal, and he take and kill him, or if he
slay a footpad in self-defence, he shall be guiltless. And any one who
does violence to a free woman or a youth, shall be slain with impunity
by the injured person, or by his or her father or brothers or sons. If
a man find his wife suffering violence, he may kill the violator,
and be guiltless in the eye of the law; or if a person kill another in
warding off death from his father or mother or children or brethren or
wife who are doing no wrong, he shall assuredly be guiltless.
  Thus much as to the nurture and education of the living soul of man,
having which, he can, and without which, if he unfortunately be
without them, he cannot live; and also concerning the
punishments:-which are to be inflicted for violent deaths, let thus
much be enacted. Of the nurture and education of the body we have
spoken before, and next in order we have to speak of deeds of
violence, voluntary and involuntary, which men do to one another;
these we will now distinguish, as far as we are able, according to
their nature and number, and determine what will be the suitable
penalties of each, and so assign to them their proper place in the
series of our enactments. The poorest legislator will have no
difficulty in determining that wounds and mutilations arising out of
wounds should follow next in order after deaths. Let wounds be divided
as homicides were divided-into those which are involuntary, and
which are given in passion or from fear, and those inflicted
voluntarily and with premeditation. Concerning all this, we must
make some such proclamation as the following:-Mankind must have
laws, and conform to them, or their life would be as bad as that of
the most savage beast. And the reason of this is that no man's
nature is able to know what is best for human society; or knowing,
always able and willing to do what is best. In the first place,
there is a difficulty in apprehending that the true art or politics is
concerned, not with private but with public good (for public good
binds together states, but private only distracts them); and that both
the public and private good as well of individuals as of states is
greater when the state and not the individual is first considered.
In the second place, although a person knows in the abstract that this
is true, yet if he be possessed of absolute and irresponsible power,
he will never remain firm in his principles or persist in regarding
the public good as primary in the state, and the private good as
secondary. Human nature will be always drawing him into avarice and
selfishness, avoiding pain and pursuing Pleasure without any reason,
and will bring these to the front, obscuring the juster and better;
and so working darkness in his soul will at last fill with evils
both him and the whole city. For if a man were born so divinely gifted
that he could naturally apprehend the truth, he would have no need
of laws to rule over him; for there is no law or order which is
above knowledge, nor can mind, without impiety, be deemed the
subject or slave of any man, but rather the lord of all. I speak of
mind, true and free, and in harmony with nature. But then there is
no such mind anywhere, or at least not much; and therefore we must
choose law and order, which are second best. These look at things as
they exist for the most part only, and are unable to survey the
whole of them. And therefore I have spoken as I have.
  And now we will determine what penalty he ought to pay or suffer who
has hurt or wounded another. Any one may easily imagine the
questions which have to be asked in all such cases:-What did he wound,
or whom, or how, or when? for there are innumerable particulars of
this sort which greatly vary from one another. And to allow courts
of law to determine all these things, or not to determine any of them,
is alike impossible. There is one particular which they must determine
in all cases-the question of fact. And then, again, that the
legislator should not permit them to determine what punishment is to
be inflicted in any of these cases, but should himself decide about,
of them, small or great, is next to impossible.
  Cle. Then what is to be the inference?
  Ath. The inference is, that some things should be left to courts
of law; others the legislator must decide for himself.
  Cle. And what ought the legislator to decide, and what ought he to
leave to courts of law?
  Ath. I may reply, that in a state in which the courts are bad and
mute, because the judges conceal their opinions and decide causes
clandestinely; or what is worse, when they are disorderly and noisy,
as in a theatre, clapping or hooting in turn this or that orator-I say
that then there is a very serious evil, which affects the whole state.
Unfortunate is the necessity of having to legislate for such courts,
but where the necessity exists, the legislator should only allow
them to ordain the penalties for the smallest offences; if the state
for which he is legislating be of this character, he must take most
matters into his own hands and speak distinctly. But when a state
has good courts, and the judges are well trained and scrupulously
tested, the determination of the penalties or punishments which
shall be inflicted on the guilty may fairly and with advantage be left
to them. And we are not to be blamed for not legislating concerning
all that large class of matters which judges far worse educated than
ours would be able to determine, assigning to each offence what is due
both to the perpetrator and to the sufferer. We believe those for whom
we are legislating to be best able to judge, and therefore to them the
greater part may be left. At the same time, as I have often said, we
should exhibit to the judges, as we have done, the outline and form of
the punishments to be inflicted, and then they will not transgress the
just rule. That was an excellent practice, which we observed before,
and which now that we are resuming the work of legislation, may with
advantage be repeated by us.
  Let the enactment about wounding be in the following terms:-If
anyone has a purpose and intention to slay another who is not his
enemy, and whom the law does not permit him to slay, and he wounds
him, but is unable to kill him, he who had the intent and has
wounded him is not to be pitied-he deserves no consideration, but
should be regarded as a murderer and be tried for murder. Still having
respect to the fortune which has in a manner favoured him, and to
the providence which in pity to him and to the wounded man saved the
one from a fatal blow, and the other from an accursed fate and
calamity-as a thank-offering to this deity, and in order not to oppose
his will-in such a case the law will remit the punishment of death,
and only compel the offender to emigrate to a neighbouring city for
the rest of his life, where he shall remain in the enjoyment of all
his possessions. But if he have injured the wounded man, he shall make
such compensation for the injury as the court deciding the cause shall
assess, and the same judges shall decide who would have decided if the
man had died of his wounds. And if a child intentionally wound his
parents, or a servant his master, death shall be the penalty. And if a
brother ora sister intentionally wound a brother or a sister, and is
found guilty, death shall be the penalty. And if a husband wound a
wife, or a wife a husband, with intent to kill, let him or her undergo
perpetual exile; if they have sons or daughters who are still young,
the guardians shall take care of their property, and have charge of
the children as orphans. If their sons are grown up, they shall be
under no obligation to support the exiled parent, but they shall
possess the property themselves. And if he who meets with such a
misfortune has no children, the kindred of the exiled man to the
degree of sons of cousins, both on the male and female side, shall
meet together, and after taking counsel with the guardians of the
and the priests, shall appoint a 5040th citizen to be the heir of
the house, considering and reasoning that no house of all the 5040
belongs to the inhabitant or to the whole family, but is the public
and private property of the state. Now the state should seek to have
its houses as holy and happy as possible. And if any one of the houses
be unfortunate, and stained with impiety, and the owner leave no
posterity, but dies unmarried, or married and childless, having
suffered death as the penalty of murder or some other crime
committed against the Gods or against his fellow-citizens, of which
death is the penalty distinctly laid down in the law; or if any of the
citizens be in perpetual exile, and also childless, that house shall
first of all be purified and undergo expiation according to law; and
then let the kinsmen of the house, as we were just now saying, and the
guardians of the law, meet and consider what family there is in the
state which is of the highest repute for virtue and also for good
fortune, in which there are a number of sons; from that family let
them take one and introduce him to the father and forefathers of the
dead man as their son, and, for the sake of the omen, let him be
called so, that he may be the continuer of their family, the keeper of
their hearth, and the minister of their sacred rites with better
fortune than his father had; and when they have made this
supplication, they shall make him heir according to law, and the
offending person they shall leave nameless and childless and
portionless when calamities such as these overtake him.
  Now the boundaries of some things do not touch one another, but
there is a borderland which comes in between, preventing them from
touching. And we were saying that actions done from passion are of
this nature, and come in between the voluntary and involuntary. If a
person be convicted of having inflicted wounds in a passion, in the
first place he shall pay twice the amount of the injury, if the
wound be curable, or, if incurable, four times the amount of the
injury; or if the wound be curable, and at the same time cause great
and notable disgrace to the wounded person, he shall pay fourfold. And
whenever any one in wounding another injures not only the sufferer,
but also the city, and makes him incapable of defending his country
against the enemy, he, besides the other penalties, shall pay a
penalty for the loss which the state has incurred. And the penalty
shall be, that in addition to his own times of service, he shall serve
on behalf of the disabled person, and shall take his place in war; or,
if he refuse, he shall be liable to be convicted by law of refusal
to serve. The compensation for the injury, whether to be twofold or
threefold or fourfold, shall be fixed by the judges who convict him.
And if, in like manner, a brother wounds a brother, the parents and
kindred of either sex, including the children of cousins, whether on
the male or female side, shall meet, and when they have judged the
cause, they shall entrust the assessment of damages to the parents, as
is natural; and if the estimate be disputed, then the kinsmen on the
male side shall make the estimate, or if they cannot, they shall
commit the matter to the guardians of the law. And when similar
charges of wounding are brought by children against their parents,
those who are more than sixty years of age, having children of their
own, not adopted, shall be required to decide; and if any one is
convicted, they shall determine whether he or she ought to die, or
suffer some other punishment either greater than death, or, at any
rate, not much less. A kinsman of the offender shall not be allowed to
judge the cause, not even if he be of the age which is prescribed by
the law. If a slave in a fit of anger wound a freeman, the owner of
the slave shall give him up to the wounded man, who may do as he
pleases with him, and if be not give him up he shall himself make good
the injury. And if any one says that the slave and the wounded man are
conspiring together, let him argue the point, and if he is cast, he
shall pay for the wrong three times over, but if he gains his case,
the freeman who conspired with the slave shall reliable to an action
for kidnapping. And if any one unintentionally wounds another he shall
simply pay for the harm, for no legislator is able to control
chance. In such a case the judges shall be the same as those who are
appointed in the case of children suing their parents; and they
shall estimate the amount of the injury.
  All the preceding injuries and every kind of assault are deeds of
violence; and every man, woman, or child ought to consider that the
elder has the precedence of the younger in honour, both among the Gods
and also among men who would live in security and happiness. Wherefore
it is a foul thing and hateful to the Gods to see an elder man
assaulted by a younger in the city; and it is reasonable that a
young man when struck by an elder should lightly endure his anger,
laying up in store for himself a like honour when he is old. Let
this be the law:-Every one shall reverence his elder in word and deed;
he shall respect any one who is twenty years older than himself,
whether male or female, regarding him or her as his father or
mother; and he shall abstain from laying hands on any one who is of an
age to have been his father or his mother, out of reverence to the
Gods who preside over birth; similarly he shall keep his hands from
a stranger, whether he be an old inhabitant or newly arrived; he shall
not venture to correct such an one by blows, either as the aggressor
or in self-defence. If he thinks that some stranger has struck him out
of wantonness or insolence, and ought to be punished, he shall take
him to the wardens of the city, but let him not strike him, that the
stranger may be kept far away from the possibility of lifting up his
hand against a citizen, and let the wardens of the city take the
offender and examine him, not forgetting their duty to the God of
Strangers, and in case the stranger appears to have struck the citizen
unjustly, let them inflict upon him as many blows with the scourge
as he has himself inflicted, and quell his presumption. But if he be
innocent, they shall threaten and rebuke the man who arrested him, and
let them both go. If a person strikes another of the same age or
somewhat older than himself, who has no children, whether he be an old
man who strikes an old man or a young man who strikes a young man, let
the person struck defend himself in the natural way without a weapon
and with his hands only. He who, being more than forty years of age,
dares to fight with another, whether he be the aggressor or in self
defence, shall be regarded as rude and ill-mannered and
slavish;-this will be a disgraceful punishment, and therefore suitable
to him. The obedient nature will readily yield to such exhortations,
but the disobedient, who heeds not the prelude, shall have the law
ready for him:-If any man smite another who is older than himself,
either by twenty or by more years, in the first place, he who is at
hand, not being younger than the combatants, nor their equal in age,
shall separate them, or be disgraced according to law; but if he be
the equal in age of the person who is struck or younger, he shall
defend the person injured as he would a brother or father or still
older relative. Further, let him who dares to smite an elder be
tried for assault, as I have said, and if he be found guilty, let
him be imprisoned for a period of not less than a year, or if the
judges approve of a longer period, their decision shall be final.
But if a stranger or metic smite one who is older by twenty years or
more, the same law shall hold about the bystanders assisting, and he
who is found guilty in such a suit, if he be a stranger but not
resident, shall be imprisoned during a period of two years; and a
metic who disobeys the laws shall be imprisoned for three years,
unless the court assign him a longer term. And let him who was present
in any of these cases and did not assist according to law be punished,
if he be of the highest dass, by paying a fine of a mina; or if he
be of the second class, of fifty drachmas; or if of the third class,
by a fine of thirty drachmas; or if he be of the fourth class, by a
fine of twenty drachmas; and the generals and taxiarchs and
phylarchs and hipparchs shall form the court in such cases.
  Laws are partly framed for the sake of good men, in order to
instruct them how they thay live on friendly terms with one another,
and partly for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose
spirit cannot be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging
into evil. These are the persons who cause the word to be spoken which
I am about to utter; for them the legislator legislates of
necessity, and in the hope that there may be no need of his laws. He
who shall dare to lay violent hands upon his father or mother, or
any still older relative, having no fear either of the wrath of the
Gods above, or of the punishments that are spoken of in the world
below, but transgresses in contempt of ancient and universal
traditions as though he were too wise to believe in them, requires
some extreme measure of prevention. Now death is not the worst that
can happen to men; far worse are the punishments which are said to
pursue them in the world below. But although they are most true tales,
they work on such souls no prevention; for if they had any effect
there would be no slayers of mothers, or impious hands lifted up
against parents; and therefore the punishments of this world which are
inflicted during life ought not in such cases to fall short, if
possible, of the terrors of the world below. Let our enactment then be
as follows:-If a man dare to strike his father or his mother, or their
fathers or mothers, he being at the time of sound mind, then let any
one who is at hand come to the rescue as has been already said, and
the metic or stranger who comes to the rescue shall be called to the
first place in the games; but if he do not come he shall suffer the
punishment of perpetual exile. He who is not a metic, if he comes to
the rescue, shall have praise, and if he do not come, blame. And if
a slave come to the rescue, let him be made free, but if he do not
come the rescue, let him receive 100 strokes of the whip, by order
of the wardens of the agora, if the occurrence take place in the
agora; or if somewhere in the city beyond the limits of the agora, any
warden of the city is in residence shall punish him; or if in the
country, then the commanders of the wardens of the country. If those
who are near at the time be inhabitants of the same place, whether
they be youths, or men, or women, let them come to the rescue and
denounce him as the impious one; and he who does not come to the
rescue shall fall under the curse of Zeus, the God of kindred and of
ancestors, according to law. And if any one is found guilty of
assaulting a parent, let him in the first place be for ever banished
from the city into the country, and let him abstain from the
temples; and if he do not abstain, the wardens of the country shall
punish him with blows, or in any way which they please, and if he
return he shall be put to death. And if any freeman eat or drink, or
have any other sort of intercourse with him, or only meeting him
have voluntarily touched him, he shall not enter into any temple,
nor into the agora, nor into the city, until he is purified; for he
should consider that he has become tainted by a curse. And if he
disobeys the law, and pollutes the city and the temples contrary to
law, and one of the magistrates sees him and does not indict him, when
he gives in his account this omission shall be a most serious charge.
  If a slave strike a freeman, whether a stranger or a citizen, let
any one who is present come to the rescue, or pay the penalty
already mentioned; and let the bystanders bind him, and deliver him up
to the injured person, and he receiving him shall put him in chains,
and inflict on him as many stripes as he pleases; but having
punished him he must surrender him to his master according to law, and
not deprive him of his property. Let the law be as follows:-The
slave who strikes a freeman, not at the command of the magistrates,
his owner shall receive bound from the man whom he has stricken, and
not release him until the slave has persuaded the man whom he has
stricken that he ought to be released. And let there be the same
laws about women in relation to women, about men and women in relation
to one another.
  BOOK X

  And now having spoken of assaults, let us sum up all acts of
violence under a single law, which shall be as follows:-No one shall
take or carry away any of his neighbour's goods, neither shall he
use anything which is his neighbour's without the consent of the
owner; for these are the offences which are and have been, and will
ever be, the source of all the aforesaid evils. The greatest of them
are excesses and insolences of youth, and are offences against the
greatest when they are done against religion; and especially great
when in violation of public and holy rites, or of the partly-common
rites in which tribes and phratries share; and in the second degree
great when they are committed against private rites and sepulchres,
and in the third degree (not to repeat the acts formerly mentioned),
when insults are offered to parents; the fourth kind of violence is
when any one, regardless of the authority of the rulers, takes or
carries away or makes use of anything which belongs to them, not
having their consent; and the fifth kind is when the violation of
the civil rights of an individual demands reparation. There should
be a common law embracing all these cases. For we have already said in
general terms what shall be the punishment of sacrilege, whether
fraudulent or violent, and now we have to determine what is to be
the punishment of those who speak or act insolently toward the Gods.
But first we must give them an admonition which may be in the
following terms:-No one who in obedience to the laws believed that
there were Gods, ever intentionally did any unholy act, or uttered any
unlawful word; but he who did must have supposed one of three
things-either that they did not exist,-which is the first possibility,
or secondly, that, if they did, they took no care of man, or
thirdly, that they were easily appeased and turned aside from their
purpose, by sacrifices and prayers.
  Cleinias. What shall we say or do to these persons?
  Athenian Stranger. My good friend, let us first hear the jests which
I suspect that they in their superiority will utter against us.
  Cle. What jests?
  Ath. They will make some irreverent speech of this sort:-"O
inhabitants of Athens, and Sparta, and Cnosus," they will reply, "in
that you speak truly; for some of us deny the very existence of the
Gods, while others, as you say, are of opinion that they do not care
about us; and others that they are turned from their course by
gifts. Now we have a right to claim, as you yourself allowed, in the
matter of laws, that before you are hard upon us and threaten us,
you should argue with us and convince us-you should first attempt to
teach and persuade us that there are Gods by reasonable evidences, and
also that they are too good to be unrighteous, or to be propitiated,
or turned from their course by gifts. For when we hear such things
said of them by those who are esteemed to be the best of poets, and
orators, and prophets, and priests, and by innumerable others, the
thoughts of most of us are not set upon abstaining from unrighteous
acts, but upon doing them and atoning for them. When lawgivers profess
that they are gentle and not stern, we think that they should first of
all use persuasion to us, and show us the existence of Gods, if not in
a better manner than other men, at any rate in a truer; and who
knows but that we shall hearken to you? If then our request is a
fair one, please to accept our challenge."
  Cle. But is there any difficulty in proving the existence of the
Gods?
  Ath. How would you prove it?
  Cle. How? In the first place, the earth and the sun, and the stars
and the universe, and the fair order of the seasons, and the
division of them into years and months, furnish proofs of their
existence; and also there is the fact that all Hellenes and barbarians
believe in them.
  Ath. I fear, my sweet friend, though I will not say that I much
regard, the contempt with which the profane will be likely to assail
us. For you do not understand the nature of their complaint, and you
fancy that they rush into impiety only from a love of sensual
pleasure.
  Cle. Why, Stranger, what other reason is there?
  Ath. One which you who live in a different atmosphere would never
guess.
  Cle. What is it?
  Ath. A very grievous sort of ignorance which is imagined to be the
greatest wisdom.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. At Athens there are tales preserved in writing which the virtue
of your state, as I am informed, refuses to admit. They speak of the
Gods in prose as well as verse, and the oldest of them tell of the
origin of the heavens and of the world, and not far from the beginning
of their story they proceed to narrate the birth of the Gods, and
how after they were born they behaved to one another. Whether these
stories have in other ways a good or a bad influence, I should not
like to be severe upon them, because they are ancient; but, looking at
them with reference to the duties of children to their parents, I
cannot praise them, or think that they are useful, or at all true.
Of the words of the ancients I have nothing more to say; and I
should wish to say of them only what is pleasing to the Gods. But as
to our younger generation and their wisdom, I cannot let them off when
they do mischief. For do but mark the effect of their words: when
you and I argue for the existence of the Gods, and produce the sun,
moon, stars, and earth, claiming for them a divine being, if we
would listen to the aforesaid philosophers we should say that they are
earth and stones only, which can have no care at all of human affairs,
and that all religion is a cooking up of words and a make-believe.
  Cle. One such teacher, O Stranger, would be bad enough, and you
imply that there are many of them, which is worse.
  Ath. Well, then; what shall we say or do?-Shall we assume that
some one is accusing us among unholy men, who are trying to escape
from the effect of our legislation; and that they say of us-How
dreadful that you should legislate on the supposition that there are
Gods! Shall we make a defence of ourselves? or shall we leave them and
return to our laws, lest the prelude should become longer than the
law? For the discourse will certainly extend to great length, if we
are to treat the impiously disposed as they desire, partly
demonstrating to them at some length the things of which they demand
an explanation, partly making them afraid or dissatisfied, and then
proceed to the requisite enactments.
  Cle. Yes, Stranger; but then how often have we repeated already that
on the present occasion there is no reason why brevity should be
preferred to length; who is "at our heels"?-as the saying goes, and it
would be paltry and ridiculous to prefer the shorter to the better. It
is a matter of no small consequence, in some way or other to prove
that there are Gods, and that they are good, and regard justice more
than men do. The demonstration of this would be the best and noblest
prelude of all our laws. And therefore, without impatience, and
without hurry, let us unreservedly consider the whole matter,
summoning up all the power of persuasion which we possess.
  Ath. Seeing you thus in earnest, I would fain offer up a prayer that
I may succeed:-but I must proceed at once. Who can be calm when he
is called upon to prove the existence of the Gods? Who can avoid
hating and abhorring the men who are and have been the cause of this
argument; I speak of those who will not believe the tales which they
have heard as babes and sucklings from their mothers and nurses,
repeated by them both in jest and earnest, like charms, who have
also heard them in the sacrificial prayers, and seen sights
accompanying them-sights and sounds delightful to children-and their
parents during the sacrifices showing an intense earnestness on behalf
of their children and of themselves, and with eager interest talking
to the Gods, and beseeching them, as though they were firmly convinced
of their existence; who likewise see and hear the prostrations and
invocations which are made by Hellenes and barbarians at the rising
and setting of the sun and moon, in all the vicissitudes of life,
not as if they thought that there were no Gods, but as if there
could be no doubt of their existence, and no suspicion of their
non-existence; when men, knowing all these things, despise them on
no real grounds, as would be admitted by all who have any particle
of intelligence, and when they force us to say what we are now saying,
how can any one in gentle terms remonstrate with the like of them,
when he has to begin by proving to them the very existence of the
Gods? Yet the attempt must be made; for it would be unseemly that
one half of mankind should go mad in their lust of pleasure, and the
other half in their indignation at such persons. Our address to
these lost and perverted natures should not be spoken in passion;
let us suppose ourselves to select some one of them, and gently reason
with him, smothering our anger:-O my son, we will say to him, you
are young, and the advance of time will make you reverse may of the
opinions which you now hold. Wait awhile, and do not attempt to
judge at present of the highest things; and that is the highest of
which you now think nothing-to know the Gods rightly and to live
accordingly. And in the first place let me indicate to you one point
which is of great importance, and about which I cannot be
deceived:-You and your friends are not the first who have held this
opinion about the Gods. There have always been persons more or less
numerous who have had the same disorder. I have known many of them,
and can tell you, that no one who had taken up in youth this
opinion, that the Gods do not exist, ever continued in the same
until he was old; the two other notions certainly do continue in
some cases, but not in many; the notion, I mean, that the Gods
exist, but take no heed of human things, and the other notion that
they do take heed of them, but are easily propitiated with
sacrifices and prayers. As to the opinion about the Gods which may
some day become clear to you, I advise you go wait and consider if
it be true or not; ask of others, and above all of the legislator.
In the meantime take care that you do not offend against the Gods. For
the duty of the legislator is and always will be to teach you the
truth of these matters.
  Cle. Our address, Stranger, thus far, is excellent.
  Ath. Quite true, Megillus and Cleinias, but I am afraid that we have
unconsciously lighted on a strange doctrine.
  Cle. What doctrine do you mean?
  Ath. The wisest of all doctrines, in the opinion of many.
  Cle. I wish that you would speak plainer.
  Ath. The doctrine that all things do become, have become, and will
become, some by nature, some by art, and some by chance.
  Cle. Is not that true?
  Ath. Well, philosophers are probably right; at any rate we may as
well follow in their track, and examine what is the meaning of them
and their disciples.
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. They say that the greatest and fairest things are the work of
nature and of chance, the lesser of art, which, receiving from
nature the greater and primeval creations, moulds and fashions all
those lesser works which are generally termed artificial.
  Cle. How is that?
  Ath. I will explain my meaning still more clearly. They say that
fire and water, and earth and air, all exist by nature and chance, and
none of them by art, and that as to the bodies which come next in
order-earth, and sun, and moon, and stars-they have been created by
means of these absolutely inanimate existences. The elements are
severally moved by chance and some inherent force according to certain
affinities among them-of hot with cold, or of dry with moist, or of
soft with hard, and according to all the other accidental admixtures
of opposites which have been formed by necessity. After this fashion
and in this manner the whole heaven has been created, and all that
is in the heaven, as well as animals and all plants, and all the
seasons come from these elements, not by the action of mind, as they
say, or of any God, or from art, but as I was saying, by nature and
chance only. Art sprang up afterwards and out of these, mortal and
of mortal birth, and produced in play certain images and very
partial imitations of the truth, having an affinity to one another,
such as music and painting create and their companion arts. And
there are other arts which have a serious purpose, and these
co-operate with nature, such, for example, as medicine, and husbandry,
and gymnastic. And they say that politics cooperate with nature, but
in a less degree, and have more of art; also that legislation is
entirely a work of art, and is based on assumptions which are not
true.
  Cle. How do you mean?
  Ath. In the first place, my dear friend, these people would say that
the Gods exist not by nature, but by art, and by the laws of states,
which are different in different places, according to the agreement of
those who make them; and that the honourable is one thing by nature
and another thing by law, and that the principles of justice have no
existence at all in nature, but that mankind are always disputing
about them and altering them; and that the alterations which are
made by art and by law have no basis in nature, but are of authority
for the moment and at the time at which they are made.-These, my
friends, are the sayings of wise men, poets and prose writers, which
find a way into the minds of youth. They are told by them that the
highest right is might, and in this way the young fall into impieties,
under the idea that the Gods are not such as the law bids them
imagine; and hence arise factions, these philosophers inviting them to
lead a true life according to nature, that is, to live in real
dominion over others, and not in legal subjection to them.
  Cle. What a dreadful picture, Stranger, have you given, and how
great is the injury which is thus inflicted on young men to the ruin
both of states and families!
  Ath. True, Cleinias; but then what should the lawgiver do when
this evil is of long standing? should he only rise up in the state and
threaten all mankind, proclaiming that if they will not say and
think that the Gods are such as the law ordains (and this may be
extended generally to the honourable, the just, and to all the highest
things, and to all that relates to virtue and vice), and if they
will not make their actions conform to the copy which the law gives
them, then he who refuses to obey the law shall die, or suffer stripes
and bonds, or privation of citizenship, or in some cases be punished
by loss of property and exile? Should he not rather, when he is making
laws for men, at the same time infuse the spirit of persuasion into
his words, and mitigate the severity of them as far as he can?
  Cle. Why, Stranger, if such persuasion be at all possible, then a
legislator who has anything in him ought never to weary of
persuading men; he ought to leave nothing unsaid in support of the
ancient opinion that there are Gods, and of all those other truths
which you were just now mentioning; he ought to support the law and
also art, and acknowledge that both alike exist by nature, and no less
than nature, if they are the creations of mind in accordance with
right reason, you appear to me to maintain, and I am disposed to agree
with you in thinking.
  Ath. Yes, my enthusiastic Cleinias; but are not these things when
spoken to a multitude hard to be understood, not to mention that
they take up a dismal length of time?
  Cle. Why, Stranger, shall we, whose patience failed not when
drinking or music were the themes of discourse, weary now of
discoursing about the Gods, and about divine things? And the
greatest help to rational legislation is that the laws when once
written down are always at rest; they can be put to the test at any
future time, and therefore, if on first hearing they seem difficult,
there is no reason for apprehension about them, because any man
however dull can go over them and consider them again and again; nor
if they are tedious but useful, is there any reason or religion, as it
seems to me, in any man refusing to maintain the principles of them to
the utmost of his power.
  Megillus. Stranger, I like what Cleinias is saying.
  Ath. Yes, Megillus, and we should do as he proposes; for if
impious discourses were not scattered, as I may say, throughout the
world, there would have been no need for any vindication of the
existence of the Gods-but seeing that they are spread far and wide,
such arguments are needed; and who should come to the rescue of the
greatest laws, when they are being undermined by bad men, but the
legislator himself?
  Meg. There is no more proper champion of them.
  Ath. Well, then, tell me, Cleinias-for I must ask you to be my
partner-does not he who talks in this way conceive fire and water
and earth and air to be the first elements of all things? These he
calls nature, and out of these he supposes the soul to be formed
afterwards; and this is not a mere conjecture of ours about his
meaning, but is what he really means.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Then, by Heaven, we have discovered the source of this vain
opinion of all those physical investigators; and I would have you
examine their arguments with the utmost care, for their impiety is a
very serious matter; they not only make a bad and mistaken use of
argument, but they lead away the minds of others: that is my opinion
of them.
  Cle. You are right; but I should like to know how this happens.
  Ath. I fear that the argument may seem singular.
  Cle. Do not hesitate, Stranger; I see that you are afraid of such
a discussion carrying you beyond the limits of legislation. But if
there be no other way of showing our agreement in the belief that
there are Gods, of whom the law is said now to approve, let us take
this way, my good sir.
  Ath. Then I suppose that I must repeat the singular argument of
those who manufacture the soul according to their own impious notions;
they affirm that which is the first cause of the generation and
destruction of all things, to be not first, but last, and that which
is last to be first, and hence they have fallen into error about the
true nature of the Gods.
  Cle. Still I do not understand you.
  Ath. Nearly all of them, my friends, seem to be ignorant of the
nature and power of the soul, especially in what relates to her
origin: they do not know that she is among the first of things, and
before all bodies, and is the chief author of their changes and
transpositions. And if this is true, and if the soul is older than the
body, must not the things which are of the soul's kindred be of
necessity prior to those which appertain to the body?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Then thought and attention and mind and art and law will be
prior to that which is hard and soft and heavy and light; and the
great and primitive works and actions will be works of art; they
will be the first, and after them will come nature and works of
nature, which however is a wrong term for men to apply to them;
these will follow, and will be under the government of art and mind.
  Cle. But why is the word "nature" wrong?
  Ath. Because those who use the term mean to say that nature is the
first creative power; but if the soul turn out to be the primeval
element, and not fire or air, then in the truest sense and beyond
other things the soul may be said to exist by nature; and this would
be true if you proved that the soul is older than the body, but not
otherwise.
  Cle. You are quite right.
  Ath. Shall we, then, take this as the next point to which our
attention should be directed?
  Cle. By all means.
  Ath. Let us be on our guard lest this most deceptive argument with
its youthful looks, beguiling us old men, give us the slip and make
a laughing-stock of us. Who knows but we may be aiming at the greater,
and fail of attaining the lesser? Suppose that we three have to pass a
rapid river, and I, being the youngest of the three and experienced in
rivers, take upon me the duty of making the attempt first by myself;
leaving you in safety on the bank, I am to examine whether the river
is passable by older men like yourselves, and if such appears to be
the case then I shall invite you to follow, and my experience will
help to convey you across; but if the river is impassable by you, then
there will have been no danger to anybody but myself-would not that
seem to be a very fair proposal? I mean to say that the argument in
prospect is likely to be too much for you, out of your depth and
beyond your strength, and I should be afraid that the stream of my
questions might create in you who are not in the habit of answering,
giddiness and confusion of mind, and hence a feeling of unpleasantness
and unsuitableness might arise. I think therefore that I had better
first ask the questions and then answer them myself while you listen
in safety; in that way I can carry on the argument until I have
completed the proof that the soul is prior to the body.
  Cle. Excellent, Stranger, and I hope that you will do as you
propose.
  Ath. Come, then, and if ever we are to call upon the Gods, let us
call upon them now in all seriousness to come to the demonstration
of their own existence. And so holding fast to the rope we will
venture upon the depths of the argument. When questions of this sort
are asked of me, my safest answer would appear to be as
follows:-Some one says to me, "O Stranger, are all things at rest
and nothing in motion, or is the exact opposite of this true, or are
some things in motion and others at rest?-To this I shall reply that
some things are in motion and others at rest. "And do not things which
move a place, and are not the things which are at rest at rest in a
place?" Certainly. "And some move or rest in one place and some in
more places than one?" You mean to say, we shall rejoin, that those
things which rest at the centre move in one place, just as the
circumference goes round of globes which are said to be at rest?
"Yes." And we observe that, in the revolution, the motion which
carries round the larger and the lesser circle at the same time is
proportionally distributed to greater and smaller, and is greater
and smaller in a certain proportion. Here is a wonder which might be
thought an impossibility, that the same motion should impart swiftness
and slowness in due proportion to larger and lesser circles. "Very
true." And when you speak of bodies moving in many places, you seem to
me to mean those which move from one place to another, and sometimes
have one centre of motion and sometimes more than one because they
turn upon their axis; and whenever they meet anything, if it be
stationary, they are divided by it; but if they get in the midst
between bodies which are approaching and moving towards the same
spot from opposite directions, they unite with them. "I admit the
truth of what you are saying." Also when they unite they grow, and
when they are divided they waste away-that is, supposing the
constitution of each to remain, or if that fails, then there is a
second reason of their dissolution. "And when are all things created
and how?" Clearly, they are created when the first principle
receives increase and attains to the second dimension, and from this
arrives at the one which is neighbour to this, and after reaching
the third becomes perceptible to sense. Everything which is thus
changing and moving is in process of generation; only when at rest has
it real existence, but when passing into another state it is destroyed
utterly. Have we not mentioned all motions that there are, and
comprehended them under their kinds and numbered them with the
exception, my friends, of two?
  Cle. Which are they?
  Ath. Just the two, with which our present enquiry is concerned.
  Cle. Speak plainer.
  Ath. I suppose that our enquiry has reference to the soul?
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Let us assume that there is a motion able to move other things,
but not to move itself;-that is one kind; and there is another kind
which can move itself as well as other things, working in
composition and decomposition, by increase and diminution and
generation and destruction-that is also one of the many kinds of
motion.
  Cle. Granted.
  Ath. And we will assume that which moves other, and is changed by
other, to be the ninth, and that which changes itself and others,
and is co-incident with every action and every passion, and is the
true principle of change and motion in all that is-that we shall be
inclined to call the tenth.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And which of these ten motions ought we to prefer as being
the mightiest and most efficient?
  Cle. I must say that the motion which is able to move itself is
ten thousand times superior to all the others.
  Ath. Very good; but may I make one or two corrections in what I have
been saying?
  Cle. What are they?
  Ath. When I spoke of the tenth sort of motion, that was not quite
correct.
  Cle. What was the error?
  Ath. According to the true order, the tenth was really the first
in generation and power; then follows the second, which was
strangely enough termed the ninth by us.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. I mean this: when one thing changes another, and that
another, of such will there be any primary changing element? How can a
thing which is moved by another ever be the beginning of change?
Impossible. But when the self-moved changes other, and that again
other, and thus thousands upon tens of thousands of bodies are set
in motion, must not the beginning of all this motion be the change
of the self-moving principle?
  Cle. Very true, and I quite agree.
  Ath. Or, to put the question in another way, making answer to
ourselves:-If, as most of these philosophers have the audacity to
affirm, all things were at rest in one mass, which of the
above-mentioned principles of motion would first spring up among them?
  Cle. Clearly the self-moving; for there could be no change in them
arising out of any external cause; the change must first take place in
themselves.
  Ath. Then we must say that self-motion being the origin of all
motions, and the first which arises among things at rest as well as
among things in motion, is the eldest and mightiest principle of
change, and that which is changed by another and yet moves other is
second.
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. At this stage of the argument let us put a question.
  Cle. What question?
  Ath. If we were to see this power existing in any earthy, watery, or
fiery substance, simple or compound-how should we describe it?
  Cle. You mean to ask whether we should call such a self-moving power
life?
  Ath. I do.
  Cle. Certainly we should.
  Ath. And when we see soul in anything, must we not do the
same-must we not admit that this is life?
  Cle. We must.
  Ath. And now, I beseech you, reflect;-you would admit that we have a
threefold knowledge of things?
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. I mean that we know the essence, and that we know the
definition of the essence, and the name,-these are the three; and
there are two questions which may be raised about anything.
  Cle. How two?
  Ath. Sometimes a person may give the name and ask the definition; or
he may give the definition and ask the name. I may illustrate what I
mean in this way.
  Cle. How?
  Ath. Number like some other things is capable of being divided
into equal parts; when thus divided, number is named "even," and the
definition of the name "even" is "number divisible into two equal
parts"?
  Cle. True.
  Ath. I mean, that when we are asked about the definition and give
the name, or when we are asked about the name and give the
definition-in either case, whether we give name or definition, we
speak of the same thing, calling "even" the number which is divided
into two equal parts.
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. And what is the definition of that which is named "soul"? Can
we conceive of any other than that which has been already given-the
motion which can move itself?
  Cle. You mean to say that the essence which is defined as the
self-moved is the same with that which has the name soul?
  Ath. Yes; and if this is true, do we still maintain that there is
anything wanting in the proof that the soul is the first origin and
moving power of all that is, or has become, or will be, and their
contraries, when she has been clearly shown to be the source of change
and motion in all things?
  Cle. Certainly not; the soul as being the source of motion, has been
most satisfactorily shown to be the oldest of all things.
  Ath. And is not that motion which is produced in another, by
reason of another, but never has any self-moving power at all, being
in truth the change of an inanimate body, to be reckoned second, or by
any lower number which you may prefer?
  Cle. Exactly.
  Ath. Then we are right, and speak the most perfect and absolute
truth, when we say that the soul is prior to the body, and that the
body is second and comes afterwards, and is born to obey the soul,
which is the ruler?
  Cle. Nothing can be more true.
  Ath. Do you remember our old admission, that if the soul was prior
to the body the things of the soul were also prior to those of the
body?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Then characters and manners, and wishes and reasonings, and
true opinions, and reflections, and recollections are prior to
length and breadth and depth and strength of bodies, if the soul is
prior to the body.
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. In the next place, must we not of necessity admit that the soul
is the cause of good and evil, base and honourable, just and unjust,
and of all other opposites, if we suppose her to be the cause of all
things?
  Cle. We must.
  Ath. And as the soul orders and inhabits all things that move,
however moving, must we not say that she orders also the heavens?
  Cle. Of course.
  Ath. One soul or more? More than one-I will answer for you; at any
rate, we must not suppose that there are less than two-one the
author of good, and the other of evil.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Yes, very true; the soul then directs all things in heaven, and
earth, and sea by her movements, and these are described by the
terms-will, consideration, attention, deliberation, opinion true and
false, joy and sorrow, confidence, fear, hatred, love, and other
primary motions akin to these; which again receive the secondary
motions of corporeal substances, and guide all things to growth and
decay, to composition and decomposition, and to the qualities which
accompany them, such as heat and cold, heaviness and lightness,
hardness and softness, blackness and whiteness, bitterness and
sweetness, and all those other qualities which the soul uses,
herself a goddess, when truly receiving the divine mind she
disciplines all things rightly to their happiness; but when she is the
companion of folly, she does the very contrary of all this. Shall we
assume so much, or do we still entertain doubts?
  Cle. There is no room at all for doubt.
  Ath. Shall we say then that it is the soul which controls heaven and
earth, and the whole world?-that it is a principle of wisdom and
virtue, or a principle which has neither wisdom nor virtue? Suppose
that we make answer as follows:-
  Cle. How would you answer?
  Ath. If, my friend, we say that the whole path and movement of
heaven, and of all that is therein, is by nature akin to the
movement and revolution and calculation of mind, and proceeds by
kindred laws, then, as is plain, we must say that the best soul
takes care of the world and guides it along the good path.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. But if the world moves wildly and irregularly, then the evil
soul guides it.
  Cle. True again.
  Ath. Of what nature is the movement of mind?-To this question it
is not easy to give an intelligent answer; and therefore I ought to
assist you in framing one.
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. Then let us not answer as if we would look straight at the sun,
making ourselves darkness at midday-I mean as if we were under the
impression that we could see with mortal eyes, or know adequately
the nature of mind;-it will be safer to look at the image only.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. Let us select of the ten motions the one which mind chiefly
resembles; this I will bring to your recollection, and will then
make the answer on behalf of us all.
  Cle. That will be excellent.
  Ath. You will surely remember our saying that all things were either
at rest or in motion?
  Cle. I do.
  Ath. And that of things in motion some were moving in one place, and
others in more than one?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. Of these two kinds of motion, that which moves in one place
must move about a centre like globes made in a lathe, and is most
entirely akin and similar to the circular movement of mind.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. In saying that both mind and the motion which is in one place
move in the same and like manner, in and about the same, and in
relation to the same, and according to one proportion and order, and
are like the motion of a globe, we invented a fair image, which does
no discredit to our ingenuity.
  Cle. It does us great credit.
  Ath. And the motion of the other sort which is not after the same
manner, nor in the same, nor about the same, nor in relation to the
same, nor in one place, nor in order, nor according to any rule or
proportion, may be said to be akin to senselessness and folly?
  Cle. That is most true.
  Ath. Then, after what has been said, there is no difficulty in
distinctly stating, that since soul carries all things round, either
the best soul or the contrary must of necessity carry round and
order and arrange the revolution of the heaven.
  Cle. And judging from what has been said, Stranger, there would be
impiety in asserting that any but the most perfect soul or souls
carries round the heavens.
  Ath. You have understood my meaning right well, Cleinias, and now
let me ask you another question.
  Cle. What are you going to ask?
  Ath. If the soul carries round the sun and moon, and the other
stars, does she not carry round each individual of them?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Then of one of them let us speak, and the same argument will
apply to all.
  Cle. Which will you take?
  Ath. Every one sees the body of the sun, but no one sees his soul,
nor the soul of any other body living or dead; and yet there is
great reason to believe that this nature, unperceived by any of our
senses, is circumfused around them all, but is perceived by mind;
and therefore by mind and reflection only let us apprehend the
following point.
  Cle. What is that?
  Ath. If the soul carries round the sun, we shall not be far wrong in
supposing one of three alternatives.
  Cle. What are they?
  Ath. Either the soul which moves the sun this way and that,
resides within the circular and visible body, like the soul which
carries us about every way; or the soul provides herself with an
external body of fire or air, as some affirm, and violently propels
body by body; or thirdly, she is without such abody, but guides the
sun by some extraordinary and wonderful power.
  Cle. Yes, certainly; the soul can only order all things in one of
these three ways.
  Ath. And this soul of the sun, which is therefore better than the
sun, whether taking the sun about in a chariot to give light to men,
or acting from without or in whatever way, ought by every man to be
deemed a God.
  Cle. Yes, by every man who has the least particle of sense.
  Ath. And of the stars too, and of the moon, and of the years and
months and seasons, must we not say in like manner, that since a
soul or souls having every sort of excellence are the causes of all of
them, those souls are Gods, whether they are living beings and
reside in bodies, and in this way order the whole heaven, or
whatever be the place and mode of their existence;-and will any one
who admits all this venture to deny that all things full of Gods?
  Cle. No one, Stranger, would be such a madman.
  Ath. And now, Megillus and Cleinias, let us offer terms to him who
has hitherto denied the existence of the Gods, and leave him.
  Cle. What terms?
  Ath. Either he shall teach us that we were wrong in saying that
the soul is the original of all things, and arguing accordingly; or,
if he be not able to say anything better, then he must yield to us and
live for the remainder of his life in the belief that there are
Gods.-Let us see, then, whether we have said enough or not enough to
those who deny that there are Gods.
  Cle. Certainly-quite enough, Stranger.
  Ath. Then to them we will say no more. And now we are to address him
who, believing that there are Gods, believes also that they take no
heed of human affairs: To him we say-O thou best of men, in
believing that there are Gods you are led by some affinity to them,
which attracts you towards your kindred and makes you honour and
believe in them. But the fortunes of evil and unrighteous men in
private as well as public life, which, though not really happy, are
wrongly counted happy in the judgment of men, and are celebrated
both by poets and prose writers-these draw you aside from your natural
piety. Perhaps you have seen impious men growing old and leaving their
children's children in high offices, and their prosperity shakes
your faith-you have known or heard or been yourself an eyewitness of
many monstrous impieties, and have beheld men by such criminal
means from small beginnings attaining to sovereignty and the
pinnacle of greatness; and considering all these things you do not
like to accuse the Gods of them, because they are your relatives;
and so from some want of reasoning power, and also from an
unwillingness to find fault with them, you have come to believe that
they exist indeed, but have no thought or care of human things. Now,
that your present evil opinion may not grow to still greater
impiety, and that we may if possible use arguments which may conjure
away the evil before it arrives, we will add another argument to
that originally addressed to him who utterly denied the existence of
the Gods. And do you, Megillus and Cleinias, answer for the young
man as you did before; and if any impediment comes in our way, I
will take the word out of your mouths, and carry you over the river as
I did just now.
  Cle. Very good; do as you say, and we will help you as well as we
can.
  Ath. There will probably be no difficulty in proving to him that the
Gods care about the small as well as about the great. For he was
present and heard what was said, that they are perfectly good, and
that the care of all things is most entirely natural to them.
  Cle. No doubt he heard that.
  Ath. Let us consider together in the next place what we mean by this
virtue which we ascribe to them. Surely we should say that to be
temperate and to possess mind belongs to virtue, and the contrary to
vice?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Yes; and courage is a part of virtue, and cowardice of vice?
  Cle. True.
  Ath. And the one is honourable, and the other dishonourable?
  Cle. To be sure.
  Ath. And the one, like other meaner things, is a human quality,
but the Gods have no part in anything of the sort?
  Cle. That again is what everybody will admit.
  Ath. But do we imagine carelessness and idleness and luxury to be
virtues? What do you think?
  Cle. Decidedly not.
  Ath. They rank under the opposite class?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. And their opposites, therefore, would fall under the opposite
class?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. But are we to suppose that one who possesses all these good
qualities will be luxurious and heedless and idle, like those whom the
poet compares to stingless drones?
  Cle. And the comparison is a most just one.
  Ath. Surely God must not be supposed to have a nature which he
himself hates?-he who dares to say this sort of thing must not be
tolerated for a moment.
  Cle. Of course not. How could he have?
  Ath. Should we not on any principle be entirely mistaken in praising
any one who has some special business entrusted to him, if he have a
mind which takes care of great matters and no care of small ones?
Reflect; he who acts in this way, whether he be God or man, must act
from one of two principles.
  Cle. What are they?
  Ath. Either he must think that the neglect of the small matters is
of no consequence to the whole, or if he knows that they are of
consequence, and he neglects them, his neglect must be attributed to
carelessness and indolence. Is there any other way in which his
neglect can be explained? For surely, when it is impossible for him to
take care of all, he is not negligent if he fails to attend to these
things great or small, which a God or some inferior being might be
wanting in strength or capacity to manage?
  Cle. Certainly not.
  Ath. Now, then, let us examine the offenders, who both alike confess
that there are Gods, but with a difference-the one saying that they
may be appeased, and the other that they have no care of small
matters: there are three of us and two of them, and we will say to
them-In the first place, you both acknowledge that the Gods hear and
see and know all things, and that nothing can escape them which is
matter of sense and knowledge:-do you admit this?
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. And do you admit also that they have all power which mortals
and immortals can have?
  Cle. They will, of course, admit this also.
  Ath. And surely we three and they two-five in all-have
acknowledged that they are good and perfect?
  Cle. Assuredly.
  Ath. But, if they are such as we conceive them to be, can we
possibly suppose that they ever act in the spirit of carelessness
and indolence? For in us inactivity is the child of cowardice, and
carelessness of inactivity and indolence.
  Cle. Most true.
  Ath. Then not from inactivity and carelessness is any God ever
negligent; for there is no cowardice in them.
  Cle. That is very true.
  Ath. Then the alternative which remains is, that if the Gods neglect
the lighter and lesser concerns of the universe, they neglect them
because they know that they ought not to care about such
matters-what other alternative is there but the opposite of their
knowing?
  Cle. There is none.
  Ath. And, O most excellent and best of men, do I understand you to
mean that they are careless because they are ignorant, and do not know
that they ought to take care, or that they know, and yet like the
meanest sort of men, knowing the better, choose the worse because they
are overcome by pleasures and pains?
  Cle. Impossible.
  Ath. Do not all human things partake of the nature of soul? And is
not man the most religious of all animals?
  Cle. That is not to be denied.
  Ath. And we acknowledge that all mortal creatures are the property
of the Gods, to whom also the whole of heaven belongs?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And, therefore, whether a person says that these things are
to the Gods great or small-in either case it would not be natural
for the Gods who own us, and who are the most careful and the best
of owners to neglect us.-There is also a further consideration.
  Cle. What is it?
  Ath. Sensation and power are in an inverse ratio to each other in
respect to their case and difficulty.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. I mean that there is greater difficulty in seeing and hearing
the small than the great, but more facility in moving and
controlling and taking care of and unimportant things than of their
opposites.
  Cle. Far more.
  Ath. Suppose the case of a physician who is willing and able to cure
some living thing as a whole-how will the whole fare at his hands if
he takes care only of the greater and neglects the parts which are
lesser?
  Cle. Decidedly not well.
  Ath. No better would be the result with pilots or generals, or
householders or statesmen, or any other such class, if they
neglected the small and regarded only the great;-as the builders
say, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser.
  Cle. Of course not.
  Ath. Let us not, then, deem God inferior to human workmen, who, in
proportion to their skill, finish and perfect their works, small as
well as great, by one and the same art; or that God, the wisest of
beings, who is both willing and able to take care, is like a lazy
good-for-nothing, or a coward, who turns his back upon labour and
gives no thought to smaller and easier matters, but to the greater
only.
  Cle. Never, Stranger, let us admit a supposition about the Gods
which is both impious and false.
  Ath. I think that we have now argued enough with him who delights to
accuse the Gods of neglect.
  Cle. Yes.
  Ath. He has been forced to acknowledge that he is in error, but he
still seems to me to need some words of consolation.
  Cle. What consolation will you offer him?
  Ath. Let us say to the youth:-The ruler of the universe has
ordered all things with a view to the excellence and preservation of
the whole, and each part, as far as may be, has an action and
passion appropriate to it. Over these, down to the least fraction of
them, ministers have been appointed to preside, who have wrought out
their perfection with infinitesimal exactness. And one of these
portions of the universe is thine own, unhappy man, which, however
little, contributes to the whole; and you do not seem to be aware that
this and every other creation is for the sake of the whole, and in
order that the life of the whole may be blessed; and that you are
created for the sake of the whole, and not the whole for the sake of
you. For every physician and every skilled artist does all things
for the sake of the whole, directing his effort towards the common
good, executing the part for the sake of the whole, and not the
whole for the sake of the part. And you are annoyed because you are
ignorant how what is best for you happens to you and to the
universe, as far as the laws of the common creation admit. Now, as the
soul combining first with one body and then with another undergoes all
sorts of changes, either of herself, or through the influence of
another soul, all that remains to the player of the game is that he
should shift the pieces; sending the better nature to the better
place, and the worse to the worse, and so assigning to them their
proper portion.
  Cle. In what way do you mean?
  Ath. In a way which may be supposed to make the care of all things
easy to the Gods. If any one were to form or fashion all things
without any regard to the whole-if, for example, he formed a living
element of water out of fire, instead of forming many things out of
one or one out of many in regular order attaining to a first or second
or third birth, the transmutation would have been infinite; but now
the ruler of the world has a wonderfully easy task.
  Cle. How so?
  Ath. I will explain:-When the king saw that our actions had life,
and that there was much virtue in them and much vice, and that the
soul and body, although not, like the Gods of popular opinion,
eternal, yet having once come into existence, were indestructible (for
if either of them had been destroyed, there would have been no
generation of living beings); and when he observed that the good of
the soul was ever by nature designed to profit men, and the evil to
harm them-he, seeing all this, contrived so to place each of the parts
that their position might in the easiest and best manner procure the
victory of good and the defeat of evil in the whole. And he
contrived a general plan by which a thing of a certain nature found
a certain seat and room. But the formation of qualities he left to the
wills of individuals. For every one of us is made pretty much what
he is by the bent of his desires and the nature of his soul.
  Cle. Yes, that is probably true.
  Ath. Then all things which have a soul change, and possess in
themselves a principle of change, and in changing move according to
law and to the order of destiny: natures which have undergone a lesser
change move less and on the earth's surface, but those which have
suffered more change and have become more criminal sink into the
abyss, that is to say, into Hades and other places in the world below,
of which the very names terrify men, and which they picture to
themselves as in a dream, both while alive and when released from
the body. And whenever the soul receives more of good or evil from her
own energy and the strong influence of others-when she has communion
with divine virtue and becomes divine, she is carried into another and
better place, which is perfect in holiness; but when she has communion
with evil, then she also changes the Place of her life.

   This is the justice of the Gods who inhabit Olympus.

O youth or young man, who fancy that you are neglected by the Gods,
know that if you become worse you shall go to the worse souls, or if
better to the better, and in every succession of life and death you
will do and suffer what like may fitly suffer at the hands of like.
This is the justice of heaven, which neither you nor any other
unfortunate will ever glory in escaping, and which the ordaining
powers have specially ordained; take good heed thereof, for it will be
sure to take heed of you. If you say:-I am small and will creep into
the depths of the earth, or I am high and will fly up to heaven, you
are not so small or so high but that you shall pay the fitting
penalty, either here or in the world below or in some still more
savage place whither you shall be conveyed. This is also the
explanation of the fate of those whom you saw, who had done unholy and
evil deeds, and from small beginnings had grown great, and you fancied
that from being miserable they had become happy; and in their actions,
as in a mirror, you seemed to see the universal neglect of the Gods,
not knowing how they make all things work together and contribute to
the great whole. And thinkest thou, bold man, that thou needest not to
know this?-he who knows it not can never form any true idea of the
happiness or unhappiness of life or hold any rational discourse
respecting either. If Cleinias and this our reverend company succeed
in bringing to you that you know not what you say of the Gods, then
will God help you; but should you desire to hear more, listen to
what we say to the third opponent, if you have any understanding
whatsoever. For I think that we have sufficiently proved the existence
of the Gods, and that they care for men:-The other notion that they
are appeased by the wicked, and take gifts, is what we must not
concede to any one, and what every man should disprove to the utmost
of his power.
  Cle. Very good; let us do as you say.
  Ath. Well, then, by the Gods themselves I conjure you to tell
me-if they are to be propitiated, how are they to be propitiated?
Who are they, and what is their nature? Must they not be at least
rulers who have to order unceasingly the whole heaven?
  Cle. True.
  Ath. And to what earthly rulers can they be compared, or who to
them? How in the less can we find an image of the greater? Are they
charioteers of contending pairs of steeds, or pilots of vessels?
Perhaps they might be compared to the generals of armies, or they
might be likened to physicians providing against the diseases which
make war upon the body, or to husbandmen observing anxiously the
effects of the seasons on the growth of plants; or I perhaps, to
shepherds of flocks. For as we acknowledge the world to be full of
many goods and also of evils, and of more evils than goods, there
is, as we affirm, an immortal conflict going on among us, which
requires marvellous watchfulness; and in that conflict the Gods and
demigods are our allies, and we are their property. Injustice and
insolence and folly are the destruction of us, and justice and
temperance and wisdom are our salvation; and the place of these latter
is in the life of the Gods, although some vestige of them may
occasionally be discerned among mankind. But upon this earth we know
that there dwell souls possessing an unjust spirit, who may be
compared to brute animals, which fawn upon their keepers, whether dogs
or shepherds, or the best and most perfect masters; for they in like
manner, as the voices of the wicked declare, prevail by flattery and
prayers and incantations, and are allowed to make their gains with
impunity. And this sin, which is termed dishonesty, is an evil of
the same kind as what is termed disease in living bodies or pestilence
in years or seasons of the year, and in cities and governments has
another name, which is injustice.
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. What else can he say who declares that the Gods are always
lenient to the doers of unjust acts, if they divide the spoil with
them? As if wolves were to toss a portion of their prey to the dogs,
and they, mollified by the gift, suffered them to tear the flocks.
Must not he who maintains that the Gods can be propitiated argue thus?
  Cle. Precisely so.
  Ath. And to which of the above-mentioned classes of guardians
would any man compare the Gods without absurdity? Will he say that
they are like pilots, who are themselves turned away from their duty
by "libations of wine and the savour of fat," and at last overturn
both ship and sailors?
  Cle. Assuredly not.
  Ath. And surely they are not like charioteers who are bribed to give
up the victory to other chariots?
  Cle. That would be a fearful image of the Gods.
  Ath. Nor are they like generals, or physicians, or husbandmen, or
shepherds; and no one would compare them to dogs who have silenced
by wolves.
  Cle. A thing not to be spoken of.
  Ath. And are not all the Gods the chiefest of all guardians, and
do they not guard our highest interests?
  Cle. Yes; the chiefest.
  Ath. And shall we say that those who guard our noblest interests,
and are the best of guardians, are inferior in virtue to dogs, and
to men even of moderate excellence, who would never betray justice for
the sake of gifts which unjust men impiously offer them?
  Cle. Certainly not: nor is such a notion to be endured, and he who
holds this opinion may be fairly singled out and characterized as of
all impious men the wickedest and most impious.
  Ath. Then are the three assertions-that the Gods exist, and that
they take care of men, and that they can never be persuaded to do
injustice, now sufficiently demonstrated? May we say that they are?
  Cle. You have our entire assent to your words.
  Ath. I have spoken with vehemence because I am zealous against
evil men; and I will tell dear Cleinias, why I am so. I would not have
the wicked think that, having the superiority in argument, they may do
as they please and act according to their various imaginations about
the Gods; and this zeal has led me to speak too vehemently; but if
we have at all succeeded in persuading the men to hate themselves
and love their opposites, the prelude of our laws about impiety will
not have been spoken in vain.
  Cle. So let us hope; and even if we have failed, the style of our
argument will not discredit the lawgiver.
  Ath. After the prelude shall follow a discourse, which will be the
interpreter of the law; this shall proclaim to all impious
persons:-that they must depart from their ways and go over to the
pious. And to those who disobey, let the law about impiety be as
follows:-If a man is guilty of any impiety in word or deed, any one
who happens to present shall give information to the magistrates, in
aid of the law; and let the magistrates who. first receive the
information bring him before the appointed court according to the law;
and if a magistrate, after receiving information, refuses to act, he
shall be tried for impiety at the instance of any one who is willing
to vindicate the laws; and if any one be cast, the court shall
estimate the punishment of each act of impiety; and let all such
criminals be imprisoned. There shall be three prisons in the state:
the first of them is to be the common prison in the neighbourhood of
the agora for the safe-keeping of the generality of offenders; another
is to be in the neighbourhood of the nocturnal council, and is to be
called the "House of Reformation"; another, to be situated in some
wild and desolate region in the centre of the country, shall be called
by some name expressive of retribution. Now, men fall into impiety
from three causes, which have been already mentioned, and from each of
these causes arise two sorts of impiety, in all six, which are worth
distinguishing, and should not all have the same punishment. For he
who does not believe in Gods, and yet has a righteous nature, hates
the wicked and dislikes and refuses to do injustice, and avoids
unrighteous men, and loves the righteous. But they who besides
believing that the world is devoid of Gods are intemperate, and have
at the same time good memories and quick wits, are worse; although
both of them are unbelievers, much less injury is done by the one than
by the other. The one may talk loosely about the Gods and about
sacrifices and oaths, and perhaps by laughing at other men he may make
them like himself, if he be not punished. But the other who holds
the same opinions and is called a clever man, is full of stratagem and
deceit-men of this class deal in prophecy and jugglery of all kinds,
and out of their ranks sometimes come tyrants and demagogues and
generals and hierophants of private mysteries and the Sophists, as
they are termed, with their ingenious devices. There are many kinds of
unbelievers, but two only for whom legislation is required; one the
hypocritical sort, whose crime is deserving of death many times
over, while the other needs only bonds and admonition. In like
manner also the notion that the Gods take no thought of men produces
two other sorts of crimes, and the notion that they may be propitiated
produces two more. Assuming these divisions, let those who have been
made what they are only from want of understanding, and not from
malice or an evil nature, be placed by the judge in the House of
Reformation, and ordered to suffer imprisonment during a period of not
less than five years. And in the meantime let them have no intercourse
with the other citizens, except with members of the nocturnal council,
and with them let them converse with a view to the improvement of
their soul's health. And when the time of their imprisonment has
expired, if any of them be of sound mind let him be restored to sane
company, but if not, and if he be condemned a second time, let him
be punished with death. As to that class of monstrous natures who
not only believe that there are no Gods, or that they are negligent,
or to be propitiated, but in contempt of mankind conjure the souls
of the living and say that they can conjure the dead and promise to
charm the Gods with sacrifices and prayers, and will utterly overthrow
individuals and whole houses and states for the sake of money-let
him who is guilty of any of these things be condemned by the court
to be bound according to law in the prison which is in the centre of
the land, and let no freeman ever approach him, but let him receive
the rations of food appointed by the guardians of the law from the
hands of the public slaves; and when he is dead let him be cast beyond
the borders unburied, and if any freeman assist in burying him, let
him pay the penalty of impiety to any one who is willing to bring a
suit against him. But if he leaves behind him children who are fit
to be citizens, let the guardians of orphans take care of them, just
as they would of any other orphans, from the day on which their father
is convicted.
  In all these cases there should be one law, which will make men in
general less liable to transgress in word or deed, and less foolish,
because they will not be allowed to practise religious rites
contrary to law. And let this be the simple form of the law:-No man
shall have sacred rites in a private house. When he would sacrifice,
let him go to the temples and hand over his offerings to the priests
and priestesses, who see to the sanctity of such things, and let him
pray himself, and let any one who pleases join with him in prayer. The
reason of this is as follows:-Gods and temples are not easily
instituted, and to establish them rightly is the work of a mighty
intellect. And women especially, and men too, when they are sick or in
danger, or in any sort of difficulty, or again on their receiving
any good fortune, have a way of consecrating the occasion, vowing
sacrifices, and promising shrines to Gods, demigods, and sons of Gods;
and when they are awakened by terrible apparitions and dreams or
remember visions, they find in altars and temples the remedies of
them, and will fill every house and village with them, placing them in
the open air, or wherever they may have had such visions; and with a
view to all these cases we should obey the law. The law has also
regard to the impious, and would not have them fancy that by the
secret performance of these actions-by raising temples and by building
altars in private houses, they can propitiate the God secretly with
sacrifices and prayers, while they are really multiplying their crimes
infinitely, bringing guilt from heaven upon themselves, and also
upon those who permit them, and who are better men than they are;
and the consequence is that the whole state reaps the fruit of their
impiety, which, in a certain sense, is deserved. Assuredly God will
not blame the legislator, who will enact the following law:-No one
shall possess shrines of the Gods in private houses, and he who is
found to possess them, and perform any sacred rites not publicly
authorized-supposing the offender to be some man or woman who is not
guilty of any other great and impious crime-shall be informed
against by him who is acquainted with the fact, which shall be
announced by him to the guardians of the law; and let them issue
orders that he or she shall carry away their private rites to the
public temples, and if they do not persuade them, let them inflict a
penalty on them until they comply. And if a person be proven guilty of
impiety, not merely from childish levity, but such as grown-up men may
be guilty of, whether he have sacrificed publicly or privately to
any Gods, let him be punished with death, for his sacrifice is impure.
Whether the deed has been done in earnest, or only from childish
levity, let the guardians of the law determine, before they bring
the matter into court and prosecute the offender for impiety.
  BOOK XI

  In the next place, dealings between man and man require to be
suitably regulated. The principle of them is very simple:-Thou shalt
not, if thou canst help, touch that which is mine, or remove the least
thing which belongs to me without my consent; and may I be of a
sound mind, and do to others as I would that they should do to me.
First, let us speak of treasure trove:-May I never pray the Gods to
find the hidden treasure, which another has laid up for himself and
his family, he not being one of my ancestors, nor lift, if I should
find, such a treasure. And may I never have any dealings with those
who are called diviners, and who in any way or manner counsel me to
take up the deposit entrusted to the earth, for I should not gain so
much in the increase of my possessions, if I take up the prize, as I
should grow in justice and virtue of soul, if I abstain; and this will
be a better possession to me than the other in a better part of
myself; for the possession of justice in the soul is preferable to the
possession of wealth. And of many things it is well said-"Move not the
immovables," and this may be regarded as one of them. And we shall
do well to believe the common tradition which says that such deeds
prevent a man from having a family. Now as to him who is careless
about having children and regardless of the legislator, taking up that
which neither he deposited, nor any ancestor of his, without the
consent of the depositor, violating the simplest and noblest of laws
which was the enactment of no mean man:-"Take not up that which was
not laid down by thee"-of him, I say, who despises these two
legislators, and takes up, not small matter which he has not
deposited, but perhaps a great heap of treasure, what he ought to
suffer at the hands of the Gods, God only knows; but I would have
the first person who sees him go and tell the wardens of the city,
if the occurrence has taken place in the city, or if the occurrence
has taken place in the agora he shall tell the wardens of the agora,
or if in the country he shall tell the wardens of the country and
their commanders. When information has been received the city shall
send to Delphi, and, whatever the God answers about the money and
the remover of the money, that the city shall do in obedience to the
oracle; the informer, if he be a freeman, shall have the honour of
doing rightly, and he who informs not, the dishonour of doing wrongly;
and if he be a slave who gives information, let him be freed, as he
ought to be, by the state, which shall give his master the price of
him; but if he do not inform he shall be punished with death. Next
in order shall follow a similar law, which shall apply equally to
matters great and small:-If a man happens to leave behind him some
part of his property, whether intentionally or unintentionally, let
him who may come upon the left property suffer it to remain,
reflecting that such things are under the protection of the Goddess of
ways, and are dedicated to her by the law. But if any one defies the
law, and takes the property home with him, let him, if the thing is of
little worth, and the man who takes it a slave, be beaten with many
stripes by him, being a person of not less than thirty years of age.
Or if he be a freeman, in addition to being thought a mean person
and a despiser of the laws, let him pay ten times the value of the
treasure which he has moved to the leaver. And if some one accuses
another of having anything which belongs to him, whether little or
much, and the other admits that he has this thing, but denies that the
property in dispute belongs to other, if the property be registered
with the magistrates according to law, the claimant shall summon the
possessor, who shall bring it before the magistrates; and when it is
brought into court, if it be registered in the public registers, to
which of the litigants it belonged, let him take it and go his way. Or
if the property be registered as belonging to some one who is not
present, whoever will offer sufficient surety on behalf of the
absent person that he will give it up to him, shall take it away as
the representative of the other. But if the property which is
deposited be not registered with the magistrates, let it remain
until the time of trial with three of the eldest of the magistrates;
and if it be an animal which is deposited, then he who loses the
suit shall pay the magistrates for its keep, and they shall
determine the cause within three days.
  Any one who is of sound mind may arrest his own slave, and do with
him whatever he will of such things as are lawful; and he may arrest
the runaway slave of any of his friends or kindred with a view to
his safe-keeping. And if any one takes away him who is being carried
off as a slave, intending to liberate him, he who is carrying him
off shall let him go; but he who takes him away shall give three
sufficient sureties; and if he give them, and not without giving them,
he may take him away, but if he take him away after any other manner
he shall be deemed guilty of violence, and being convicted shall pay
as a penalty double the amount of the damages claimed to him who has
been deprived of the slave. Any man may also carry off a freedman,
if he do not pay respect or sufficient respect to him who freed him.
Now the respect shall be, that the freedman go three times in the
month to the hearth of the person who freed him and offer to do
whatever he ought, so far as he can; and he shall agree to make such a
marriage as his former master approves. He shall not be permitted to
have more property than he who gave him liberty, and what more he
has shall belong to his master. The freedman shall not remain in the
state more than twenty years, but like other foreigners shall go away,
taking his entire property with him, unless he has the consent of
the magistrates and of his former master to remain. If a freedman or
any other stranger has a property greater than the census of the third
class, at the expiration. of thirty days from the day on which this
comes to pass, he shall take that which is his and go his way, and
in this case he shall not be allowed to remain any longer by the
magistrates. And if any one disobeys this regulation, and is brought
into court and convicted, he shall be punished with death, his
property shall be confiscated. Suits about these matters shall take
place before the tribes, unless the plaintiff and defendant have got
rid of the accusation either before their neighbours or before
judges chosen by them. If a man lay claim to any animal or anything
else which he declares to be his, let the possessor refer to the
seller or to some honest and trustworthy person, who has given, or
in some legitimate way made over the property to him; if he be a
citizen or a metic, sojourning in the city, within thirty days, or, if
the property have been delivered to him by a stranger, within five
months, of which the middle month shall include the summer solstice.
When goods are exchanged by selling and buying, a man shall deliver
them, and receive the price of them, at a fixed place in the agora,
and have done with the matter; but he shall not buy or sell anywhere
else, nor give credit. And if in any other manner or in any other
place there be an exchange of one thing for another, and the seller
give credit to the man who buys fram him, he must do this on the
understanding that the law gives no protection in cases of things sold
not in accordance with these regulations. Again, as to
contributions, any man who likes may go about collecting contributions
as a friend among friends, but if any difference arises about the
collection, he is to act on the understanding that the law gives no
protection in such cases. He who sells anything above the value of
fifty drachmas shall be required to remain in the city for ten days,
and the purchaser shall be informed of the house of the seller, with a
view to the sort of charges which are apt to arise in such cases,
and the restitutions which the law allows. And let legal restitution
be on this wise:-If a man sells a slave who is in a consumption, or
who has the disease of the stone, or of strangury, or epilepsy, or
some other tedious and incurable disorder of body or mind, which is
not discernible to the ordinary man, if the purchaser be a physician
or trainer, he shall have no right of restitution; nor shall there
be any right of restitution if the seller has told the truth
beforehand to the buyer. But if a skilled person sells to another
who is not skilled, let the buyer appeal for restitution within six
months, except in the case of epilepsy, and then the appeal may be
made within a year. The cause shall be determined by such physicians
as the parties may agree to choose; and the defendant, if he lose
the suit, shall pay double the price at which he sold. If a private
person sell to another private person, he shall have the right of
restitution, and the decision shall be given as before, but the
defendant, if he be cast, shall only pay back the price of the
slave. If a person sells a homicide to another, and they both know
of the fact, let there be no restitution in such a case, but if he
do not know of the fact, there shall be a right of restitution,
whenever the buyer makes the discovery; and the decision shall rest
with the five youngest guardians of the law, and if the decision be
that the seller was cognisant the fact, he shall purify the house of
the purchaser, according to the law of the interpreters, and shall pay
back three times the purchase-money.
  If man exchanges either money for money, or anything whatever for
anything else, either with or without life, let him give and receive
them genuine and unadulterated, in accordance with the law. And let us
have a prelude about all this sort of roguery, like the preludes of
our other laws. Every man should regard adulteration as of one and the
same class with falsehood and deceit, concerning which the many are
too fond of saying that at proper times and places the practice may
often be right. But they leave the occasion, and the when, and the
where, undefined and unsettled, and from this want of definiteness
in their language they do a great deal of harm to themselves and to
others. Now a legislator ought not to leave the matter undetermined;
he ought to prescribe some limit, either greater or less. Let this
be the rule prescribed:-No one shall call the Gods to witness, when he
says or does anything false or deceitful or dishonest, unless he would
be the most hateful of mankind to them. And he is most hateful to them
takes a false oath, and pays no heed to the Gods; and in the next
degree, he who tells a falsehood in the presence of his superiors. Now
better men are the superiors of worse men, and in general elders are
the superiors of the young; wherefore also parents are the superiors
of their off spring, and men of women and children, and rulers of
their subjects; for all men ought to reverence any one who is in any
position of authority, and especially those who are in state
offices. And this is the reason why I have spoken of these matters.
For every one who is guilty of adulteration in the agora tells a
falsehood, and deceives, and when he invokes the Gods, according to
the customs and cautions of the wardens of the agora, he does but
swear without any respect for God or man. Certainly, it is an
excellent rule not lightly to defile the names of the Gods, after
the fashion of men in general, who care little about piety and
purity in their religious actions. But if a man will not conform to
this rule, let the law be as follows:-He who sells anything in the
agora shall not ask two prices for that which he sells, but he shall
ask one price, and if he do not obtain this, he shall take away his
goods; and on that day he shall not value them either at more or less;
and there shall be no praising of any goods, or oath taken about them.
If a person disobeys this command, any citizen who is present, not
being less than thirty years of age, may with impunity chastise and
beat the swearer, but if instead of obeying the laws he takes no heed,
he shall be liable to the charge of having betrayed them. If a man
sells any adulterated goods and will not obey these regulations, he
who knows and can prove the fact, and does prove it in the presence of
the magistrates, if he be a slave or a metic, shall have the
adulterated goods; but if he be a citizen, and do not pursue the
charge, he shall be called a rogue, and deemed to have robbed the Gods
of the agora; or if he proves the charge, he shall dedicate the
goods to the Gods of the agora. He who is proved to have sold any
adulterated goods, in addition to losing the goods themselves, shall
be beaten with stripes-a stripe for a drachma, according to the
price of the goods; and the herald shall proclaim in the agora the
offence for which he is going to be beaten. The warden of the agora
and the guardians of the law shall obtain information from experienced
persons about the rogueries and adulterations of the sellers, and
shall write up what the seller ought and ought not to do in each case;
and let them inscribe their laws on a column in front of the court
of the wardens of the agora, that they may be clear instructors of
those who have business in the agora. Enough has been said in what has
preceded about the wardens of the city, and if anything seems to be
wanting, let them communicate with the guardians of the law, and write
down the omission, and place on a column in the court of the wardens
of the city the primary and secondary regulations which are laid
down for them about their office.
  After the practices of adulteration naturally follow the practices
of retail trade. Concerning these, we will first of all give a word of
counsel and reason, and the law shall come afterwards. Retail trade in
a city is not by nature intended to do any harm, but quite the
contrary; for is not he a benefactor who reduces the inequalities
and incommensurabilities of goods to equality and common measure?
And this is what the power of money accomplishes, and the merchant may
be said to be appointed for this purpose. The hireling and the
tavern-keeper, and many other occupations, some of them more and
others less seemly-alike have this object;-they seek to satisfy our
needs and equalize our possessions. Let us then endeavour to see
what has brought retail trade into ill-odour, and wherein, lies the
dishonour and unseemliness of it, in order that if not entirely, we
may yet partially, cure the evil by legislation. To effect this is
no easy matter, and requires a great deal of virtue.
  Cleinias. What do you mean?
  Athenian Stranger. Dear Cleinias, the class of men is small-they
must have been rarely gifted by nature, and trained by
education-who, when assailed by wants and desires, are able to hold
out and observe moderation, and when they might make a great deal of
money are sober in their wishes, and prefer a moderate to a large
gain. But the mass of mankind are the very opposite: their desires are
unbounded, and when they might gain in moderation they prefer gains
without limit; wherefore all that relates to retail trade, and
merchandise, and the keeping of taverns, is denounced and numbered
among dishonourable things. For if what I trust may never be and
will not be, we were to compel, if I may venture to say a ridiculous
thing, the best men everywhere to keep taverns for a time, or carry on
retail trade, or do anything of that sort; or if, in consequence of
some fate or necessity, the best women were compelled to follow
similar callings, then we should know how agreeable and pleasant all
these things are; and if all such occupations were managed on
incorrupt principles, they would be honoured as we honour a mother
or a nurse. But now that a man goes to desert places and builds bouses
which can only be reached be long journeys, for the sake of retail
trade, and receives strangers who are in need at the welcome
resting-place, and gives them peace and calm when they are tossed by
the storm, or cool shade in the heat; and then instead of behaving
to them as friends, and showing the duties of hospitality to his
guests, treats them as enemies and captives who are at his mercy,
and will not release them until they have paid the most unjust,
abominable, and extortionate ransom-these are the sort of practices,
and foul evils they are, which cast a reproach upon the succour of
adversity. And the legislator ought always to be devising a remedy for
evils of this nature. There is an ancient saying, which is also a true
one-"To fight against two opponents is a difficult thing," as is
seen in diseases and in many other cases. And in this case also the
war is against two enemies-wealth and poverty; one of whom corrupts
the soul of man with luxury, while the other drives him by pain into
utter shamelessness. What remedy can a city of sense find against this
disease? In the first place, they must have as few retail traders as
possible; and in the second place, they must assign the occupation
to that class of men whose corruption will be the least injury to
the state; and in the third place, they must devise some way whereby
the followers of these occupations themselves will not readily fall
into habits of unbridled shamelessness and meanness.
  After this preface let our law run as follows, and may fortune
favour us:-No landowner among the Magnetes, whose city the God is
restoring and resettling-no one, that is, of the 5040 families,
shall become a retail trader either voluntarily or involuntarily;
neither shall he be a merchant, or do any service for private
persons unless they equally serve him, except for his father or his
mother, and their fathers and mothers; and in general for his elders
who are freemen, and whom he serves as a freeman. Now it is
difficult to determine accurately the things which are worthy or
unworthy of a freeman, but let those who have obtained the prize of
virtue give judgment about them in accordance with their feelings of
right and wrong. He who in any way shares in the illiberality of
retail trades may be indicted for dishonouring his race by any one who
likes, before those who have been judged to be the first in virtue;
and if he appear to throw dirt upon his father's house by an
unworthy occupation, let him be imprisoned for a year and abstain from
that sort of thing; and if he repeat the offence, for two years; and
every time that he is convicted let the length of his imprisonment
be doubled. This shall be the second law:-He who engages in retail
trade must be either a metic or a stranger. And a third law shall
be:-In order that the retail trader who dwells in our city may be as
good or as little bad as possible, the guardians of the law shall
remember that they are not only guardians of those who may be easily
watched and prevented from becoming lawless or bad, because they are
wellborn and bred; but still more should they have a watch over
those who are of another sort, and follow pursuits which have a very
strong tendency to make men bad. And, therefore, in respect of the
multifarious occupations of retail trade, that is to say, in respect
of such of them as are allowed to remain, because they seem to be
quite necessary in a state-about these the guardians of the law should
meet and take counsel with those who have experience of the several
kinds of retail trade, as we before commanded, concerning adulteration
(which is a matter akin to this), and when they meet they shall
consider what amount of receipts, after deducting expenses, will
produce a moderate gain to the retail trades, and they shall fix in
writing and strictly maintain what they find to be the right
percentage of profit; this shall be seen to by the wardens of the
agora, and by the wardens of the city, and by the wardens of the
country. And so retail trade will benefit every one, and do the
least possible injury to those in the state who practise it.
  When a man makes an agreement which he does not fulfil, unless the
agreement be of a nature which the law or a vote of the assembly
does not allow, or which he has made under the influence of some
unjust compulsion, or which he is prevented from fulfilling against
his will by some unexpected chance, the other party may go to law with
him in the courts of the tribes, for not having completed his
agreement, if the parties are not able previously to come to terms
before arbiters or before their neighbours. The class of craftsmen who
have furnished human life with the arts is dedicated to Hephaestus and
Athene; and there is a class of craftsmen who preserve the works of
all craftsmen by arts of defence, the votaries of Ares and Athene,
to which divinities they too are rightly dedicated. All these continue
through life serving the country and the people; some of them are
leaders in battle; others make for hire implements and works, and they
ought not to deceive in such matters, out of respect to the Gods who
are their ancestors. If any craftsman through indolence omit to
execute his work in a given time, not reverencing the God who gives
him the means of life, but considering, foolish fellow, that he is his
own God and will let him off easily, in the first place, he shall
suffer at the hands of the God, and in the second place, the law shall
follow in a similar spirit. He shall owe to him who contracted with
him the price of the works which he has failed in performing, and he
shall begin again and execute them gratis in the given time. When a
man undertakes a work, the law gives him the same advice which was
given to the seller, that he should not attempt to raise the price,
but simply ask the value; this the law enjoins also on the contractor;
for the craftsman assuredly knows the value of his work. Wherefore, in
free states the man of art ought not to attempt to impose upon private
individuals by the help of his art, which is by nature a true thing;
and he who is wronged in a matter of this sort, shall have a right
of action against the party who has wronged him. And if any one lets
out work to a craftsman, and does not pay him duly according to the
lawful agreement, disregarding Zeus the guardian of the city and
Athene, who are the partners of the state, and overthrows the
foundations of society for the sake of a little gain, in his case
let the law and the Gods maintain the common bonds of the state. And
let him who, having already received the work in exchange, does not
pay the price in the time agreed, pay double the price; and if a
year has elapsed, although interest is not to be taken on loans, yet
for every drachma which he owes to the contractor let him pay a
monthly interest of an obol. Suits about these matters are to be
decided by the courts of the tribes; and by the way, since we have
mentioned craftsmen at all, we must not forget the other craft of war,
in which generals and tacticians are the craftsmen, who undertake
voluntarily the work of our safety, as other craftsmen undertake other
public works;-if they execute their work well the law will never
tire of praising him who gives them those honours which are the just
rewards of the soldier; but if any one, having already received the
benefit of any noble service in war, does not make the due return of
honour, the law will blame him. Let this then be the law, having an
ingredient of praise, not compelling but advising the great body of
the citizens to honour the brave men who are the saviours of the whole
state, whether by their courage or by their military skill;-they
should honour them, I say, in the second place; for the first and
highest tribute of respect is to be given to those who are able
above other men to honour the words of good legislators.
  The greater part of the dealings between man and man have been now
regulated by us with the exception of those that relate to orphans and
the supervision of orphans by their guardians. These follow next in
order, and must be regulated in some way. But to arrive at them we
must begin with the testamentary wishes of the dying and the case of
those who may have happened to die intestate. When I said, Cleinias,
that we must regulate them, I had in my mind the difficulty and
perplexity in which all such matters are involved. You cannot leave
them unregulated, for individuals would make regulations at variance
with one another, and repugnant to the laws and habits of the living
and to their own previous habits, if a person were simply allowed to
make any will which he pleased, and this were to take effect in
whatever state he may have been at the end of his life; for most of us
lose our senses in a manner, and feel crushed when we think that we
are about to die.
  Cle. What do you mean, Stranger?
  Ath. O Cleinias, a man when he is about to die is an intractable
creature, and is apt to use language which causes a great deal of
anxiety and trouble to the legislator.
  Cle. In what way?
  Ath. He wants to have the entire control of all his property, and
will use angry words.
  Cle. Such as what?
  Ath. O ye Gods, he will say, how monstrous that I am not allowed
to give, or not to give my own to whom I will-less to him who has been
bad to me, and more to him who has been good to me, and whose
badness and goodness have been tested by me in time of sickness or
in old age and in every other sort of fortune!
  Cle. Well Stranger, and may he not very fairly say so?
  Ath. In my opinion, Cleinias, the ancient legislators were too
good-natured, and made laws without sufficient observation or
consideration of human things.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. I mean, my friend that they were afraid of the testator's
reproaches, and so they passed a law to the effect that a man should
be allowed to dispose of his property in all respects as he liked; but
you and I, if I am not mistaken, will have something better to say
to our departing citizens.
  Cle. What?
  Ath. O my friends, we will say to them, hard is it for you, who
are creatures of a day, to know what is yours-hard too, as the Delphic
oracle says, to know yourselves at this hour. Now I, as the
legislator, regard you and your possessions, not as belonging to
yourselves, but as belonging to your whole family, both past and
future, and yet more do regard both family and possessions as
belonging to the state; wherefore, if some one steals upon you with
flattery, when you are tossed on the sea of disease or old age, and
persuades you to dispose of your property in a way that is not for the
best, I will not, if I can help, allow this; but I will legislate with
a view to the whole, considering what is best both for the state and
for the family, esteeming as I ought the feelings of an individual
at a lower rate; and I hope that you will depart in peace and kindness
towards us, as you are going the way of all mankind; and we will
impartially take care of all your concerns, not neglecting any of
them, if we can possibly help. Let this be our prelude and consolation
to the living and dying, Cleinias, and let the law be as follows:
  He who makes a disposition in a testament, if he be the father of
a family, shall first of all inscribe as his heir any one of his
sons whom he may think fit; and if he gives any of his children to
be adopted by another citizen, let the adoption be inscribed. And if
he has a son remaining over and above who has not been adopted upon
any lot, and who may be expected to be sent out to a colony
according to law, to him his father may give as much as he pleases
of the rest of his property, with the exception of the paternal lot
and the fixtures on the lot. And if there are other sons, let him
distribute among them what there is more than the lot in such portions
as he pleases. And if one of the sons has already a house of his
own, he shall not give him of the money, nor shall he give money to
a daughter who has been betrothed, but if she is not betrothed he
may give her money. And if any of the sons or daughters shall be found
to have another lot of land in the country, which has accrued after
the testament has been made, they shall leave the lot which they
have inherited to the heir of the man who has made the will. If the
testator has no sons, but only daughters, let him choose the husband
of any one of his daughters whom he pleases, and leave and inscribe
him as his son and heir. And if a man have lost his son, when he was a
child, and before he could be reckoned among grown-up men, whether his
own or an adopted son, let the testator make mention of the
circumstance and inscribe whom he will to be his second son in hope of
better fortune. If the testator has no children at all, he may
select and give to any one whom he pleases the tenth part of the
property which he has acquired; but let him not be blamed if he
gives all the rest to his adopted son, and makes a friend of him
according to the law. If the sons of a man require guardians, and: the
father when he dies leaves a will appointing guardians, those have
been named by him, whoever they are and whatever their number be, if
they are able and willing to take charge of the children, shall be
recognized according to the provisions of the will. But if he dies and
has made no will, or a will in which he has appointed no guardians,
then the next of kin, two on the father's and two on the mother's
side, and one of the friends of the deceased, shall have the authority
of guardians, whom the guardians of the law shall appoint when the
orphans require guardians. And the fifteen eldest guardians of the law
shall have the whole care and charge of the orphans, divided into
threes according to seniority-a body of three for one year, and then
another body of three for the next year, until the cycle of the five
periods is complete; and this, as far as possible, is to continue
always. If a man dies, having made no will at all, and leaves sons who
require the care of guardians, they shall share in the protection
which is afforded by these laws.
  And if a man dying by some unexpected fate leaves daughters behind
him, let him pardon the legislator if he gives them in marriage, he
have a regard only to two out of three conditions-nearness of kin
and the preservation of the lot, and omits the third condition,
which a father would naturally consider, for he would choose out of
all the citizens a son for himself, and a husband for his daughter,
with a view to his character and disposition-the father, say, shall
forgive the legislator if he disregards this, which to him is an
impossible consideration. Let the law about these matters where
practicable be as follows:-If a man dies without making a will, and
leaves behind him daughters, let his brother, being the son of the
same father or of the same mother, having no lot, marry the daughter
and have the lot of the dead man. And if he have no brother, but
only a brother's son, in like manner let them marry, if they be of a
suitable age; and if there be not even a brother's son, but only the
son of a sister, let them do likewise, and so in the fourth degree, if
there be only the testator's father's brother, or in the fifth degree,
his father's brother's son, or in the sixth degree, the child of his
father's sister. Let kindred be always reckoned in this way: if a
person leaves daughters the relationship shall proceed upwards through
brothers and sisters, and brothers' and sisters' children, and first
the males shall come, and after them the females in the same family.
The judge shall consider and determine the suitableness or
unsuitableness of age in marriage; he shall make an inspection of
the males naked, and of the women naked down to the navel. And if
there be a lack of kinsmen in a family extending to grandchildren of a
brother, or to the grandchildren of a grandfather's children, the
maiden may choose with the consent of her guardians any one of the
citizens who is willing and whom she wills, and he shall be the heir
of the dead man, and the husband of his daughter. Circumstances
vary, and there may sometimes be a still greater lack of relations
within the limits of the state; and if any maiden has no kindred
living in the city, and there is some one who has been sent out to a
colony, and she is disposed to make him the heir of her father's
possessions, if he be indeed of her kindred, let him proceed to take
the lot according to the regulation of the law; but if he be not of
her kindred, she having no kinsmen within the city, and he be chosen
by the daughter of the dead man, and empowered to marry by the
guardians, let him return home and take the lot of him who died
intestate. And if a man has no children, either male or female, and
dies without making a will, let the previous law in general hold;
and let a man and a woman go forth from the family and share the
deserted house, and let the lot belong absolutely to them; and let the
heiress in the first degree be a sister, and in a second degree a
daughter of a brother, and in the third, a daughter of a sister, in
the fourth degree the sister of a father, and in the fifth degree
the daughter of a father's brother, and in a sixth degree of a
father's sister; and these shall dwell with their male kinsmen,
according to the degree of relationship and right, as we enacted
before. Now we must not conceal from ourselves that such laws are
apt to be oppressive and that there may sometimes be a hardship in the
lawgiver commanding the kinsman of the dead man to marry his relation;
be may be thought not to have considered the innumerable hindrances
which may arise among men in the execution of such ordinances; for
there may be cases in which the parties refuse to obey, and are
ready to do anything rather than marry, when there is some bodily or
mental malady or defect among those who are bidden to marry or be
married. Persons may fancy that the legislator never thought of
this, but they are mistaken; wherefore let us make a common prelude on
behalf of the lawgiver and of his subjects, the law begging the latter
to forgive the legislator, in that he, having to take care of the
common weal, cannot order at the same time the various circumstances
of individuals, and begging him to pardon them if naturally they are
sometimes unable to fulfil the act which he in his ignorance imposes
upon them.
  Cle. And how, Stranger, can we act most fairly under the
circumstances?
  Ath. There must be arbiters chosen to deal with such laws and the
subjects of them.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. I mean to say, that a case may occur in which the nephew,
having a rich father, will be unwilling to marry the daughter of his
uncle; he will have a feeling of pride, and he will wish to look
higher. And there are cases in which the legislator will be imposing
upon him the greatest calamity, and he will be compelled to disobey
the law, if he is required, for example, to take a wife who is mad, or
has some other terrible malady of soul or body, such as makes life
intolerable to the sufferer. Then let what we are saying concerning
these cases be embodied in a law:-If any one finds fault with the
established laws respecting testaments, both as to other matters and
especially in what relates to marriage, and asserts that the
legislator, if he were alive and present, would not compel him to
obey-that is to say, would not compel those who are by our law
required to marry or be given in marriage, to do either-and some
kinsman or guardian dispute this, the reply is that the legislator
left fifteen of the guardians of the law to be arbiters and fathers of
orphans, male or female, and to them let the disputants have recourse,
and by their aid determine any matters of the kind, admitting their
decision to be final. But if any one thinks that too great power is
thus given to the guardians of the law, let him bring his
adversaries into the court of the select judges, and there have the
points in dispute determined. And he who loses the cause shall have
censure and blame from the legislator, which, by a man of sense, is
felt to be a penalty far heavier than a great loss of money.
  Thus will orphan children have a second birth. After their first
birth we spoke of their nurture and education, and after their
second birth, when they have lost their parents, we ought to take
measures that the misfortune of orphanhood may be as little sad to
them as possible. In the first place, we say that the guardians of the
law are lawgivers and fathers to them, not inferior to their natural
fathers. Moreover, they shall take charge of them year by year as of
their own kindred; and we have given both to them and to the
children's own guardians a suitable admonition concerning the
nurture of orphans. And we seem to have spoken opportunely in our
former discourse, when we said that the souls of the dead have the
power after death of taking an interest in human affairs, about
which there are many tales and traditions, long indeed, but true;
and seeing that they are so many and so ancient, we must believe them,
and we must also believe the lawgivers, who tell us that these
things are true, if they are not to be regarded as utter fools. But if
these things are really so, in the first place men should have a
fear of the Gods above, who regard the loneliness of the orphans;
and in the second place of the souls of the departed, who by nature
incline to take an especial care of their own children, and are
friendly to those who honour, and unfriendly to those who dishonour
them. Men should also fear the souls of the living who are aged and
high in honour; wherever a city is well ordered and prosperous,
their descendants cherish them, and so live happily; old persons are
quick to see and hear all that relates to them, and are propitious
to those who are just in the fulfilment of such duties, and they
punish those who wrong the orphan and the desolate, considering that
they are the greatest and most sacred of trusts. To all which
matters the guardian and magistrate ought to apply his mind, if he has
any, and take heed of the nurture and education of the orphans,
seeking in every possible way to do them good, for he is making a
contribution to his own good and that of his children. He who obeys
the tale which precedes the law, and does no wrong to an orphan,
will never experience the wrath of the legislator. But he who is
disobedient, and wrongs any one who is bereft of father or mother,
shall pay twice the penalty which he would have paid if he had wronged
one whose parents had been alive. As touching other legislation
concerning guardians in their relation to orphans, or concerning
magistrates and their superintendence of the guardians, if they did
not possess examples of the manner in which children of freemen should
be brought up in the bringing up of their own children, and of the
care of their property in the care of their own, or if they had not
just laws fairly stated about these very things-there would have
been reason in making laws for them, under the idea that they were a
peculiar-class, and we might distinguish and make separate rules for
the life of those who are orphans and of those who are not orphans.
But as the case stands, the condition of orphans with us not different
from the case of those who have father, though in regard to honour and
dishonour, and the attention given to them, the two are not usually
placed upon a level. Wherefore, touching the legislation about
orphans, the law speaks in serious accents, both of persuasion and
threatening, and such a threat as the following will be by no means
out of place:-He who is the guardian of an orphan of either sex, and
he among the guardians of the law to whom the superintendence of
this guardian has been assigned, shall love the unfortunate orphan
as though he were his own child, and he shall be as careful and
diligent in the management of his possessions as he would be if they
were his own, or even more careful and dilligent. Let every one who
has the care of an orphan observe this law. But any one who acts
contrary to the law on these matters, if he be a guardian of the
child, may be fined by a magistrate, or, if he be himself a
magistrate, the guardian may bring him before the court of select
judges, and punish him, if convicted, by exacting a fine of double the
amount of that inflicted by the court. And if a guardian appears to
the relations of the orphan, or to any other citizen, to act
negligently or dishonestly, let them bring him before the same
court, and whatever damages are given against him, let him pay
fourfold, and let half belong to the orphan and half to him who
procured the conviction. If any orphan arrives at years of discretion,
and thinks that he has been ill-used by his guardians, let him
within five years of the expiration of the guardianship be allowed
to bring them to trial; and if any of them be convicted, the court
shall determine what he shall pay or suffer. And if magistrate shall
appear to have wronged the orphan by neglect, and he be convicted, let
the court determine what he shall suffer or pay to the orphan, and
if there be dishonesty in addition to neglect, besides paying the
fine, let him be deposed from his office of guardian of the law, and
let the state appoint another guardian of the law for the city and for
the country in his room.
  Greater differences than there ought to be sometimes arise between
fathers and sons, on the part either of fathers who will be of opinion
that the legislator should enact that they may, if they wish, lawfully
renounce their son by the proclamation of a herald in the face of
the world, or of sons who think that they should be allowed to
indict their fathers on the charge of imbecility when they are
disabled by disease or old age. These things only happen, as a
matter of fact, where the natures of men are utterly bad; for where
only half is bad, as, for example, if the father be not bad, but the
son be bad, or conversely, no great calamity is the result of such
an amount of hatred as this. In another state, a son disowned by his
father would not of necessity cease to be a citizen, but in our state,
of which these are to be the laws, the disinherited must necessarily
emigrate into another country, for no addition can be made even of a
single family to the 5040 households; and, therefore, he who
deserves to suffer these things must be renounced not only by his
father, who is a single person, but by the whole family, and what is
done in these cases must be regulated by some such law as the
following:-He who in the sad disorder of his soul has a mind, justly
or unjustly, to expel from his family a son whom he has begotten and
brought up, shall not lightly or at once execute his purpose; but
first of all he shall collect together his own kinsmen extending to
cousins, and in like manner his son's kinsmen by the mother's side,
and in their presence he shall accuse his son, setting forth that he
deserves at the hands of them all to be dismissed from the family; and
the son shall be allowed to address them in a similar manner, and show
that he does not deserve to suffer any of these things. And if the
father persuades them, and obtains the suffrages of more than half
of his kindred, exclusive of the father and mother and the offender
himself-I say, if he obtains more than half the suffrages of all the
other grown-up members of the family, of both sexes, the father
shall be permitted to put away his son, but not otherwise. And if
any other citizen is willing to adopt the son who is put away, no
law shall hinder him; for the characters of young men are subject to
many changes in the course of their lives. And if he has been put
away, and in a period of ten years no one is willing to adopt him, let
those who have the care of the superabundant population which is
sent out into colonies, see to him, in order that he may be suitably
provided for in the colony. And if disease or age or harshness of
temper, or all these together, makes a man to be more out of his
mind than the rest of the world are-but this is not observable, except
to those who live with him-and he, being master of his property, is
the ruin of the house, and his son doubts and hesitates about
indicting his father for insanity, let the law in that case or, that
he shall first of all go to the eldest guardians of the law and tell
them of his father's misfortune, and they shall duly look into the
matter, and take counsel as to whether he shall indict him or not. And
if they advise him to proceed, they shall be both his witnesses and
his advocates; and if the father is cast, he shall henceforth be
incapable of ordering the least particular of his life; let him be
as a child dwelling in the house for the remainder of his days. And if
a man and his wife have an unfortunate incompatibility of temper,
ten of the guardians of the law, who are impartial, and ten of the
women who regulate marriages, shall look to the matter, and if they
are able to reconcile them they shall be formally reconciled; but if
their souls are too much tossed with passion, they shall endeavour
to find other partners. Now they are not likely to have very gentle
tempers; and, therefore, we must endeavour to associate with them
deeper and softer natures. Those who have no children, or only a
few, at the time of their separation, should choose their new partners
with a view to the procreation of children; but those who have a
sufficient number of children should separate and marry again in order
that they may have some one to grow old with and that the pair may
take care of one another in age. If a woman dies, leaving children,
male or female, the law will advise rather than compel the husband
to bring up the children without introducing into the house a
stepmother. But if he have no children, then he shall be compelled
to marry until he has begotten a sufficient number of sons to his
family and to the state. And if a man dies leaving a sufficient number
of children, the mother of his children shall remain with them and
bring, them up. But if she appears to be too young to live
virtuously without a husband, let her relations communicate with the
women who superintend marriage, and let both together do what they
think best in these matters; if there is a lack of children, let the
choice be made with a view to having them; two children, one of either
sex, shall be deemed sufficient in the eye of the law. When a child is
admitted to be the offspring of certain parents and is acknowledged by
them, but there is need of a decision as to which parent the child
is to follow-in case a female slave have intercourse with a male
slave, or with a freeman or freedman, the offspring shall always
belong to the master of the female slave. Again, if a free woman
have intercourse with a male slave, the offspring shall belong to
the master of the slave; but if a child be born either of a slave by
her master, or of his mistress by a slave-and this be provence
offspring of the woman and its father shall be sent away by the
women who superintend marriage into another country, and the guardians
of the law shall send away the offspring of the man and its mother.
  Neither God, nor a man who has understanding, will ever advise any
one to neglect his parents. To a discourse concerning the honour and
dishonour of parents, a prelude such as the following, about the
service of the Gods, will be a suitable introduction:-There are
ancient customs about the Gods which are universal, and they are of
two kinds: some of the Gods we see with our eyes and we honour them,
of others we honour the images, raising statues of them which we
adore; and though they are lifeless, yet we imagine that the living
Gods have a good will and gratitude to us on this account. Now, if a
man has a father or mother, or their fathers or mothers treasured up
in his house stricken in years, let him consider that no statue can be
more potent to grant his requests than they are, who are sitting at
his hearth if only he knows how to show true service to them.
  Cle. And what do you call the true mode of service?
  Ath. I will tell you, O my friend, for such things are worth
listening to.
  Cle. Proceed.
  Ath. Oedipus, as tradition says, when dishonoured by his sons,
invoked on them curses which every one declares to have been heard and
ratified by the Gods, and Amyntor in his wrath invoked curses on his
son Phoenix, and Theseus upon Hippolytus, and innumerable others
have also called down wrath upon their children, whence it is clear
that the Gods listen to the imprecations of parents; for the curses of
parents are, as they ought to be, mighty against their children as
no others are. And shall we suppose that the prayers of a father or
mother who is specially dishonoured by his or her children, are
heard by the Gods in accordance with nature; and that if a parent is
honoured by them, and in the gladness of his heart earnestly
entreats the Gods in his prayers to do them good, he is not equally
heard, and that they do not minister to his request? If not, they
would be very unjust ministers of good, and that we affirm to be
contrary to their nature.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. May we not think, as I was saying just now, that we can possess
no image which is more honoured by the Gods, than that of a father
or grandfather, or of a mother stricken in years? whom when a man
honours, the heart of the God rejoices, and he is ready to answer
their prayers. And, truly, the figure of an ancestor is a wonderful
thing, far higher than that of a lifeless image. For the living,
when they are honoured by us, join in our prayers, and when they are
dishonoured, they utter imprecations against us; but lifeless
objects do neither. And therefore, if a man makes a right use of his
father and grandfather and other aged relations, he will have images
which above all others will win him the favour of the Gods.
  Cle. Excellent.
  Ath. Every man of any understanding fears and respects the prayers
of parents, knowing well that many times and to many persons they have
been accomplished. Now these things being thus ordered by nature, good
men think it a blessing from heaven if their parents live to old age
and reach the utmost limit of human life, or if taken away before
their time they are deeply regretted by them; but to bad men parents
are always a cause of terror. Wherefore let every man honour with
every sort of lawful honour his own parents, agreeably to what has now
been said. But if this prelude be an unmeaning sound in the cars of
any one, let the law follow, which may be rightly imposed in these
terms:-If any one in this city be not sufficiently careful of his
parents, and do not regard and gratify in every respect their wishes
more than those of his sons and of his other offspring or of
himself-let him who experiences this sort of treatment either come
himself, or send some one to inform the three eldest guardians of
the law, and three of the women who have the care of marriages; and
let them look to the matter and punish youthful evil-doers with
stripes and bonds if they are under thirty years of age, that is to
say, if they be men, or if they be women, let them undergo the same
punishment up to forty years of age. But if, when they are still
more advanced in years, they continue the same neglect of their
parents, and do any hurt to any of them, let them be brought before
a court in which every single one of the eldest citizens shall be
the judges, and if the offender be convicted, let the court
determine what he ought to pay or suffer, and any penalty may be
imposed on him which a man can pay or suffer. If the person who has
been wronged be unable to inform the magistrates, let any freeman
who hears of his case inform, and if he do not, he shall be deemed
base, and shall be liable to have a suit for damage brought against
him by any one who likes. And if a slave inform, he shall receive
freedom; and if he be the slave of the injurer or injured party, he
shall be set free by the magistrates, or if he belong to any other
citizen, the public shall pay a price on his behalf to the owner;
and let the magistrates take heed that no one wrongs him out of
revenge, because he has given information.
  Cases in which one man injures another by poisons, and which prove
fatal, have been already discussed; but about other cases in which a
person intentionally and of malice harms another with meats, or
drinks, or ointments, nothing has as yet been determined. For there
are two kinds of poisons used among men, which cannot clearly be
distinguished. There is the kind just now explicitly mentioned,
which injures bodies by the use of other bodies according to a natural
law; there is also another kind which persuades the more daring
class that they can do injury by sorceries, and incantations, and
magic knots, as they are termed, and makes others believe that they
above all persons are injured by the powers of the magician. Now it is
not easy to know the nature of all these things; nor if a man do
know can he readily persuade others to believe him. And when men are
disturbed in their minds at the sight of waxen images fixed either
at their doors, or in a place where three ways meet, or on the
sepulchres of parents, there is no use in trying to persuade them that
they should despise all such things because they have no certain
knowledge about them. But we must have a law in two parts,
concerning poisoning, in whichever of the two ways the attempt is
made, and we must entreat, and exhort, and advise men not to have
recourse to such practices, by which they scare the multitude out of
their wits, as if they were children, compelling the legislator and
the judge to heal the fears which the sorcerer arouses, and to tell
them in the first place, that he who attempts to poison or enchant
others knows not what he is doing, either as regards the body
(unless he has a knowledge of medicine), or as regards his
enchantments (unless he happens to be a prophet or diviner). Let the
law, then, run as follows about poisoning or witchcraft:-He who
employs poison to do any injury, not fatal, to a man himself, or to
his servants, or any injury, whether fatal or not, to his cattle or
his bees, if he be a physician, and be convicted of poisoning, shall
be punished with death; or if he be a private person, the court
shall determine what he is to pay or suffer. But he who seems to be
the sort of man injures others by magic knots, or enchantments, or
incantations, or any of the like practices, if he be a prophet or
diviner, let him die; and if, not being a prophet, he be convicted
of witchcraft, as in the previous case, let the court fix what he
ought to pay or suffer.
  When a man does another any injury by theft or violence, for the
greater injury let him pay greater damages to the injured man, and
less for the smaller injury; but in all cases, whatever the injury may
have been, as much as will compensate the loss. And besides the
compensation of the wrong, let a man pay a further penalty for the
chastisement of his offence: he who has done the wrong instigated by
the folly of another, through the lightheartedness of youth or the
like, shall pay a lighter penalty; but he who has injured another
through his own folly, when overcome by pleasure or pain, in
cowardly fear, or lust, or envy, or implacable anger, shall endure a
heavier punishment. Not that he is punished because he did wrong,
for that which is done can never be undone, but in order that in
future times, he, and those who see him corrected, may utterly hate
injustice, or at any rate abate much of their evil-doing. Having an
eye to all these things, the law, like a good archer, should aim at
the right measure of punishment, and in all cases at the deserved
punishment. In the attainment of this the judge shall be a
fellow-worker with the legislator, whenever the law leaves to him to
determine what the offender shall suffer or pay; and the legislator,
like a painter, shall give a rough sketch of the cases in which the
law is to be applied. This is what we must do, Megillus and
Cleinias, in the best and fairest manner that we can, saying what
the punishments are to be of all actions of theft and violence, and
giving laws of such a kind as the Gods and sons of Gods would have
us give.
  If a man is mad he shall not be at large in the city, but his
relations shall keep him at home in any way which they can; or if not,
let them pay a penalty-he who is of the highest class shall pay a
penalty of one hundred drachmae, whether he be a slave or a freeman
whom he neglects; and he of the second class shall pay four-fifths
of a mina; and he of the third class three-fifths; and he of the
fourth class two-fifths. Now there are many sorts of madness, some
arising out of disease, which we have already mentioned; and there are
other kinds, which originate in an evil and passionate temperament,
and are increased by bad education; out of a slight quarrel this class
of madmen will often raise a storm of abuse against one another, and
nothing of that sort ought to be allowed to occur in a well-ordered
state. Let this, then, be the law about abuse, which shall relate to
all cases:-No one shall speak evil of another; and when a man disputes
with another he shall teach and learn of the disputant and the
company, but he shall abstain from evilspeaking; for out of the
imprecations which men utter against one another, and the feminine
habit of casting aspersions on one another, and using foul names,
out of words light as air, in very deed the greatest enmities and
hatreds spring up. For the speaker gratifies his anger, which is an
ungracious element of his nature; and nursing up his wrath by the
entertainment of evil thoughts, and exacerbating that part of his soul
which was formerly civilized by education, he lives in a state of
savageness and moroseness, and pays a bitter penalty for his anger.
And in such cases almost all men take to saying something ridiculous
about their opponent, and there is no man who is in the habit of
laughing at another who does not miss virtue and earnestness
altogether, or lose the better half of greatness. Wherefore let no one
utter any taunting word at a temple, or at the public sacrifices, or
at games, or in the agora, or in a court of justice, or in any
public assembly. And let the magistrate who presides on these
occasions chastise an offender, and he shall be blameless; but if he
fails in doing so, he shall not claim the prize of virtue; for he is
one who heeds not the laws, and does not do what the legislator
commands. And if in any other place any one indulges in these sort
of revilings, whether he has begun the quarrel or is only retaliating,
let any elder who is present support the law, and control with blows
those who indulge in passion, which is another great evil; and if he
do not, let him be liable to pay the appointed penalty. And we say
now, that he who deals in reproaches against others cannot reproach
them without attempting to ridicule them; and this, when done in a
moment of anger, is what we make matter of reproach against him. But
then, do we admit into our state the comic writers who are so fond
of making mankind ridiculous, if they attempt in a good-natured manner
to turn the laugh against our citizens? or do we draw the
distinction of jest and earnest, and allow a man to make use of
ridicule in jest and without anger about any thing or person; though
as we were saying, not if he be angry have a set purpose? We forbid
earnest-that is unalterably fixed; but we have still to say who are to
be sanctioned or not to be sanctioned by the law in the employment
of innocent humour. A comic poet, or maker of iambic or satirical
lyric verse, shall not be permitted to ridicule any of the citizens,
either by word or likeness, either in anger or without anger. And if
any one is disobedient, the judges shall either at once expel him from
the country, or he shall pay a fine of three minae, which shall be
dedicated to the God who presides over the contests. Those only who
have received permission shall be allowed to write verses at one
another, but they shall be without anger and in jest; in anger and
in serious earnest they shall not be allowed. The decision of this
matter shall be left to the superintendent of the general education of
the young, and whatever he may license, the writer shall be allowed to
produce, and whatever he rejects let not the poet himself exhibit,
or ever teach anybody else, slave or freeman, under the penalty of
being dishonoured, and held disobedient to the laws.
  Now he is not to be pitied who is hungry, or who suffers any
bodily pain, but he who is temperate, or has some other virtue, or
part of a virtue, and at the same time suffers from misfortune; it
would be an extraordinary thing if such an one, whether slave or
freeman, were utterly forsaken and fell into the extremes of poverty
in any tolerably well-ordered city or government. Wherefore the
legislator may safely make a law applicable to such cases in the
following terms:-Let there be no beggars in our state; and if
anybody begs, seeking to pick up a livelihood by unavailing prayers,
let the wardens of the agora turn him out of the agora, and the
wardens of the city out of the city, and the wardens of the country
send him out of any other parts of the land across the border, in
order that the land may be cleared of this sort of animal.
  If a slave of either sex injure anything, which is not his or her
own, through inexperience, or some improper practice, and the person
who suffers damage be not himself in part to blame, the master of
the slave who has done the harm shall either make full satisfaction,
or give up the the slave who has done has done the injury. But if
master argue that the charge has arisen by collusion between the
injured party and the injurer, with the view of obtaining the slave,
let him sue the person, who says that he has been injured, for
malpractices. And if he gain a conviction, let him receive double
the value which the court fixes as the price of the slave; and if he
lose his suit, let him make amends for the injury, and give up the
slave. And if a beast of burden, or horse, or dog, or any other
animal, injure the property of a neighbour, the owner shall in like
manner pay for the injury.
  If any man refuses to be a witness, he who wants him shall summon
him, and he who is summoned shall come to the trial; and if he knows
and is willing to bear witness, let him bear witness, but if he says
he does not know let him swear by the three divinities Zeus, and
Apollo, and Themis, that he does not, and have no more to do with
the cause. And he who is summoned to give witness and does not
answer to his summoner, shall be liable for the harm which ensues
according to law. And if a person calls up as a witness any one who is
acting as a judge, let him give his witness, but he shall not
afterwards vote in the cause. A free woman may give her witness and
plead, if she be more than forty years of age, and may bring an action
if she have no husband; but if her husband be alive she shall only
be allowed to bear witness. A slave of either sex and a child shall be
allowed to give evidence and to plead, but only in cases of murder;
and they must produce sufficient sureties that they will certainly
remain until the trial, in case they should be charged with false
witness. And either of the parties in a cause may bring an
accusation of perjury against witnesses, touching their evidence in
whole or in part, if he asserts that such evidence has been given; but
the accusation must be brought previous to the final decision of the
cause. The magistrates shall preserve the accusations of false
witness, and have them kept under the seal of both parties, and
produce them on the day when the trial for false witness takes
place. If a man be twice convicted of false witness, he shall not be
required, and if thrice, he shall not be allowed to bear witness;
and if he dare to witness after he has been convicted three times, let
any one who pleases inform against him to the magistrates, and let the
magistrates hand him over to the court, and if he be convicted he
shall be punished with death. And in any case in which the evidence is
rightly found to be false, and yet to have given the victory to him
who wins the suit, and more than half the witnesses are condemned, the
decision which was gained by these means shall be a discussion and a
decision as to whether the suit was determined by that false
evidence or and in whichever way the decision may be given, the
previous suit shall be determined accordingly.
  There are many noble things in human life, but to most of them
attach evils which are fated to corrupt and spoil them. Is not justice
noble, which has been the civilizer of humanity? How then can the
advocate of justice be other than noble? And yet upon this
profession which is presented to us under the fair name of art has
come an evil reputation. In the first place; we are told that by
ingenious pleas and the help of an advocate the law enables a man to
win a particular cause, whether just or unjust; and the power of
speech which is thereby imparted, are at the service of him sho is
willing to pay for them. Now in our state this so-called art,
whether really an art or only an experience and practice destitute
of any art, ought if possible never to come into existence, or if
existing among us should litten to the request of the legislator and
go away into another land, and not speak contrary to justice. If the
offenders obey we say no more; but those who disobey, the voice of the
law is as follows:-If anyone thinks that he will pervert the power
of justice in the minds of the judges, and unseasonably litigate or
advocate, let any one who likes indict him for malpractices of law and
dishonest advocacy, and let him be judged in the court of select
judges; and if he be convicted, let the court determine whether he may
be supposed to act from a love of money or from contentiousness. And
if he is supposed to act from contentiousness, the court shall fix a
time during which he shall not be allowed to institute or plead a
cause; and if he is supposed to act as be does from love of money,
in case he be a stranger, he shall leave the country, and never return
under penalty of death; but if he be a citizen, he shall die,
because he is a lover of money, in whatever manner gained; and
equally, if he be judged to have acted more than once from
contentiousness, he shall die.
  BOOK XII

  If a herald or an ambassador carry a false message from our city
to any other, or bring back a false message from the city to which
he is sent, or be proved to have brought back, whether from friends or
enemies, in his capacity of herald or ambassador, what they have never
said, let him be indicted for having violated, contrary to the law,
the commands and duties imposed upon him by Hermes and Zeus, and let
there be a penalty fixed, which he shall suffer or pay if he be
convicted.
  Theft is a mean, and robbery a shameless thing; and none of the sons
of Zeus delight in fraud and violence, or ever practised, either.
Wherefore let no one be deluded by poets or mythologers into a
mistaken belief of such such things, nor let him suppose, when he
thieves or is guilty of violence, that he is doing nothing base, but
only what the Gods themselves do. For such tales are untrue and
improbable; and he who steals or robs contrary to the law, is never
either a God or the son of a God; of this the legislator ought to be
better informed than all the, poets put together. Happy is he and
may he be forever happy, who is persuaded and listens to our words;
but he who disobeys shall have to contend against the following
law:-If a man steal anything belonging to the public, whether that
which he steals be much or little, he shall have the same
punishment. For he who steals a little steals with the same wish as he
who steals much, but with less power, and he who takes up a greater
amount; not having deposited it, is wholly unjust. Wherefore the law
is not disposed to inflict a less penalty on the one than on the other
because his theft, is less, but on the ground that the thief may
possibly be in one case still curable, and may in another case be
incurable. If any one convict in a court of law a stranger or a
slave of a theft of public property, let the court determine what
punishment he shall suffer, or what penalty he shall pay, bearing in
mind that he is probably not incurable. But the citizen who has been
brought up as our citizens will have been, if he be found guilty of
robbing his country by fraud or violence, whether he be caught in
the act or not, shall be punished with death; for he is incurable.
  Now for expeditions of war much consideration and many laws are
required; the great principle of all is that no one of either sex
should be without a commander; nor should the mind of any one be
accustomed to do anything, either in jest or earnest, of his own
motion, but in war and in peace he should look to and follow his
leader, even in the least things being under his guidance; for
example, he should stand or move, or exercise, or wash, or take his
meals, or get up in the night to keep guard and deliver messages
when he is bidden; and in the hour of danger he should not pursue
and not retreat except by order of his superior; and in a word, not
teach the soul or accustom her to know or understand how to do
anything apart from others. Of all soldiers the life should be
always and in all things as far as possible in common and together;
there neither is nor ever will be a higher, or better, or more
scientific principle than this for the attainment of salvation and
victory in war. And we ought in time of peace from youth upwards to
practise this habit of commanding others, and of being commanded by
others; anarchy should have no place in the life of man or of the
beasts who are subject to man. I may add that all dances ought to be
performed with view to military excellence; and agility and ease
should be cultivated for the same object, and also endurance of the
want of meats and drinks, and of winter cold and summer heat, and of
hard couches; and, above all, care should be taken not to destroy
the peculiar qualities of the head and the feet by surrounding them
with extraneous coverings, and so hindering their natural growth of
hair and soles. For these are the extremities, and of all the parts of
the body, whether they are preserved or not is of the greatest
consequence; the one is the servant of the whole body, and the other
the master, in whom all the ruling senses are by nature set. Let the
young man imagine that he hears in what has preceded the praises of
the military life; the law shall be as follows:-He shall serve in
war who is on the roll or appointed to some special service, and if
any one is absent from cowardice, and without the leave of the
generals; he shall be indicted before the military commanders for
failure of service when the army comes home; and the soldiers shall be
his judges; the heavy armed, and the cavalry, and the other arms of
the service shall form separate courts; and they shall bring the
heavy-armed before the heavy-armed, and the horsemen before the
horsemen, and the others in like manner before their peers; and he who
is found guilty shall never be allowed to compete for any prize of
valour, or indict another for not serving on an expedition, or be an
accuser at all in any military matters. Moreover, the court shall
further determine what punishment he shall suffer, or what penalty
he shall pay. When the suits for failure of service are completed, the
leaders of the several kinds of troops shall again hold an assembly,
and they shall adjudge the prizes of valour; and he who likes shall
give judgment in his own branch of the service, saying nothing about
any former expedition, nor producing any proof or witnesses to confirm
his statement, but speaking only of the present occasion. The crown of
victory shall be an olive wreath which the victor shall offer up the
temple of any war-god whom he likes, adding an inscription for a
testimony to last during life, that such an one has received the
first, the second, or prize. If any one goes on an expedition, and
returns home before the appointed time, when the generals. have not
withdrawn the army, be shall be indicted for desertion before the same
persons who took cognisance of failure of service, and if he be
found guilty, the same punishment shall be inflicted on him.
  Now every man who is engaged in any suit ought to be very careful of
bringing false witness against any one, either intentionally or
unintentionally, if he can help; for justice is truly said to be an
honourable maiden, and falsehood is naturally repugnant to honour
and justice. A witness ought to be very careful not to sift against
justice, as for example in what relates to the throwing away of
arms-he must distinguish the throwing them away when necessary, and
not make that a reproach, or bring in action against some innocent
person on that account. To make the distinction maybe difficult; but
still the law must attempt to define the different kinds in some
way. Let me endeavour to explain my meaning by an ancient tale:-If
Patroclus had been brought to the tent still alive but without his
arms (and this has happened to innumerable persons), the original
arms, which the poet says were presented to Peleus by the Gods as a
nuptial gift when he married. Thetis, remaining in the hands of
Hector, then the base spirits of that day might have reproached the
son of Menoetius with having cast away his arms. Again, there is the
case of those who have been thrown down precipices and lost their
arms; and of those who at sea, and in stormy places, have been
suddenly overwhelmed by floods of water; and there are numberless
things of this kind which one might adduce by way of extenuation,
and with the view of justifying a misfortune which is easily
misrepresented. We must, therefore, endeavour to divide to the best of
our power the greater and more serious evil from the lesser. And a
distinction may be drawn in the use of terms of reproach. A man does
not always deserve to be called the thrower away of his shield; he may
be only the loser of his arms. For there is a great or rather absolute
difference between him who is deprived of his arms by a sufficient
force, and him who voluntarily lets his shield go. Let the law then be
as follows:-If a person having arms is overtaken by the enemy and does
not turn round and defend himself, but lets them go voluntarily or
throws them away, choosing a base life and a swift escape rather
than a courageous and noble and blessed death-in such a case of the
throwing away of arms let justice be done, but the judge need take
no note of the case just now mentioned; for the bad man ought always
to be punished, in the hope that he may be improved, but not the
unfortunate, for there is no advantage in that. And what shall be
the punishment suited to him who has thrown away his weapons of
defence? Tradition says that Caeneus, the Thessalian, was changed by a
God from a woman into a man; but the converse miracle cannot now be
wrought, or no punishment would be more proper than that the man who
throws away his shield should be changed into a woman. This however is
impossible, and therefore let us make a law as nearly like this as
we can-that he who loves his life too well shall be in no danger for
the remainder of his days, but shall live for ever under the stigma of
cowardice. And let the law be in the following terms:-When a man is
found guilty of disgracefully throwing away his arms in war, no
general or military officer shall allow him to serve as a soldier,
or give him any place at all in the ranks of soldiers; and the officer
who gives the coward any place, shall suffer a penalty which the
public examiner shall exact of him; and if he be of the highest
dass, he shall pay a thousand drachmae; or if he be of the second
class, five minae; or if he be of the third, three minae; or if he
be of the fourth class, one mina. And he who is found guilty of
cowardice, shall not only be dismissed from manly dangers, which is
a disgrace appropriate to his nature, but he shall pay a thousand
drachmae, if he be of the highest class, and five minae if he be of
the second class, and three if he be of the third class, and a mina,
like the preceding, if he be of the fourth class.
  What regulations will be proper about examiners, seeing that some of
our magistrates are elected by lot, and for a year, and some for a
longer time and from selected persons? Of such magistrates, who will
be a sufficient censor or examiner, if any of them, weighed down by
the pressure of office or his own inability to support the dignity
of his office, be guilty of any crooked practice? It is by no means
easy to find a magistrate who excels other magistrates in virtue,
but still we must endeavour to discover some censor or examiner who is
more than man. For the truth is, that there are many elements of
dissolution in a state, as there are also in a ship, or in an
animal; they all have their cords, and girders, and sinews-one
nature diffused in many places, and called by many names; and the
office of examiner is a most important element in the preservation and
dissolution of states. For if the examiners are better than the
magistrates, and their duty is fulfilled justly and without blame,
then the whole state and country flourishes and is happy; but if the
examination of the magistrates is carried on in a wrong way, then,
by the relaxation of that justice which is the uniting principle of
all constitutions, every power in the state is rent asunder from every
other; they no longer incline in the same direction, but fill the city
with faction, and make many cities out of one, and soon bring all to
destruction. Wherefore the examiners ought to be admirable in every
sort of virtue. Let us invent a mode of creating them, which shall
be as follows:-Every year, after the summer solstice, the whole city
shall meet in the common precincts of Helios and Apollo, and shall
present to the God three men out of their own number in the manner
following:-Each citizen shall select, not himself, but some other
citizen whom he deems in every way the best, and who is not less
than fifty years of age. And out of the selected persons who have
the greatest number of votes, they shall make a further selection
until they reduce them to one-half, if they are an even number; but if
they are not an even number, they shall subtract the one who has the
smallest number of votes, and make them an even number, and then leave
the half which have the great number of votes. And if two persons have
an equal number of votes, and thus increase the number beyond
one-half, they shall withdraw the younger of the two and do away
with the excess; and then including all the rest they shall again
vote, until there are left three having an unequal number of votes.
But if all the three, or two out of the three, have equal votes, let
them commit the election to good fate and fortune, and separate off by
lot the first, and the second, and the third; these they shall crown
with an olive wreath and give them the prize of excellence, at the
same time proclaiming to all the world that the city of the
Magnetes, by providence of the Gods, is again preserved, and
presents to the Sun and to Apollo her three best men as
first-fruits, to be a common offering to them, according to the
ancient law, as long as their lives answer to the judgment formed of
them. And these shall appoint in their first year twelve examiners, to
continue until each has completed seventy-five years, to whom three
shall afterwards be added yearly; and let these divide all the
magistracies into twelve parts, and prove the holders of them by every
sort of test to which a freeman may be subjected; and let them live
while they hold office in the precinct of Helios and Apollo, in
which they were chosen, and let each one form a judgment of some
things individually, and of others in company with his colleagues; and
let him place a writing in the agora about each magistracy, and what
the magistrate ought to suffer or pay, according to the decision of
the examiners. And if a magistrate does not admit that he has been
justly judged, let him bring the examiners before the select judges,
and if he be acquitted by their decision, let him, if he will,
accuse the examiners themselves; if, however, he be convicted, and
have been condemned to death by the examiners, let him die (and of
course he can only die once):-but any other penalties which admit of
being doubled let him suffer twice over.
  And now let us pass under review the examiners themselves; what will
their examination be, and how conducted? During the life of these men,
whom the whole state counts worthy of the rewards of virtue, they
shall have the first seat at all public assemblies, and at all
Hellenic sacrifices and sacred missions, and other public and holy
ceremonies in which they share. The chiefs of each sacred mission
shall be selected from them, and they only of all the citizens shall
be adorned with a crown of laurel; they shall all be priests of Apollo
and Helios; and one of them, who is judged first of the priests
created in that year, shall be high priest; and they shall write up
his name in each year to be a measure of time as long as the city
lasts; and after their death they shall be laid out and carried to the
grave and entombed in a manner different from the other citizens. They
shall be decked in a robe all of white, and there shall be no crying
or lamentation over them; but a chorus of fifteen maidens, and another
of boys, shall stand around the bier on either side, hymning the
praises of the departed priests in alternate responses, declaring
their blessedness in song all day long; and at dawn a hundred of the
youths who practise gymnastic and whom the relations of the departed
shall choose, shall carry the bier to the sepulchre, the young men
marching first, dressed in the garb of warriors-the cavalry with their
horses, the heavy-armed with their arms, and the others in like
manner. And boys neat the bier and in front of it shall sing their
national hymn, and maidens shall follow behind, and with them the
women who have passed the age of childbearing; next, although they are
interdicted from other burials, let priests and priestesses follow,
unless the Pythian oracle forbid them; for this burial is free from
pollution. The place of burial shall be an oblong vaulted chamber
underground, constructed of tufa, which will last for ever, having
stone couches placed side by side. And here they will lay the
blessed person, and cover the sepulchre with a circular mound of earth
and plant a grove of trees around on every side but one; and on that
side the sepulchre shall be allowed to extend for ever, and a new
mound will not be required. Every year they shall have contests in
music and gymnastics, and in horsemanship, in honour of the dead.
These are the honours which shall be given to those who at the
examination are found blameless; but if any of them, trusting to the
scrutiny being over, should, after the judgment has been given,
manifest the wickedness of human nature, let the law ordain that he
who pleases shall indict him, and let the cause be tried in the
following manner. In the first place, the court shall be composed of
the guardians of the law, and to them the surviving examiners shall be
added, as well as the court of select judges; and let the pursuer
lay his indictment in this form-he shall say that so-and-so is
unworthy of the prize of virtue and of his office; and if the
defendant be convicted let him be deprived of his office, and of the
burial, and of the other honours given him. But if the prosecutor do
not obtain the fifth part of the votes, let him, if he be of the first
dass, pay twelve minae, and eight if he be of the second class, and
six if he be of the third dass, and two minae if he be of the fourth
class.
  The so-called decision of Rhadamanthus is worthy of all
admiration. He knew that the men of his own time believed and had no
doubt that there were Gods, which was a reasonable belief in those
days, because most men were the sons of Gods, and according to
tradition he was one himself. He appears to have thought that he ought
to commit judgment to no man, but to the Gods only, and in this way
suits were simply and speedily decided by him. For he made the two
parties take an oath respecting the points in dispute, and so got
rid of the matter speedily and safely. But now that a certain
portion of mankind do not believe at all in the existence of the Gods,
and others imagine that they have no care of us, and the opinion of
most men, and of the men, is that in return for small sacrifice and
a few flattering words they will be their accomplices in purloining
large sums and save them from many terrible punishments, the way of
Rhadamanthus is no longer suited to the needs of justice; for as the
needs of men about the Gods are changed, the laws should also be
changed;-in the granting of suits a rational legislation ought to do
away with the oaths of the parties on either side-he who obtains leave
to bring an action should write, down the charges, but should not
add an oath; and the defendant in like manner should give his denial
to the magistrates in writing, and not swear; for it is a dreadful
thing to know, when many lawsuits are going on in a state that
almost half the people who meet one another quite unconcernedly at the
public meals and in other companies and relations of private life
are perjured. Let the law, then, be as follows:-A judge who is about
to give judgment shall take an oath, and he who is choosing
magistrates for the state shall either vote on oath or with a voting
tablet which he brings from a temple; so too the judge of dances and
of all music, and the superintendents and umpires of gymnastic and
equestrian contests, and any matters in which, as far as men can
judge, there is nothing to be gained by a false oath; but all cases in
which a denial confirmed by an oath clearly results in a great
advantage to the taker of the oath, shall be decided without the
oath of the parties to the suit, and the presiding judges shall not
permit either of them. to use an oath for the sake of persuading,
nor to call down curses on himself and his race, nor to use unseemly
supplications or womanish laments. But they shall ever be teaching and
learning what is just in auspicious words; and he who does otherwise
shall be supposed to speak beside the point, and the judges shall
again bring him back to the question at issue. On the other hand,
strangers in their dealings with strangers shall as at present have
power to give and receive oaths, for they will not often grow old in
the city or leave a fry of young ones like themselves to be the sons
and heirs of the land.
  As to the initiation of private suits, let the manner of deciding
causes between all citizens be the same as in cases in which any
freeman is disobedient to the state in minor matters, of which the
penalty is not stripes, imprisonment, or death. But as regards
attendance at choruses or processions or other shows, and as regards
public services, whether the celebration of sacrifice in peace, or the
payment of contributions in war-in all these cases, first comes the
necessity of providing remedy for the loss; and by those who will
not obey, there shall be security given to the officers whom the
city and the law empower to exact the sum due; and if they forfeit
their security, let the goods which they have pledged be, and the
money given to the city; but if they ought to pay a larger sum, the
several magistrates shall impose upon the disobedient a suitable
penalty, and bring them before the court, until they are willing to do
what they are ordered.
  Now a state which makes money from the cultivation of the soil only,
and has no foreign trade, must consider what it will do about the
emigration of its own people to other countries, and the reception
of strangers from elsewhere. About these matters the legislator has to
consider, and he will begin by trying to persuade men as far as he
can. The intercourse of cities with one another is apt to create a
confusion of manners; strangers, are always suggesting novelties to
strangers. When states are well governed by good laws the mixture
causes the greatest possible injury; but seeing that most cities are
the reverse of well-ordered, the confusion which arises in them from
the reception of strangers, and from the citizens themselves rushing
off into other cities, when any one either young or old desires to
travel anywhere abroad at whatever time, is of no consequence. On
the other hand, the refusal of states to receive others, and for their
own citizens never to go to other places, is an utter impossibility,
and to the rest of the world is likely to appear ruthless and
uncivilized; it is a practise adopted by people who use harsh words,
such as xenelasia or banishment of strangers, and who have harsh and
morose ways, as men think. And to be thought or not to be thought well
of by the rest of the world is no light matter; for the many are not
so far wrong in their judgment of who are bad and who are good, as
they are removed from the nature of virtue in themselves. Even bad men
have a divine instinct which guesses rightly, and very many who are
utterly depraved form correct notions and judgments of the differences
between the good and bad. And the generality of cities are quite right
in exhorting us to value a good reputation in the world, for there
is no truth greater and more important than this-that he who is really
good (I am speaking of the man who would be perfect) seeks for
reputation with, but not without, the reality of goodness. And our
Cretan colony ought also to acquire the fairest and noblest reputation
for virtue from other men; and there is every reason to expect that,
if the reality answers to the idea, she will before of the few
well-ordered cities which the sun and the other Gods behold.
Wherefore, in the matter of journeys to other countries and the
reception of strangers, we enact as follows:-In the first place, let
no one be allowed to go anywhere at all into a foreign country who
is less than forty years of age; and no one shall go in a private
capacity, but only in some public one, as a herald, or on an
embassy; or on a sacred mission. Going abroad on an expedition or in
war, not to be included among travels of the class authorized by the
state. To Apollo at Delphi and to Zeus at Olympia and to Nemea and
to the Isthmus,-citizens should be sent to take part in the sacrifices
and games there dedicated to the Gods; and they should send as many as
possible, and the best and fairest that can be found, and they will
make the city renowned at holy meetings in time of peace, procuring
a glory which shall be the converse of that which is gained in war;
and when they come home they shall teach the young that the
institutions of other states are inferior to their own. And they shall
send spectators of another sort, if they have the consent of the
guardians, being such citizens as desire to look a little more at
leisure at the doings of other men; and these no law shall hinder. For
a city which has no experience of good and bad men or intercourse with
them, can never be thoroughly, and perfectly civilized, nor, again,
can the citizens of a city properly observe the laws by habit only,
and without an intelligent understanding of them. And there always are
in the world a few inspired men whose acquaintance is beyond price,
and who spring up quite as much in ill-ordered as in well-ordered
cities. These are they whom the citizens of a well ordered city should
be ever seeking out, going forth over sea and over land to find him
who is incorruptible-that he may establish more firmly institutions in
his own state which are good already; and amend what is deficient; for
without this examination and enquiry a city will never continue
perfect any more than if the examination is ill-conducted.
  Cleinias. How can we have an examination and also a good one?
  Athenian Stranger. In this way: In the first place, our spectator
shall be of not less than fifty years of age; he must be a man of
reputation, especially in war, if he is to exhibit to other cities a
model of the guardians of the law, but when he is more than sixty
years of age he shall no longer continue in his office of spectator,
And when he has carried on his inspection during as many out of the
ten years of his office as he pleases, on his return home let him go
to the assembly of those who review the laws. This shall be a mixed
body of young and old men, who shall be required to meet daily between
the hour of dawn and the rising of the sun. They shall consist, in the
first place, of the priests who have obtained the rewards of virtue;
and in the second place, of guardians of the law, the ten eldest being
chosen; the general superintendent of education shall also be
member, as well the last appointed as those who have been released
from the office; and each of them shall take with him as his companion
young man, whomsoever he chooses, between the ages of thirty and
forty. These shall be always holding conversation and discourse
about the laws of their own city or about any specially good ones
which they may hear to be existing elsewhere; also about kinds of
knowledge which may appear to be of use and will throw light upon
the examination, or of which the want will make the subject of laws
dark and uncertain to them. Any knowledge of this sort which the
elders approve, the younger men shall learn with all diligence; and if
any one of those who have been invited appear to be unworthy, the
whole assembly shall blame him who invited him. The rest of the city
shall watch over those among the young men who distinguish themselves,
having an eye upon them, and especially honouring them if they
succeed, but dishonouring them above the rest if they turn out to be
inferior. This is the assembly to which he who has visited the
institutions of other men, on his return home shall straightway go,
and if he have discovered any one who has anything to say about the
enactment of laws or education or nurture, or if he have himself
made any observations, let him communicate his discoveries to the
whole assembly. And if he be seen to have come home neither better nor
worse, let him be praised at any rate for his enthusiasm; and if he be
much better, let him be praised so much the more; and not only while
he lives but after his death let the assembly honour him with
fitting honours. But if on his return home he appear to have been
corrupted, pretending to be wise when he is not, let him hold no
communication with any one, whether young or old; and if he will
hearken to the rulers, then he shall be permitted to live as a private
individual; but if he will not, let him die, if he be convicted in a
court of law of interfering about education and the laws, And if he
deserve to be indicted, and none of the magistrates indict him, let
that be counted as a disgrace to them when the rewards of virtue are
decided.
  Let such be the character of the person who goes abroad, and let him
go abroad under these conditions. In the next place, the stranger
who comes from abroad should be received in a friendly spirit. Now
there are four kinds of strangers, of whom we must make some
mention-the first is he who comes and stays throughout the summer;
this class are like birds of passage, taking wing in pursuit of
commerce, and flying over the sea to other cities, while the season
lasts; he shall be received in market-places and harbours and public
buildings, near the city but outside, by those magistrates who are
appointed to superintend these matters; and they shall take care
that a stranger, whoever he be, duly receives justice; but he shall
not be allowed to make any innovation. They shall hold the intercourse
with him which is necessary, and this shall be as little as
possible. The second kind is just a spectator who comes to see with
his eyes and hear with his ears the festivals of the Muses; such ought
to have entertainment provided them at the temples by hospitable
persons, and the priests and ministers of the temples should see and
attend to them. But they should not remain more than a reasonable
time; let them see and hear that for the sake of which they came,
and then go away, neither having suffered nor done any harm. The
priests shall be their judges, if any of them receive or do any
wrong up to the sum of fifty drachmae, but if any greater charge be
brought, in such cases the suit shall come before the wardens of the
agora. The third kind of stranger is he who comes on some public
business from another land, and is to be received with public honours.
He is to be received only by the generals and commanders of horse
and foot, and the host by whom he is entertained, in conjunction
with the Prytanes, shall have the sole charge of what concerns him.
There is a fourth dass of persons answering to our spectators, who
come from another land to look at ours. In the first place, such
visits will be rare, and the visitor should be at least fifty years of
age; he may possibly be wanting to see something that is rich and rare
in other states, or himself to show something in like manner to
another city. Let such an one, then, go unbidden to the doors of the
wise and rich, being one of them himself: let him go, for example,
to the house of the superintendent of education, confident that he
is a fitting guest of such a host, or let him go to the house of
some of those who have gained the prize of virtue and hold discourse
with them, both learning from them, and also teaching them; and when
he has seen and heard all, he shall depart, as a friend taking leave
of friends, and be honoured by them with gifts and suitable tributes
of respect. These are the customs, according to which our city
should receive all strangers of either sex who come from other
countries, and should send forth her own citizens, showing respect
to Zeus, the God of hospitality, not forbidding strangers at meals and
sacrifices, as is the manner which prevails among the children of
the Nile, nor driving them away by savage proclamations.
  When a man becomes surety, let him give the security in a distinct
form, acknowledging the whole transaction in a written document, and
in the presence of not less than three witnesses if the sum be under a
thousand drachmae, and of not less than five witnesses if the sum be
above a thousand drachmae. The agent of a dishonest or untrustworthy
seller shall himself be responsible; both the agent and the
principal shall be equally liable. If a person wishes to find anything
in the house of another, he shall enter naked, or wearing only a short
tunic and without a girdle, having first taken an oath by the
customary Gods that he expects to find it there; he shall then make
his search, and the other shall throw open his house and allow him
to search things both sealed and unsealed. And if a person will not
allow the searcher to make his search, he who is prevented shall go to
law with him, estimating the value of the goods after which he is
searching, and if the other be convicted he shall pay twice the
value of the article. If the master be absent from home, the
dwellers in the house shall let him search the unsealed property,
and on the sealed property the searcher shall set another seal, and
shall appoint any one whom he likes to guard them during five days;
and if the master of the house be absent during a longer time, he
shall take with him the wardens of the city, and so make his search,
opening the sealed property as well as the unsealed, and then,
together with the members of the family and the wardens of the city,
he shall seal them up again as they were before. There shall be a
limit of time in the case of disputed things, and he who has had
possession of them during a certain time shall no longer be liable
to be disturbed. As to houses and lands there can be no dispute in
this state of ours; but if a man has any other possessions which he
has used and openly shown in the city and in the agora and in the
temples, and no one has put in a claim to them, and some one says that
he was looking for them during this time, and the possessor is
proved to have made no concealment, if they have continued for a year,
the one having the goods and the other looking for them, the claim
of the seeker shall not be allowed after the expiration of the year;
or if he does not use or show the lost property in the market or in
the city, but only in the country, and no one offers himself as the
owner during five years, at the expiration of the five years the claim
shall be barred for ever after; or if he uses them in the city but
within the house, then the appointed time of claiming the goods
shall be three years, or ten years if he has them in the country in
private. And if he has them in another land, there shall be no limit
of time or prescription, but whenever the owner finds them he may
claim them.
  If any one prevents another by force from being present at a
trial, whether a principal party or his witnesses; if the person
prevented be a slave, whether his own or belonging to another, the
suit shall be incomplete and invalid; but if he who is prevented be
a freeman, besides the suit being incomplete, the other who has
prevented him shall be imprisoned for a year, and shall be
prosecuted for kidnapping by any one who pleases. And if any one
hinders by force a rival competitor in gymnastic or music, or any
other sort of contest, from being present at the contest, let him
who has a mind inform the presiding judges, and they shall liberate
him who is desirous of competing; and if they are not able, and he who
hinders the other from competing wins the prize, then they shall
give the prize of victory to him who is prevented, and inscribe him as
the conqueror in any temples which he pleases; and he who hinders
the other shall not be permitted to make any offering or inscription
having reference to that contest, and in any case he shall be liable
for damages, whether he be defeated or whether he conquer.
  If any one knowingly receives anything which has been stolen, he
shall undergo the same punishment as the thief, and if a man
receives an exile he shall be punished with death. Every man should
regard the friend and enemy of the state as his own friend and
enemy; and if any one makes peace or war with another on his own
account, and without the authority of the state, he, like the receiver
of the exile, shall undergo the penalty of death. And if any
fraction of the City declare war or peace against any, the generals
shall indict the authors of this proceeding, and if they are convicted
death shall be the penalty. Those who serve their country ought to
serve without receiving gifts, and there ought to be no excusing or
approving the saying, "Men should receive gifts as the reward of good,
but not of evil deeds"; for to know which we are doing, and to stand
fast by our knowledge, is no easy matter. The safest course is to obey
the law which says, "Do no service for a bribe," and let him who
disobeys, if he be convicted, simply die. With a view to taxation, for
various reasons, every man ought to have had his property valued:
and the tribesmen should likewise bring a register of the yearly
produce to the wardens of the country, that in this way there may be
two valuations; and the public officers may use annuary whichever on
consideration they deem the best, whether they prefer to take a
certain portion of the whole value, or of the annual revenue, after
subtracting what is paid to the common tables.
  Touching offerings to the Gods, a moderate man should observe
moderation in what he offers. Now the land and the hearth of the house
of all men is sacred to all Gods; wherefore let no man dedicate them a
second time to the Gods. Gold and silver, whether possessed by private
persons or in temples, are in other cities provocative of envy, and
ivory, the product of a dead body, is not a proper offering; brass and
iron, again, are instruments of war; but of wood let a man bring
what offerings he likes, provided it be a single block, and in like
manner of stone, to the public temples; of woven work let him not
offer more than one woman can execute in a month. White is a colour
suitable to the Gods, especially in woven works, but dyes should
only be used for the adornments of war. The most divine of gifts are
birds and images, and they should be such as one painter can execute
in a single day. And let all other offerings follow a similar rule.
  Now that the whole city has been divided into parts of which the
nature and number have been described, and laws have been given
about all the most important contracts as far as this was possible,
the next thing will be to have justice done. The first of the courts
shall consist of elected judges, who shall be chosen by the
plaintiff and the defendant in common: these shall be called
arbiters rather than judges. And in the second court there shall be
judges of the villages and tribes corresponding to the twelvefold
division of the land, and before these the litigants shall go to
contend for greater damages, if the suit be not decided before the
first judges; the defendant, if he be defeated the second time,
shall pay a fifth more than the damages mentioned in the indictment;
and if he find fault with his judges and would try a third time, let
him carry the suit before the select judges, and if he be again
defeated, let him pay the whole of the damages and half as much again.
And the plaintiff, if when defeated before the first judges he persist
in going on to the second, shall if he wins receive in addition to the
damages a fifth part more, and if defeated he shall pay a like sum;
but if he is not satisfied with the previous decision, and will insist
on proceeding to a third court, then if he win he shall receive from
the defendant the amount of the damages and, as I said before, half as
much again, and the plaintiff, if he lose, shall pay half of the
damages claimed, Now the assignment by lot of judges to courts and the
completion of the number of them, and the appointment of servants to
the different magistrates, and the times at which the several causes
should be heard, and the votings and delays, and all the things that
necessarily concern suits, and the order of causes, and the time in
which answers have to be put in and parties are to appear-of these and
other things akin to these we have indeed already spoken, but there is
no harm in repeating what is right twice or thrice:-All lesser and
easier matters which the elder legislator has omitted may be
supplied by the younger one. Private courts will be sufficiently
regulated in this way, and the public and state courts, and those
which the magistrates must use in the administration of their
several offices, exist in many other states. Many very respectable
institutions of this sort have been framed by good men, and from
them the guardians of the law may by reflection derive what is
necessary, for the order of our new state, considering and
correcting them, and bringing them to the test of experience, until
every detail appears to be satisfactorily determined; and then putting
the final seal upon them, and making them irreversible, they shall use
them for ever afterwards. As to what relates to the silence of
judges and the abstinence from words of evil omen and the reverse, and
the different notions of the just and good and honourable which
exist in our: own as compared with other states, they have been partly
mentioned already, and another part of them will be mentioned
hereafter as we draw near the end. To all these matters he who would
be an equal judge, shall justly look, and he shall possess writings
about them that he may learn them. For of all kinds of knowledge the
knowledge of good laws has the greatest power of improving the
learner; otherwise there would be no meaning the divine and
admirable law possessing a name akin to mind (nous, nomos). And of all
other words, such as the praises and censures of individuals which
occur in poetry and also in prose, whether written down or uttered
in daily conversation, whether men dispute about them in the spirit of
contention or weakly assent to them, as is often the case-of all these
the one sure test is the writings of the legislator, which the
righteous judge ought to have in his mind as the antidote of all other
words, and thus make himself and the city stand upright, procuring for
the good the continuance and increase of justice, and for the bad,
on the other hand, a conversion from ignorance and intemperance, and
in general from all unrighteousness, as far as their evil minds can be
healed, but to those whose web of life is in reality finished,
giving death, which is the only remedy for souls in their condition,
as I may say truly again and again. And such judges and chiefs of
judges will be worthy of receiving praise from the whole city.
  When the suits of the year are completed the following laws shall
regulate their execution:-In the first place, the judge shall assign
to the party who wins the suit the whole property of him who loses,
with the exception of mere necessaries, and the assignment shall be
made through the herald immediately after each decision in the hearing
of the judges; and when the month arrives following the month in which
the courts are sitting (unless the gainer of the suit has been
previously satisfied), the court shall follow up the case, and hand
over to the winner the goods of the loser; but if they find that he
has not the means of paying, and the sum deficient is not less than
a drachma, the insolvent person shall not have any right of going to
law with any other man until he have satisfied the debt of the winning
party; but other persons shall still have the right of bringing
suits against him. And if any one after he is condemned refuses to
acknowledge the authority which condemned him, let the magistrates who
are thus deprived of their authority bring him before the court of the
guardians of the law, and if he be cast, let him be punished with
death, as a subverter of the whole state and of the laws.
  Thus a man is born and brought up, and after this manner he begets
and brings up his own children, and has his share of dealings with
other men, and suffers if he has done wrong to any one, and receives
satisfaction if he has been wronged, and so at length in due time he
grows old under the protection of the laws, and his end comes in the
order of nature. Concerning the dead of either sex, the religious
ceremonies which may fittingly be performed, whether appertaining to
the Gods of the underworld or of this, shall be decided by the
interpreters with absolute authority. Their sepulchres are not to be
in places which are fit for cultivation, and there shall be no
monuments in such spots, either large or small, but they shall
occupy that part of the country which is naturally adapted for
receiving and concealing the bodies of the dead with as little hurt as
possible to the living. No man, living or dead, shall deprive the
living of the sustenance which the earth, their foster-parent, is
naturally inclined to provide for them. And let not the mound be piled
higher than would be the work of five men completed in five days;
nor shall the stone which is placed over the spot be larger than would
be sufficient to receive the praises of the dead included in four
heroic lines. Nor shall the laying out of the dead in the house
continue for a longer time than is sufficient to distinguish between
him who is in a trance only and him who is really dead, and speaking
generally, the third day after death will be a fair time for
carrying out the body to the sepulchre. Now we must believe the
legislator when he tells us that the soul is in all respects
superior to the body, and that even in life what makes each one us
to be what we are is only the soul; and that the body follows us about
in the likeness of each of us, and therefore, when we are dead, the
bodies of the dead are quite rightly said to be our shades or
images; for the true and immortal being of each one of us which is
called the soul goes on her way to other Gods, before them to give
an account-which is an inspiring hope to the good, but very terrible
to the bad, as the laws of our fathers tell us; and they also say
that not much can be done in the way of helping a man after he is
dead. But the living-he should be helped by all his kindred, that
while in life he may be the holiest and justest of men, and after
death may have no great sins to be punished in the world below. If
this be true, a man ought not to waste his substance under the idea
that all this lifeless mass of flesh which is in process of burial
is connected with him; he should consider that the son, or brother, or
the beloved one, whoever he may be, whom he thinks he is laying in the
earth, has gone away to complete and fulfil his own destiny, and
that his duty is rightly to order the present, and to spend moderately
on the lifeless altar of the Gods below. But the legislator does not
intend moderation to be take, in the sense of meanness. Let the law,
then, be as follows:-The expenditure on the entire funeral of him
who is of the highest class shall not exceed five minae; and for him
who is of the second class, three minae, and for him who is of the
third class, two minae, and for him, who is of the fourth class, one
mina, will be a fair limit of expense. The guardians of the law
ought to take especial care of the different ages of life, whether
childhood, or manhood, or any other age. And at the end of all, let
there be some one guardian of the law presiding, who shall be chosen
by the friends of the deceased to superintend, and let it be glory
to him to manage with fairness and moderation what relates to the
dead, and a discredit to him if they are not well managed. Let the
laying out and other ceremonies be in accordance with custom, but to
the statesman who adopts custom as his law we must give way in certain
particulars. It would be monstrous for example that he should
command any man to weep or abstain from weeping over the dead; but
he may forbid cries of lamentation, and not allow the voice of the
mourner to be heard outside the house; also, he may forbid the
bringing of the dead body into the open streets, or the processions of
mourners in the streets, and may require that before daybreak they
should be outside the city. Let these, then, be our laws relating to
such matters, and let him who obeys be free from penalty; but he who
disobeys even a single guardian of the law shall be punished by them
all with a fitting penalty. Other modes of burial, or again the denial
of burial, which is to be refused in the case of robbers of temples
and parricides and the like, have been devised and are embodied in the
preceding laws, so that now our work of legislation is pretty nearly
at an end; but in all cases the end does not consist in doing
something or acquiring something or establishing something-the end
will be attained and finally accomplished, when we have provided for
the perfect and lasting continuance of our institutions until then our
creation is incomplete.
  Cle. That is very good Stranger; but I wish you would tell me more
clearly what you mean.
  Ath. O Cleinias, many things of old time were well said and sung;
and the saying about the Fates was one of them.
  Cle. What is it?
  Ath. The saying that Lachesis or the giver of the lots is the
first of them, and that Clotho or the spinster is the second of
them, and that Atropos or the unchanging one is the third of them; and
that she is the preserver of the things which we have spoken, and
which have been compared in a figure to things woven by fire, they
both (i.e., Atropos and the fire) producing the quality of
unchangeableness. I am speaking of the things which in a state and
government give not only health and salvation to the body, but law, or
rather preservation of the law, in the soul; and, if I am not
mistaken, this seems to be still wanting in our laws: we have still to
see how we can implant in them this irreversible nature.
  Cle. It will be no small matter if we can only discover how such a
nature can be implanted in anything.
  Ath. But it certainly can be; so much I clearly see.
  Cle. Then let us not think of desisting until we have imparted
this quality to our laws; for it is ridiculous, after a great deal
of labour has been spent, to place a thing at last on an insecure
foundation.
  Megillus. I approve of your suggestion, and am quite of the same
mind with you.
  Cle. Very good: And now what, according to you, is to be the
salvation of our government and of our laws, and how is it to be
effected?
  Ath. Were we not saying that there must be in our city a council
which was to be of this sort:-The ten oldest guardians of the law, and
all those who have obtained prizes of virtue, were to meet in the same
assembly, and the council was also to include those who had visited
foreign countries in the hope of hearing something that might be of
use in the preservation of the laws, and who, having come safely home,
and having been tested in these same matters, had proved themselves to
be worthy to take part in the assembly;-each of the members was to
select some young man of not less than thirty years of age, he himself
judging in the, first instance whether the young man was worthy by
nature and education, and then suggesting him to the others, and if he
seemed to them also to be worthy they were to adopt him; but if not,
the decision at which they arrived was to be kept a secret from the
citizens at large; and, more especially, from the rejected
candidate. The meeting of the council was to be held early in the
morning, when everybody was most at leisure from all other business,
whether public or private-was not something of this sort said by us
before?
  Cle. True.
  Ath. Then, returning to the council, I would say further, that if we
let it down to be the anchor of the state, our city, having everything
which is suitable to her, will preserve all that we wish to preserve.
  Cle. What do you mean?
  Ath. Now is the time for me to speak the truth in all earnestness.
  Cle. Well said, and I hope that you will fulfil your intention.
  Ath. Know, Cleinias, that everything, in all that it does, has a
natural saviour, as of an animal the soul and the head are the chief
saviours.
  Cle. Once more, what do you mean?
  Ath. The well-being of those two is obviously the preservation of
every living thing.
  Cle. How is that?
  Ath. The soul, besides other things, contains mind, and the head,
besides other things, contains sight and hearing; and the mind,
mingling with the noblest of the senses, and becoming one with them,
may be truly called the salvation of all.
  Cle. Yes, Quite so.
  Ath. Yes, indeed; but with what is that intellect concerned which,
mingling with the senses, is the salvation of ships in storms as
well as in fair weather? In a ship, when the pilot and the sailors
unite their perceptions with the piloting mind, do they not save
both themselves and their craft?
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. We do not want many illustrations about such matters:-What
aim would the general of an army, or what aim would a physician
propose to himself, if he were seeking to attain salvation?
  Cle. Very good.
  Ath. Does not the general aim at victory and superiority in war, and
do not the physician and his assistants aim at producing health in the
body?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And a physician who is ignorant about the body, that is to say,
who knows not that which we just now called health, or a general who
knows not victory, or any others who are ignorant of the particulars
of the arts which we mentioned, cannot be said to have understanding
about any of these matters.
  Cle. They cannot.
  Ath. And what would you say of the state? If a person proves to be
ignorant of the aim to which the statesman should look, ought he, in
the first place, to be called a ruler at all; further, will he ever be
able to preserve that of which he does not even know the aim?
  Cle. Impossible.
  Ath. And therefore, if our settlement of the country is to be
perfect, we ought to have some institution, which, as I was saying,
will tell what is the aim of the state, and will inform us how we
are to attain this, and what law or what man will advise us to that
end. Any state which has no such institution is likely to be devoid of
mind and sense, and in all her actions will proceed by mere chance.
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. In which, then, of the parts or institutions of the state is
any such guardian power to be found? Can we say?
  Cle. I am not quite certain, Stranger; but I have a suspicion that
you are referring to the assembly which you just now said was to
meet at night.
  Ath. You understand me perfectly, Cleinias; and we must assume, as
the argument iniplies, that this council possesses all virtue; and the
beginning of virtue is not to make mistakes by guessing many things,
but to look steadily at one thing, and on this to fix all our aims.
  Cle. Quite true.
  Ath. Then now we shall see why there is nothing wonderful in
states going astray-the reason is that their legislators have such
different aims; nor is there anything wonderful in some laying down as
their rule of justice, that certain individuals should bear rule in
the state, whether they be good or bad, and others that the citizens
should be rich, not caring whether they are the slaves of other men or
not. The tendency of others, again, is towards freedom; and some
legislate with a view to two things at once-they want to be at the
same time free and the lords of other states; but the wisest men, as
they deem themselves to be, look to all these and similar aims, and
there is no one of them which they exclusively honour, and to which
they would have all things look.
  Cle. Then, Stranger, our former assertion will hold, for we were
saying that laws generally should look to one thing only; and this, as
we admitted, was rightly said to be virtue.
  Ath. Yes.
  Cle. And we said that virtue was of four kinds?
  Ath. Quite true.
  Cle. And that mind was the leader of the four, and that to her the
three other virtues and all other things ought to have regard?
  Ath. You follow me capitally, Cleinias, and I would ask you to
follow me to the end, for we have already said that the mind of the
pilot, the mind of the physician and of the general look to that one
thing to which they ought to look; and now we may turn to mind
political, of which, as of a human creature, we will ask a question:-O
wonderful being, and to what are you looking? The physician is able to
tell his single aim in life, but you, the superior, as you declare
yourself to be, of all intelligent beings, when you are asked are
not able to tell. Can you, Megillus, and you, Cleinias, say distinctly
what is the aim of mind political, in return for the many explanations
of things which I have given you?
  Cle. We cannot, Stranger.
  Ath. Well, but ought we not to desire to see it, and to see where
it is to be found?
  Cle. For example, where?
  Ath. For example, we were saying that there are four kinds of
virtue, and as there are four of them, each of them must be one.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And further, all four of them we call one; for we say that
courage is virtue, and that prudence is virtue, and the same of the
two others, as if they were in reality not many but one, that is,
virtue.
  Cle. Quite so.
  Ath. There is no difficulty in seeing in what way the two differ
from one another, and have received two names, and so of the rest. But
there is more difficulty in explaining why we call these two and the
rest of them by the single name of virtue.
  Cle. How do you mean?
  Ath. I have no difficulty in explaining what I mean. Let us
distribute the subject questions and answers.
  Cle. Once more, what do you mean?
  Ath. Ask me what is that one thing which call virtue, and then again
speak of as two, one part being courage and the other wisdom. I will
tell you how that occurs:-One of them has to do with fear; in this the
beasts also participate, and quite young children-I mean courage;
for a courageous temper is a gift of nature and not of reason. But
without reason there never has been, or is, or will be a wise and
understanding soul; it is of a different nature.
  Cle. That is true.
  Ath. I have now told you in what way the two are different, and do
you in return tell me in what way they are one and the same. Suppose
that I ask you in what way the four are one, and when you have
answered me, you will have a right to ask of me in return in what
way they are four; and then let us proceed to enquire whether in the
case of things which have a name and also a definition to them, true
knowledge consists in knowing the name only and not the definition.
Can he who is good for anything be ignorant of all this without
discredit where great and glorious truths are concerned?
  Cle. I suppose not.
  Ath. And is there anything greater to the legislator and the
guardian of the law, and to him who thinks that he excels all other
men in virtue, and has won the palm of excellence, that these very
qualities of which we are now speaking-courage, temperance, wisdom,
justice?
  Cle. How can there be anything greater?
  Ath. And ought not the interpreters, the teachers the lawgivers, the
guardians of the other citizens, to excel the rest of mankind, and
perfectly to show him who desires to learn and know or whose evil
actions require to be punished and reproved, what is the nature of
virtue and vice? Or shall some poet who has found his way into the
city, or some chance person who pretends to be an instructor of youth,
show himself to be better than him who has won the prize for every
virtue? And can we wonder that when the guardians are not adequate
in speech or action, and have no adequate knowledge of virtue, the
city being unguarded should experience the common fate of cities in
our day?
  Cle. Wonder! no.
  Ath. Well, then, must we do as we said? Or can we give our guardians
a more precise knowledge of virtue in speech and action than the
many have? or is there any way in which our city can be made to
resemble the head and senses of rational beings because possessing
such a guardian power?
  Cle. What, Stranger, is the drift of your comparison?
  Ath. Do we not see that the city is the trunk, and are not the
younger guardians, who are chosen for their natural gifts, placed in
the head of the state, having their souls all full of eyes, with which
they look about the whole city? They keep watch and hand over their
perceptions to the memory, and inform the elders of all that happens
in the city; and those whom we compared to the mind, because they have
many wise thoughts-that is to say, the old men-take counsel and making
use of the younger men as their ministers, and advising with them-in
this way both together truly preserve the whole state:-Shall this or
some other be the order of our state? Are all our citizens to be equal
in acquirements, or shall there be special persons among them who have
received a more careful training and education?
  Cle. That they should be equal, my; good, sir, is impossible.
  Ath. Then we ought to proceed to some more exact training than any
which has preceded.
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. And must not that of which we are in need be the one to which
we were just now alluding?
  Cle. Very true.
  Ath. Did we not say that the workman or guardian, if he be perfect
in every respect, ought not only to be able to see the many aims,
but he should press onward to the one? this he should know, and
knowing, order all things with a view to it.
  Cle. True.
  Ath. And can any one have a more exact way of considering or
contemplating. anything, than the being able to look at one idea
gathered from many different things?
  Cle. Perhaps not.
  Ath. Not "Perhaps not," but "Certainly not," my good sir, is the
right answer. There never has been a truer method than this discovered
by any man.
  Cle. I bow to your authority, Stranger; let us proceed in the way
which you propose.
  Ath. Then, as would appear, we must compel the guardians of our
divine state to perceive, in the first place, what that principle is
which is the same in all the four-the same, as we affirm, in courage
and in temperance, and in justice and in prudence, and which, being
one, we call as we ought, by the single name of virtue. To this, my
friends, we will, if you please, hold fast, and not let go until we
have sufficiently explained what that is to which we are to look,
whether to be regarded as one, or as a whole, or as both, or in
whatever way. Are we likely ever to be in a virtuous condition, if
we cannot tell whether virtue is many, or four, or one? Certainly,
if we take counsel among ourselves, we shall in some way contrive that
this principle has a place amongst us; but if you have made up your
mind that we should let the matter alone, we will.
  Cle. We must not, Stranger, by the God of strangers I swear that
we must not, for in our opinion you speak most truly; but we should
like to know how you will accomplish your purpose.
  Ath. Wait a little before you ask; and let us, first of all, be
quite agreed with one another that the purpose has to be accomplished.
  Cle. Certainly, it ought to be, if it can be.
  Ast. Well, and about the good and the honourable, are we to take the
same view? Are our guardians only to know that each of them is many,
or, also how and in what way they are one?
  Cle. They must consider also in what sense they are one.
  Ath. And are they to consider only, and to be unable to set forth
what they think?
  Cle. Certainly not; that would be the state of a slave.
  Ath. And may not the same be said of all good things-that the true
guardians of the laws ought to know the truth about them, and to be
able to interpret them in words, and carry them out in action, judging
of what is and what is not well, according to nature?
  Cle. Certainly.
  Ath. Is not the knowledge of the Gods which we have set forth with
so much zeal one of the noblest sorts of knowledge;-to know that
they are, and know how great is their power, as far as in man lies? do
indeed excuse the mass of the citizens, who only follow the voice of
the laws, but we refuse to admit as guardians any who do not labour to
obtain every possible evidence that there is respecting the Gods;
our city is forbidden and not allowed to choose as a guardian of the
law, or to place in the select order of virtue, him who is not an
inspired man, and has not laboured at these things.
  Cle. It is certainly just, as you say, that he who is indolent about
such matters or incapable should be rejected, and that things
honourable should be put away from him.
  Ath. Are we assured that there are two things which lead men to
believe in the Gods, as we have already stated?
  Cle. What are they?
  Ath. One is the argument about the soul, which has been already
mentioned-that it is the eldest, and most divine of all things, to
which motion attaining generation gives perpetual existence; the other
was an argument from the order of the motion of the stars, and of
all things under the dominion of the mind which ordered the
universe. If a man look upon the world not lightly or ignorantly,
there was never any one so godless who did not experience an effect
opposite to that which the many imagine. For they think that those who
handle these matters by the help of astronomy, and the accompanying
arts of demonstration, may become godless, because they see, as far as
they can see, things happening by necessity, and not by an intelligent
will accomplishing good.
  Cle. But what is the fact?
  Ath. Just the opposite, as I said, of the opinion which once
prevailed among men, that the sun and stars are without soul. Even
in those days men wondered about them, and that which is now
ascertained was then conjectured by some who had a more exact
knowledge of them-that if they had been things without soul, and had
no mind, they could never have moved with numerical exactness so
wonderful; and even at that time some ventured to hazard the
conjecture that mind was the orderer of the universe. But these same
persons again mistaking the nature of the soul, which they conceived
to be younger and not older than the body, once more overturned the
world, or rather, I should say, themselves; for the bodies which
they saw moving in heaven all appeared to be full of stones, and
earth, and many other lifeless substances, and to these they
assigned the causes of all things. Such studies gave rise to much
atheism and perplexity, and the poets took occasion to be
abusive-comparing the philosophers to she-dogs uttering vain howlings,
and talking other nonsense of the same sort. But now, as I said, the
case is reversed.
  Cle. How so?
  Ath. No man can be a true worshipper of the Gods who does not know
these two principles-that the soul is the eldest of all things which
are born, and is immortal and rules over all bodies; moreover, as I
have now said several times, he who has not contemplated the mind of
nature which is said to exist in the stars, and gone through the
previous training, and seen the connection of music with these things,
and harmonized them all with laws and institutions, is not able to
give a reason of such things as have a reason. And he who is unable to
acquire this in addition to the ordinary virtues of a citizen, can
hardly be a good ruler of a whole state; but he should be the
subordinate of other rulers. Wherefore, Cleinias and Megillus, let
us consider whether we may not add to all the other laws which we have
discussed this further one-that the nocturnal assembly of the
magistrates, which has also shared in the whole scheme of education
proposed by us, shall be a guard set according to law for the
salvation of the state. Shall we propose this?
  Cle. Certainly, my good friend, we will if the thing is in any
degree possible.
  Ath. Let us make a common effort to gain such an object; for I too
will gladly share in the attempt. Of these matters I have had much
experience, and have often considered them, and I dare say that I
shall be able to find others who will also help.
  Cle. I agree, Stranger, that we should proceed along the road in
which God is guiding us; and how we can proceed rightly has now to
be investigated and explained.
  Ath. O Megillus and Cleinias, about these matters we cannot
legislate further until the council is constituted; when that is done,
then we will determine what authority they shall have of their own;
but the explanation of how this is all to be ordered would only be
given rightly in a long discourse.
  Cle. What do you mean, and what new thing is this?
  Ath. In the first place, a list would have to be made out of those
who by their ages and studies and dispositions and habits are well
fitted for the duty of a guardian. In the next place, it will not be
easy for them to discover themselves what they ought to learn, or
become the disciple of one who has already made the discovery.
Furthermore, to write down the times at which, and during which,
they ought to receive the several kinds of instruction, would be a
vain thing; for the learners themselves do not know what is learned to
advantage until the knowledge which is the result of learning has
found a place in the soul of each. And so these details, although they
could not be truly said to be secret, might be said to be incapable of
being stated beforehand, because when stated they would have no
meaning.
  Cle. What then are we to do, Stranger, under these circumstances?
  Ath. As the proverb says, the answer is no secret, but open to all
of us:-We must risk the whole on the chance of throwing, as they
say, thrice six or thrice ace, and I am willing to share with you
the danger by stating and explaining to you my views about education
and nurture, which is the question coming to the surface again. The
danger is not a slight or ordinary one, and I would advise you,
Cleinias, in particular, to see to the matter; for if you order
rightly the city of the Magnetes, or whatever name God may give it,
you will obtain the greatest glory; or at any rate you will be thought
the most courageous of men in the estimation of posterity. Dear
companions, if this our divine assembly can only be established, to
them we will hand over the city; none of the present company of
legislators, as I may call them, would hesitate about that. And the
state will be perfected and become a waking reality, which a little
while ago we attempted to create as a dream and in idea only, mingling
together reason and mind in one image, in the hope that our citizens
might be duly mingled and rightly educated; and being educated, and
dwelling in the citadel of the land, might become perfect guardians,
such as we have never seen in all our previous life, by reason of
the saving virtue which is in them.
  Meg. Dear Cleinias, after all that has been said, either we must
detain the Stranger, and by supplications and in all manner of ways
make him share in the foundation of the city, or we must give up the
undertaking.
  Cle. Very true, Megillus; and you must join with me in detaining
him.
  Meg. I will.

                              -THE END-

