Laws
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 under-world 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 of 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 taken 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.
CLEINIAS: That is very good, Stranger; but I wish you would tell me more
clearly what you mean.
ATHENIAN: O Cleinias, many things of old time were well said and sung;
and the saying about the Fates was one of them.
CLEINIAS: What is it?
ATHENIAN: 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.
CLEINIAS: It will be no small matter if we can only discover how such a
nature can be implanted in anything.
ATHENIAN: But it certainly can be; so much I clearly see.
CLEINIAS: 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.
ATHENIAN: I approve of your suggestion, and am quite of the same mind
with you.
CLEINIAS: 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?
ATHENIAN: 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?
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: 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.
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: Now is the time for me to speak the truth in all earnestness.
CLEINIAS: Well said, and I hope that you will fulfil your intention.
ATHENIAN: 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.
CLEINIAS: Once more, what do you mean?
ATHENIAN: The well-being of those two is obviously the preservation of
every living thing.
CLEINIAS: How is that?
ATHENIAN: 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.
CLEINIAS: Yes, quite so.
ATHENIAN: 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?
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: 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?
CLEINIAS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: 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?
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: 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.
CLEINIAS: They cannot.
ATHENIAN: 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; and further, will he ever be
able to preserve that of which he does not even know the aim?
CLEINIAS: Impossible.
ATHENIAN: 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.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: In which, then, of the parts or institutions of the state is
any such guardian power to be found? Can we say?
CLEINIAS: 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.
ATHENIAN: You understand me perfectly, Cleinias; and we must assume, as
the argument implies, 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.
CLEINIAS: Quite true.
ATHENIAN: 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.