Laws
and beginning from the last of these, he traces the steps by which the
family has grown into the state, and the original scattered society,
becoming more and more civilised, has finally passed into military
organizations like those of Crete and Sparta. His conception of the
origin of states is far truer in the Laws than in the Republic; but it
must be remembered that here he is giving an historical, there an ideal
picture of the growth of society.
Modern enquirers, like Plato, have found in infinite ages the
explanation not only of states, but of languages, men, animals, the
world itself; like him, also, they have detected in later institutions
the vestiges of a patriarchal state still surviving. Thus far Plato
speaks as 'the spectator of all time and all existence,' who may be
thought by some divine instinct to have guessed at truths which were
hereafter to be revealed. He is far above the vulgar notion that Hellas
is the civilized world (Statesman), or that civilization only began when
the Hellenes appeared on the scene. But he has no special knowledge
of 'the days before the flood'; and when he approaches more historical
times, in preparing the way for his own theory of mixed government,
he argues partially and erroneously. He is desirous of showing that
unlimited power is ruinous to any state, and hence he is led to
attribute a tyrannical spirit to the first Dorian kings. The decay of
Argos and the destruction of Messene are adduced by him as a manifest
proof of their failure; and Sparta, he thinks, was only preserved by the
limitations which the wisdom of successive legislators introduced into
the government. But there is no more reason to suppose that the Dorian
rule of life which was followed at Sparta ever prevailed in Argos and
Messene, than to assume that Dorian institutions were framed to protect
the Greeks against the power of Assyria; or that the empire of Assyria
was in any way affected by the Trojan war; or that the return of the
Heraclidae was only the return of Achaean exiles, who received a new
name from their leader Dorieus. Such fancies were chiefly based, as far
as they had any foundation, on the use of analogy, which played a great
part in the dawn of historical and geographical research. Because there
was a Persian empire which was the natural enemy of the Greek, there
must also have been an Assyrian empire, which had a similar hostility;
and not only the fable of the island of Atlantis, but the Trojan war,
in Plato's mind derived some features from the Persian struggle. So
Herodotus makes the Nile answer to the Ister, and the valley of the Nile
to the Red Sea. In the Republic, Plato is flying in the air regardless
of fact and possibility--in the Laws, he is making history by analogy.
In the former, he appears to be like some modern philosophers,
absolutely devoid of historical sense; in the latter, he is on a level,
not with Thucydides, or the critical historians of Greece, but with
Herodotus, or even with Ctesias.
The chief object of Plato in tracing the origin of society is to show
the point at which regular government superseded the patriarchical
authority, and the separate customs of different families were
systematized by legislators, and took the form of laws consented to
by them all. According to Plato, the only sound principle on which any
government could be based was a mixture or balance of power. The balance
of power saved Sparta, when the two other Heraclid states fell into
disorder. Here is probably the first trace of a political idea, which
has exercised a vast influence both in ancient and modern times. And
yet we might fairly ask, a little parodying the language of Plato--O
legislator, is unanimity only 'the struggle for existence'; or is the
balance of powers in a state better than the harmony of them?
In the fourth book we approach the realities of politics, and Plato
begins to ascend to the height of his great argument. The reign of
Cronos has passed away, and various forms of government have succeeded,
which are all based on self-interest and self-preservation. Right and
wrong, instead of being measured by the will of God, are created by
the law of the state. The strongest assertions are made of the purely
spiritual nature of religion--'Without holiness no man is accepted of
God'; and of the duty of filial obedience,--'Honour thy parents.' The
legislator must teach these precepts as well as command them. He is to
be the educator as well as the lawgiver of future ages, and his laws
are themselves to form a part of the education of the state. Unlike the
poet, he must be definite and rational; he cannot be allowed to say one
thing at one time, and another thing at another--he must know what he
is about. And yet legislation has a poetical or rhetorical element, and
must find words which will wing their way to the hearts of men. Laws
must be promulgated before they are put in execution, and mankind must
be reasoned with before they are punished. The legislator, when he
promulgates a particular law, will courteously entreat those who are
willing to hear his voice. Upon the rebellious only does the heavy blow
descend. A sermon and a law in one, blending the secular punishment with
the religious sanction, appeared to Plato a new idea which might have a
great result in reforming the world. The experiment had never been
tried of reasoning with mankind; the laws of others had never had any
preambles, and Plato seems to have great pleasure in contemplating his
discovery.
In these quaint forms of thought and language, great principles of
morals and legislation are enunciated by him for the first time. They
all go back to mind and God, who holds the beginning, middle, and end of
all things in His hand. The adjustment of the divine and human elements
in the world is conceived in the spirit of modern popular philosophy,
differing not much in the mode of expression. At first sight the
legislator appears to be impotent, for all things are the sport of
chance. But we admit also that God governs all things, and that chance
and opportunity co-operate with Him (compare the saying, that chance is
the name of the unknown cause). Lastly, while we acknowledge that God
and chance govern mankind and provide the conditions of human action,
experience will not allow us to deny a place to art. We know that there
is a use in having a pilot, though the storm may overwhelm him; and a
legislator is required to provide for the happiness of a state, although
he will pray for favourable conditions under which he may exercise his
art.
BOOK V. Hear now, all ye who heard the laws about Gods and ancestors:
Of all human possessions the soul is most divine, and most truly a man's
own. For in every man there are two parts--a better which rules, and an
inferior which serves; and the ruler is to be preferred to the servant.
Wherefore I bid every one next after the Gods to honour his own soul,
and he can only honour her by making her better. A man does not honour
his soul by flattery, or gifts, or self-indulgence, or conceit of
knowledge, nor when he blames others for his own errors; nor when he
indulges in pleasure or refuses to bear pain; nor when he thinks that
life at any price is a good, because he fears the world below, which,
far from being an evil, may be the greatest good; nor when he prefers
beauty to virtue--not reflecting that the soul, which came from heaven,
is more honourable than the body, which is earth-born; nor when
he covets dishonest gains, of which no amount is equal in value to
virtue;--in a word, when he counts that which the legislator pronounces
evil to be good, he degrades his soul, which is the divinest part of
him. He does not consider that the real punishment of evil-doing is to
grow like evil men, and to shun the conversation of the good: and that
he who is joined to such men must do and suffer what they by nature do
and say to one another, which suffering is not justice but retribution.
For justice is noble, but retribution is only the companion of
injustice. And whether a man escapes punishment or not, he is equally
miserable; for in the one case he is not cured, and in the other case he
perishes that the rest may be saved.
The glory of man is to follow the better and improve the inferior. And
the soul is that part of man which is most inclined to avoid the evil
and dwell with the good. Wherefore also the soul is second only to the
Gods in honour, and in the third place the body is to be esteemed, which
often has a false honour. For honour is not to be given to the fair or
the strong, or the swift or the tall, or to the healthy, any more than
to their opposites, but to the mean states of all these habits; and so
of property and external goods. No man should heap up riches that he may
leave them to his children. The best condition for them as for the state
is a middle one, in which there is a freedom without luxury. And the
best inheritance of children is modesty. But modesty cannot be implanted
by admonition only--the elders must set the example. He who would train
the young must first train himself.
He who honours his kindred and family may fairly expect that the Gods
will give him children. He who would have friends must think much of
their favours to him, and little of his to them. He who prefers to an
Olympic, or any other victory, to win the palm of obedience to the laws,
serves best both the state and his fellow-citizens. Engagements with
strangers are to be deemed most sacred, because the stranger, having
neither kindred nor friends, is immediately under the protection of
Zeus, the God of strangers. A prudent man will not sin against the
stranger; and still more carefully will he avoid sinning against the
suppliant, which is an offence never passed over by the Gods.
I will now speak of those particulars which are matters of praise and
blame only, and which, although not enforced by the law, greatly affect
the disposition to obey the law. Truth has the first place among the
gifts of Gods and men, for truth begets trust; but he is not to be
trusted who loves voluntary falsehood, and he who loves involuntary
falsehood is a fool. Neither the ignorant nor the untrustworthy man
is happy; for they have no friends in life, and die unlamented and
untended. Good is he who does no injustice--better who prevents others
from doing any--best of all who joins the rulers in punishing injustice.
And this is true of goods and virtues in general; he who has and
communicates them to others is the man of men; he who would, if he
could, is second-best; he who has them and is jealous of imparting them
to others is to be blamed, but the good or virtue which he has is to be
valued still. Let every man contend in the race without envy; for the
unenvious man increases the strength of the city; himself foremost in
the race, he harms no one with calumny. Whereas the envious man is
weak himself, and drives his rivals to despair with his slanders, thus
depriving the whole city of incentives to the exercise of virtue, and
tarnishing her glory. Every man should be gentle, but also passionate;
for he must have the spirit to fight against incurable and malignant
evil. But the evil which is remediable should be dealt with more in
sorrow than anger. He who is unjust is to be pitied in any case; for
no man voluntarily does evil or allows evil to exist in his soul. And
therefore he who deals with the curable sort must be long-suffering and
forbearing; but the incurable shall have the vials of our wrath poured
out upon him. The greatest of all evils is self-love, which is thought
to be natural and excusable, and is enforced as a duty, and yet is
the cause of many errors. The lover is blinded about the beloved, and
prefers his own interests to truth and right; but the truly great