Laws
seal, and place watchers. If the owner remain absent more than five
days, the searcher shall take the magistrates, and open the sealed
property, and seal it up again in their presence. The recovery of goods
disputed, except in the case of lands and houses, (about which there
can be no dispute in our state), is to be barred by time. The public and
unimpeached use of anything for a year in the city, or for five years in
the country, or the private possession and domestic use for three years
in the city, or for ten years in the country, is to give a right of
ownership. But if the possessor have the property in a foreign country,
there shall be no bar as to time. The proceedings of any trial are to
be void, in which either the parties or the witnesses, whether bond or
free, have been prevented by violence from attending:--if a slave be
prevented, the suit shall be invalid; or if a freeman, he who is guilty
of the violence shall be imprisoned for a year, and shall also be liable
to an action for kidnapping. If one competitor forcibly prevents another
from attending at the games, the other may be inscribed as victor in
the temples, and the first, whether victor or not, shall be liable to an
action for damages. The receiver of stolen goods shall undergo the same
punishment as the thief. The receiver of an exile shall be punished with
death. A man ought to have the same friends and enemies as his country;
and he who makes war or peace for himself shall be put to death. And if
a party in the state make war or peace, their leaders shall be indicted
by the generals, and, if convicted, they shall be put to death. The
ministers and officers of a country ought not to receive gifts, even as
the reward of good deeds. He who disobeys shall die.
With a view to taxation a man should have his property and income
valued: and the government may, at their discretion, levy the tax upon
the annual return, or take a portion of the whole.
The good man will offer moderate gifts to the Gods; his land or hearth
cannot be offered, because they are already consecrated to all Gods.
Gold and silver, which arouse envy, and ivory, which is taken from the
dead body of an animal, are unsuitable offerings; iron and brass are
materials of war. Wood and stone of a single piece may be offered; also
woven work which has not occupied one woman more than a month in making.
White is a colour which is acceptable to the Gods; figures of birds and
similar offerings are the best of gifts, but they must be such as the
painter can execute in a day.
Next concerning lawsuits. Judges, or rather arbiters, may be agreed
upon by the plaintiff and defendant; and if no decision is obtained from
them, their fellow-tribesmen shall judge. At this stage there shall be
an increase of the penalty: the defendant, if he be cast, shall pay a
fifth more than the damages claimed. If he further persist, and appeal
a second time, the case shall be heard before the select judges; and
he shall pay, if defeated, the penalty and half as much again. And the
pursuer, if on the first appeal he is defeated, shall pay one fifth
of the damages claimed by him; and if on the second, one half. Other
matters relating to trials, such as the assignment of judges to courts,
the times of sitting, the number of judges, the modes of pleading
and procedure, as we have already said, may be determined by younger
legislators.
These are to be the rules of private courts. As regards public courts,
many states have excellent modes of procedure which may serve for
models; these, when duly tested by experience, should be ratified and
made permanent by us.
Let the judge be accomplished in the laws. He should possess writings
about them, and make a study of them; for laws are the highest
instrument of mental improvement, and derive their name from mind (nous,
nomos). They afford a measure of all censure and praise, whether in
verse or prose, in conversation or in books, and are an antidote to the
vain disputes of men and their equally vain acquiescence in each other's
opinions. The just judge, who imbibes their spirit, makes the city and
himself to stand upright. He establishes justice for the good, and cures
the tempers of the bad, if they can be cured; but denounces death, which
is the only remedy, to the incurable, the threads of whose life cannot
be reversed.
When the suits of the year are completed, execution is to follow. The
court is to award to the plaintiff the property of the defendant, if he
is cast, reserving to him only his lot of land. If the plaintiff is
not satisfied within a month, the court shall put into his hands the
property of the defendant. If the defendant fails in payment to the
amount of a drachma, he shall lose the use and protection of the court;
or if he rebel against the authority of the court, he shall be brought
before the guardians of the law, and if found guilty he shall be put to
death.
Man having been born, educated, having begotten and brought up children,
and gone to law, fulfils the debt of nature. The rites which are to be
celebrated after death in honour of the Gods above and below shall be
determined by the Interpreters. The dead shall be buried in uncultivated
places, where they will be out of the way and do least injury to the
living. For no one either in life or after death has any right to
deprive other men of the sustenance which mother earth provides for
them. No sepulchral mound is to be piled higher than five men can
raise it in five days, and the grave-stone shall not be larger than is
sufficient to contain an inscription of four heroic verses. The dead
are only to be exposed for three days, which is long enough to test the
reality of death. The legislator will instruct the people that the body
is a mere shadow or image, and that the soul, which is our true being,
is gone to give an account of herself before the Gods below. When they
hear this, the good are full of hope, and the evil are terrified. It
is also said that not much can be done for any one after death. And
therefore while in life all man should be helped by their kindred to
pass their days justly and holily, that they may depart in peace. When
a man loses a son or a brother, he should consider that the beloved one
has gone away to fulfil his destiny in another place, and should not
waste money over his lifeless remains. Let the law then order a moderate
funeral of five minae for the first class, of three for the second, of
two for the third, of one for the fourth. One of the guardians of the
law, to be selected by the relatives, shall assist them in arranging
the affairs of the deceased. There would be a want of delicacy in
prescribing that there should or should not be mourning for the dead.
But, at any rate, such mourning is to be confined to the house; there
must be no processions in the streets, and the dead body shall be taken
out of the city before daybreak. Regulations about other forms of burial
and about the non-burial of parricides and other sacrilegious persons
have already been laid down. The work of legislation is therefore nearly
completed; its end will be finally accomplished when we have provided
for the continuance of the state.
Do you remember the names of the Fates? Lachesis, the giver of the lots,
is the first of them; Clotho, the spinster, the second; Atropos, the
unchanging one, is the third and last, who makes the threads of the web
irreversible. And we too want to make our laws irreversible, for the
unchangeable quality in them will be the salvation of the state, and the
source of health and order in the bodies and souls of our citizens. 'But
can such a quality be implanted?' I think that it may; and at any rate
we must try; for, after all our labour, to have been piling up a fabric
which has no foundation would be too ridiculous. 'What foundation would
you lay?' We have already instituted an assembly which was composed
of the ten oldest guardians of the law, and secondly, of those who had
received prizes of virtue, and thirdly, of the travellers who had gone
abroad to enquire into the laws of other countries. Moreover, each of
the members was to choose a young man, of not less than thirty years of
age, to be approved by the rest; and they were to meet at dawn, when all
the world is at leisure. This assembly will be an anchor to the vessel
of state, and provide the means of permanence; for the constitutions of
states, like all other things, have their proper saviours, which are to
them what the head and soul are to the living being. 'How do you mean?'
Mind in the soul, and sight and hearing in the head, or rather, the
perfect union of mind and sense, may be justly called every man's
salvation. 'Certainly.' Yes; but of what nature is this union? In the
case of a ship, for example, the senses of the sailors are added to the
intelligence of the pilot, and the two together save the ship and
the men in the ship. Again, the physician and the general have their
objects; and the object of the one is health, of the other victory.
States, too, have their objects, and the ruler must understand, first,
their nature, and secondly, the means of attaining them, whether in laws
or men. The state which is wanting in this knowledge cannot be
expected to be wise when the time for action arrives. Now what class
or institution is there in our state which has such a saving power? 'I
suspect that you are referring to the Nocturnal Council.' Yes, to that
council which is to have all virtue, and which should aim directly at
the mark. 'Very true.' The inconsistency of legislation in most states
is not surprising, when the variety of their objects is considered. One
of them makes their rule of justice the government of a class; another
aims at wealth; another at freedom, or at freedom and power; and some
who call themselves philosophers maintain that you should seek for all
of them at once. But our object is unmistakeably virtue, and virtue is
of four kinds. 'Yes; and we said that mind is the chief and ruler of the
three other kinds of virtue and of all else.' True, Cleinias; and now,
having already declared the object which is present to the mind of the
pilot, the general, the physician, we will interrogate the mind of the
statesman. Tell me, I say, as the physician and general have told us
their object, what is the object of the statesman. Can you tell me? 'We
cannot.' Did we not say that there are four virtues--courage, wisdom,
and two others, all of which are called by the common name of virtue,
and are in a sense one? 'Certainly we did.' The difficulty is, not in
understanding the differences of the virtues, but in apprehending their
unity. Why do we call virtue, which is a single thing, by the two names
of wisdom and courage? The reason is that courage is concerned with
fear, and is found both in children and in brutes; for the soul may
be courageous without reason, but no soul was, or ever will be, wise
without reason. 'That is true.' I have explained to you the difference,
and do you in return explain to me the unity. But first let us consider
whether any one who knows the name of a thing without the definition has
any real knowledge of it. Is not such knowledge a disgrace to a man of
sense, especially where great and glorious truths are concerned? and can
any subject be more worthy of the attention of our legislators than the
four virtues of which we are speaking--courage, temperance, justice,
wisdom? Ought not the magistrates and officers of the state to instruct
the citizens in the nature of virtue and vice, instead of leaving them
to be taught by some chance poet or sophist? A city which is without
instruction suffers the usual fate of cities in our day. What then shall
we do? How shall we perfect the ideas of our guardians about virtue? how