The Republic and the Laws differ greatly in tone and dogma, as well as in execution, but they are intimately connected. They are diverse and consecutive presen- tations of the same general design. The Republic is the ideal state, the Laws the concrete state. The Re- public is the dream of a Utopian constitution, the Laws the proposition of a frame of government adapted to the weaknesses and recalcitration of an Hellenic people. Everything in the one is suited to an impossible condi- tion of things; everything in the other is reduced to the proportions and capacities of actual human society. In the one the state is conformed to the abstract idea of justice, as it was conceived by Plato: in the other, jus- tice is put into action, weighted down witli human prej- udices and passions, and conformed to the nature of the Greeks. These distinctions must be regarded in order [ to prevent exaggeration of Plato's offences against mo- rality and :;• t-sense. We sympathize with tin' strong
censure of the Republic expressed by Mitchell in his Aristophanes, hut we see that what is most repugnant may be only an ingenious imagination to symbolize pure abstract doctrine. It is not surprising that much perplexity should exist in regard to the Republic. Its double title produces confusion. Its inscription, or bii-
PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY
2S8
l'LAT( )XIC PHILOSOPHY
perscription, is, OfPoliti IngtheJust. The
second epigraph may have been formally the addition of ThrasyUus, bnl it "i- sanctioned by the texl itself {Dt Bep.ii,p.368; comp. iv, p. 134). -Many critics of great Dame, and especially the ancients, have held ii to be a
d constitution of the state. Others, of not in-
ferior reputation, among the modi rns, have considered
iv an investigation into the nature of justice,
illustrated by the Btate, because the state exhibits the
characteristics of justice in a completer form and on a
lie than the individual could do. Stallbaum, in I,;, /■ arrays the arguments adduced in
favor of either opinion, and concludes that Plato's de- sign was to portray the image of a perfect and happy life, by prescribing the offices "I man in bis public and private relations (p. xviii, xix).
nol disposed to deny this conclusion, which substantially reconciles the previous contradictions; but we think there is something more than this. The ideal, the absolute, the perfect, was always present to the mind of Plato: the whole tenor of his philosophy
i him from resting in the actual. But his per- sonal and philosophical career urged bim also to regard with most earnestness the amelioration of the moral and political condition of his countrymen, and the improve- ment of their political through the rectification of their moral state. To a Greek the state was everything, the individual being merely a fragment or constituent atom of the state. The life of the citizen was absorbed in the state; the life of the state was reflected in the life of the citizen— was, indeed, imposed on him. Ac- cording to Greek ideas, the just man could not develop his virtues except in a just state; and the just state could nol subsist except through just citizens just cither by native constitution or by compulsion, or by both. Education and discipline would be demanded to produce just rulers and just subjects. The investiga- tion of the nature of justice would accordingly require the determination of the form and conditions of a justly organized community (Jowett, Plato, iv, 5); the delin-
eaii if the just stale would be blended with thai of
the just man — and the conclusions resulting from the whole inquiry would furnish an earthly image of the Greek City of God r./)c yt ovda/iov o7/u« u1<ti)v {ivai, 1 1' Rep. i x,p. 592 ). Indistinct and fragmentary as is Pla- to's doctrine, it would have been left much re form- less and unsatisfactory without the fancies and dreams and political precepts contained in the Statesman. Re- public, and Laws. They furnish the unjointed outlines of the complete design for whose construction all the . intended.
Plato's notion, justice or righteousness jeel and essence of healthy political organiza- tion, and he consequently inquires in the Republic into its nature, and the best mode of its realization in the Btate. Of course he cannot free himself from Hellenic itions. Of course his reactionary tendencies and hi- oligarchical proclivities produced a constant n il from the dei ratic been-,. ,,t' in- Athenian con- temporaries towards the spirit of antique usage .and the imitation of Spartan institutions. Even in his wildest there appears a disposition to employ supposed traditionary practices, lb insists u] the strict sub- ordination of rank-; he even pet ri lies his ela--es of Citi- zens into castes. He does nol rigorously conjoin every one to hi- class, but accords advancement to those of
etui t ability In carrien ouverU mix talent. He
i rnmenl to the fi w I Kakoxaya
iiia-se- he converts al -t into Berfs '-hewers of wood
and drawers ol water," etc. [here an twogreal classes
of freemen, the -laie and the . r.ili -in. n
t h' Rep. id. i'. iii.l 15). The guardians are themselves divided into c w . . ord< rs, the rulers and the auxiliaries. The ruli re an selected, by successive examinations till their thirtieth year, from the bodj ol guardians, who are diligently trained and educated from their birth. lie training and the selection uav< -"me agreement