the mind from that which is visible and temporal, and to fix it upon the invisible and eternal. The preparatory studies are Arithmetic, Plain and Solid Geometry, Astronomy, Harmonics; he who has been duly trained in these will be fitted to enter on the crowning study of Dialectic, which does not start with assumed premisses, like the others, but examines and tests the premisses themselves, and will not rest till it has traced back each portion of knowledge to its fundamental idea, and further has seen how all ideas are connected with the Ideal Good.

The subject of education being thus completed, the argument proceeds to the consideration of the different kinds of constitution, and the corresponding varieties of character. Since all that has had a beginning is liable to decay, the time will come when the breed of Guardians will degenerate. The spirited or irascible element will ἐπιστήμη, knowledge. voûs, the reason.

(3) Subjective. ofis, sight.

Human Organ.

õμμa, the eye.

A further parallelism will represent the action of the mind within the two spheres. Thus regarded, the visible world is the sphere of opinion (doğaσtóv), the other of knowledge (yvworóv), and both are capable of subdivision, thus:

overpower the rational element; and the two upper classes will enslave the third, and devote themselves to wars of conquest. Thus the aristocracy, or government of the best, will be changed into a 'timocracy' or government of honour, resembling that of Sparta; and corresponding to this we shall have the timocratical or ambitious man. The next stage in the downward progress will be the change from the love of honour and power to the love of wealth, giving rise to an oligarchical government or plutocracy, under which the old harmony will entirely disappear, and the city will be divided into two hostile communities, the few rich opposed to the many poor. Correspondingly to this, when the son of an ambitious father is taught by his father's calamities the danger of ambition, he becomes industrious, prudent and parsimonious, providing the means of enjoyment without the skill or the courage to use them. Democracy is the constitution which succeeds plutocracy, when those who have wasted their property by extravagance offer themselves as leaders to the discontented poor, and with their aid expel the rich and establish equality of rights. The democratical man is one who uses the money left by his father to gratify every impulse and indulge in every amusement, keeping himself however within certain limits of moderation. Lastly we have the passage from democracy to tyranny, when some popular leader has succeeded in putting down an insurrection of the rich, and having surrounded himself with a body-guard proceeds to establish his power by putting to death the bolder and more able citizens, and grinds down the rest by every kind of extortion and oppression. The tyrannical man is the son of the democratical man, but in him the father's various

and comparatively innocent impulses are swallowed up by one over-mastering and lawless passion, which he gratifies at the expense of whatever violence or crime. If the tyrannical man is able to find a sufficient number of followers like himself, he makes himself an actual tyrant in his city and thus attains the summit of wickedness and injustice.

And now we have to answer the question which of these conditions is the happiest, which the most miserable. There can be no doubt as to which is the happiest, and which the unhappiest city, but some have maintained that, however unhappy may be the city which is under tyrannical rule, the tyrant himself is happy. But the facts are the same in both cases. As in the State, so in the tyrant, the better part is enslaved to the worse, the soul is for ever agitated by fierce and violent impulses; it is conscious that it is sinking deeper and deeper into wretchedness and crime, and is terror-stricken at the prospect of coming vengeance. The same conclusion follows from a consideration of the different kinds of pleasure. Each element of the soul has its appropriate pleasure. Thus he who is governed by reason enjoys the pleasures of wisdom, and extols these above the pleasures derived from honour or from wealth, while those in whom the irascible, or the appetitive elernent is strongest, magnify these latter pleasures above the former. Whose judgment are we to take? Manifestly that of him who both possesses the faculty of judgment and has had experience of all pleasures, that is, the philosopher; for he alone has the necessary mental qualifications, and has tasted both the pleasures of appetite and of honour; while the other two have never tasted the pleasures of knowledge. Again

the pleasures which spring from philosophy are the only pure pleasures: other pleasures are for the most part merely negative, consisting in a momentary release from pain. He that drinks only escapes the pain of thirst for the moment, but he who has become conscious of mental emptiness and feels himself replenished by instruction, is nourished by a food more real and true. Further even the inferior pleasures cannot be fully enjoyed except by one in whose soul reason is supreme. Thus we conclude that it is best for every one to be governed by the divine principle of reason residing in his own soul; but if not, that this government must be imposed upon him from without; that the worst of all conditions is to be unjust, and then to evade the penalties by which injustice might be cured and the soul restored to health.

In the Tenth book Plato reverts to the subject of poetry and imitation, and lays down the rule that the only poetry allowed in the model State will be hymns in honour of the Gods and of virtuous men. He then introduces a consideration which, he says, adds tenfold force to all that has been urged in favour of justice, viz. the immortality of the soul, for which he gives the following as a new and additional proof. Whatever perishes, perishes in consequence of some particular vice or disease which belongs to it. If there be any thing which can withstand the corroding effect of its own special vice, that thing would be indissoluble and imperishable. The soul is liable to the disease of injustice, but we do not find that it ever dies of this disease. We must conclude therefore that it is imperishable. Thus, in considering the natural consequences of justice, we must not limit ourselves to this life, but must raise our eyes to the eternity beyond.

As we have proved that justice is in itself best, we need no longer fear that we shall be thought to base its claim on mere accessories, if we view the facts as they really are, and confess that the just man will always be seen in his true character by the Gods, and will be loved and favoured by them, however he may seem to be neglected with a view to his better training in virtue in this life. For it is impossible, we shall say, that he whose chief object it is to grow like to God, should ever be really neglected by him whom he resembles. And as for man, we shall say that, in the end at any rate, justice and injustice will be detected and will receive their due deserts of honour and dishonour. And yet these rewards are nothing in comparison with those which await the just in Hades, as we gather from the story of Er, who was permitted to return to earth after visiting the unseen world, and brought back with him the report of all that he had witnessed there.

In dealing with a book so pregnant and suggestive as the Republic, it is difficult to know where comment is likely to be most useful. The few remarks which I am able to make will have reference (1) to Plato's intention in writing the book; (2) to the circumstances which may have contributed to give it its special form and colouring; (3) to the anticipations of later thought and especially of Christian thought which may be found in it; (4) to the more striking examples of divergence between Plato and the prevalent views of his own or of later times.

(1) Some have held that the object of the writer is fully given in the name by which the book is commonly known, and that whatever travels beyond political philo