brass and iron; that it is the duty therefore of the rulers carefully to test the nature of each citizen, and not allow one of golden nature to remain in a lower class, or one of iron in the higher, since the city is fated to perish if ever brazen or iron men become its Guardians. Finally the Guardians and Auxiliaries are to live together in a camp, having no private property or home, but maintained by the contributions of the other citizens. Otherwise they will become tyrants rather than Guardians, wolves instead of watch-dogs.

Adeimantus here objects that the Guardians will be worse off than the other citizens. To which Socrates replies that the end of the true legislator is not to make any particular class happy, but to provide that each class and each citizen shall perform aright their proper function, and thus contribute to the general welfare of the city as a whole. One of the duties of the Guardians will be to take care that the citizens are not unfitted for their work or estranged from each other by the entering in either of poverty or riches. Another will be to prevent the city outgrowing its proper limits and losing its unity in that way: a third to guard against any innovation in the constitution, especially as regards the training of the Guardians themselves.

The State being thus fully organized, we have now to look for justice in it. If it is a perfect State, it must possess all virtue, ie. it must be wise, brave, temperate and just. If we can discover the three former characteristics in our State, then the virtue which remains unaccounted for will be justice. Now the State is wise in the wisdom of its Guardians; it is brave in the bravery of its Auxiliaries, who have learnt in the

course of their training to form a true estimate of what is, or is not, really formidable, and have acquired, through the same training, sufficient strength of mind to hold fast to these convictions in spite of all temptation. Temperance is another name for self-mastery, by which we understand the subordination of a lower self to a higher self in the individual: in our State it will mean the willing obedience of all the citizens to the Guardians who form the smallest class. Finally justice is that principle of conduct which lies at the root of all these, and which we assumed in the very foundation of our State, the principle, namely, that each citizen should do his own work without meddling with others. Our city will be just, as long as each class in it confines itself to its own proper work; it will become unjust, when one class usurps the position of another, especially if a lower class usurps that of a higher.

We have now to apply this analogy to the individual. As there are three classes in the State, so there are three parts or elements existing in the individual mind. One is Appetite (rò éɩovμηtiкóv), such as we are conscious of when we thirst; another Reason (To λoytoтikóv), which at times forbids us to drink, though thirsty; the third Spirit or the sense of honour, (tò Ovμoeidés), which at times assists the reason to keep under the appetites, at times itself chafes and frets, like a wild horse, under the control of reason. The virtues then of the individual will be analogous to those of the State. He will be wise through the wisdom of the rational element within him; brave, through the courage of the spirited or irascible element; temperate, through the willing obedience of the two inferior elements to the superior; just, when each

part of the soul performs its own proper function without encroaching upon the others. And this inward harmony will show itself outwardly in just deeds, while injustice is an unnatural discord and disease in the soul, and manifests its presence outwardly in all unjust and criminal actions. From this it must follow that justice in itself, apart from its consequences, must be always the greatest good, and injustice the greatest evil of the soul, as health is the greatest good and disease the greatest evil of the body.

In the 5th Book Socrates explains at length. the community of women and children to which he had before alluded. The greatest evil to a State being separation of interests, and the greatest good being unity of interests and harmony of feeling, it must be our object to weld the whole city into one body, in which every part sympathizes with every other part, and the separate parts cease to talk of 'mine' and 'not mine,' but all together speak of 'ours.' But, as long as we have separate homes and separate families, we cannot hope for this complete blending of interests. It will be otherwise in our model State. Our women will go through the same training as the men; for the common opinion which restricts all women to a narrow circle of family duties is altogether contrary to nature: women have the same variety of aptitudes and ability as men; they only differ from men in being weaker. As we do not refuse to make use of female watch-dogs because they are weaker than the male, so we shall not forbid a woman to be a Guardian if she shows the requisite qualifications for the office. In regard to the rearing of children, it will be the duty of the rulers to follow the example of skilful breeders, and

secure the best offspring by selecting the best parents. No union of Guardians or Auxiliaries will be allowed without the sanction of the rulers, and the children will be removed at once to a state-establishment, where they will be brought up under the charge of nurses, unknown to their parents; but every child will regard every man of mature age as a father; and all of the same age will be to each other brothers and sisters.

It is a question how far this ideal is capable of being put into practice. The only chance of it would be by the union of political power and philosophy in the same person. And here it becomes necessary to distinguish between the true philosopher and the pretender. The true philosopher, while he eagerly pursues every kind of wisdom and is enamoured of every kind of beauty, is never satisfied with the contemplation of isolated truths or of individual beautiful objects, but presses onwards till he sees the Ideal itself, which alone is always true, always beautiful, and is the cause of beauty and truth in other things by entering into them and irradiating them with some faint gleams of its own perfection. One who is thus familiar with the Ideal will be most likely to keep continually before his eyes the type of the perfect State, and to make laws in accordance with it. Having his mind occupied by such high thoughts, he will be in no danger from those temptations to voluptuousness, avarice and other weaknesses, which beset ordinary rulers. He will possess in fact those four characteristics which make up perfect virtue.

Adeimantus here objects that Socrates' picture of the philosopher is not in accordance with experience. Those who devote themselves to philosophy are generally thought

useless, if not unprincipled. Socrates replies that this is owing to the corrupt state of public opinion, through which the qualities of mind which go to make a philosopher are perverted by adverse influences, while philosophy is left in the hands of pretenders who bring discredit upon it; or, if here and there a genuine philosopher is to be found, he is powerless to resist the stream, and is content if he can keep himself pure from the world, and retain the hope of a better life to come. In such a State as we are describing, the philosopher would not only reach a higher stage of growth himself, but he would secure his country's welfare as well as his own. The next point then is to show by what kind of education the Guardians may be raised into philosophers. Besides the tests previously mentioned, they must now be exercised in a variety of studies, terminating in the highest of all studies, that of the Ideal Good, the knowledge of which is needed, if they are to be perfect Guardians. What then is the Ideal Good? Socrates answers by an analogy. The Ideal Good is, in the invisible world, which is apprehended by the intellect and not by the senses, that which its offspring, the Sun, is in the visible world. As the Sun is the source of life and light to visible things, so the Ideal Good is the source of being and of knowledge in the intelligible world'. The use of education is to turn

1 The analogy may be presented in a parallelism, as follows: Sphere. τὸ ὁρατόν the visible. τὸ νοητόν the intelligible. Supreme Cause. ἰδέα τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ.

Effect

ἥλιος.

(1) Objective. yéveois, 'becoming.' ovcía, 'being.' (2) Subjectivo

objective.

pus, light.

aλngela, truth.