Page:Plato (IA platocollins00colliala).pdf/156

 beyond the borders; while the criminal "who has taken the life that ought to be dearer to him than all others—his own"—shall be buried alone in a desolate place, without tomb or monument to show his grave.

The deep-sealed aversion and contempt with which every Greek regarded trade and traders is shown in Plato's regulations as to commerce and the market. Among his 5040 citizens there was not to be found a single retail trader. Such a degrading occupation was to be left entirely to the resident foreigners, if any chose to engage in it. If some great personage ("the very idea is absurd," he says) were to open a shop, and thus set a precedent, things might be different. As it is, trade carries with it the stamp of dishonour. And then follow other restrictions, the necessity for which serves to show us that Greek shopkeepers practised much the same imposition on their customers as our own. There was to be no adulteration, no tricks of sale, and all contracts were to be rigorously adhered to.

The last two books are taken up with a number of miscellaneous regulations respecting civil rights and duties. The law is to take the power of will-making into its own hands, and regulate the succession of property "without listening to the outcry of dying persons." Orphans—"the most sacred of all deposits"—are to be protected by the State. A husband and wife with "incompatible tempers" should be divorced. Witchcraft is to be punished with death. No beggar is to be allowed in the land. No man under forty