Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/578

570 breach of contract and the like is compared by Plato in the Republic (IV., p. 426) to cutting the Hydra (quid leges sine moribus Vanæ proficiunt?) a fundamental change of principle is needed in the training, education, and discipline of mankind; in a commonwealth where this exists all minor observances will follow as a matter of course, and where it does not, these complex regulations are worse than useless.