Page:The Republic by Plato.djvu/17

Rh profoundly modified by its author in the later and more practical dialogue, “The Laws,” yet a flood of instructive light is incidentally thrown on numberless problems of real life, political and social, as well as moral.

The opening scene has always been especially admired, the discussion on old age containing nearly all the best thoughts embodied three centuries later by Cicero in his essay, “De Senectute.” The rest of Book I. is less important, the various current definitions of justice being set up only to be bowled over, more or less fairly, by Socrates.

It is in Book II. that the ideal State, with its three classes, is interestingly developed. The division and subdivision of mechanical labor are advocated in phrases that often sound strangely modern.

Education is the especial subject of Book III. Poetry and music must be austerely and rigidly limited to the creation of better citizens. The attack directed at this point against the ignoble theology of Homer is a magnificent piece of literary criticism. Myths are to be invented expressly to justify the organization of the State. Individuals are to pass easily from one to another class, according to their fitness.

Already in Book IV. justice is defined as the force that keeps the three elements in equilibrium and each devoted to its proper functions. The analogy to the individual man is now elaborately pointed out. The conclusion is solemnly urged that justice is the only path to prosperity and happiness, whether for a State or a man. The original subject seems all but exhausted at this point.

The fifth book will shock nearly all readers. Socrates is here forced to explain in detail the plans by which he would destroy the family altogether, prevent each child from ever knowing who were his actual parents, and all parents from ever singling out their own offspring. Woman, to Plato, is but lesser man. She must share all gymnastic exposure and training, with the tasks of war, to the limit of her powers.

Books VI. and VII. discuss, in a higher and more mystical strain, the philosophic education of those who are to be the guardians of the commonwealth. The argument culminates in what we now call transcendentalism; that is, all the sensual phenomena of our world are but unsubstantial shadows