Page:Works of Plato his first fifty-five dialogues (Taylor 1804) (Vol 2 of 5) (IA Vol2worksofplato00plat).pdf/13

 == INTRODUCTION. ==

Plato, in compoſing the following books of Laws after his Republic, appears to have acted in perfect conformity to the genius of his philoſophy, which every where aſcends to things more univerſal and thence deſcends to things more particular, and contends that the latter can only be accurately known by contemplating the former. As, therefore, in his Republic, or, the great polity, he aſſigned all things in common, ſo here he diſtributes land and a habitation, a wife and children, to every individual.

The Athenian gueſt, the chief ſpeaker in this Dialogue, is Plato himſelf, as is well obſerved by the Greek Scholiaſt, whom we have frequently cited in the Notes to the Republic. For this gueſt obſerves, in the courſe of the Laws, that he had already completed two polities; ſo that either theſe muſt be the polities of Plato, or, if this is not admitted, Plato will be the ſame with the Athenian gueſt. Plato, therefore, travelling to Crete, met near Cnoſſus with Megillus the Lacedæmonian, and Clinias the Cretan, whom, together with nine others, the Cnoſſians had invited to their country that they might there eſtabliſh a colony, build a city, and give it laws. Megillus then and Clinias, ſays the Scholiaſt, betook themſelves to the ſacred cavern of Jupiter, which was the moſt holy of all others, and in which the moſt venerable and arcane of the myſteries were performed. The Athenian gueſt meeting with theſe two, and having aſked them in what deſign they were engaged, they replied, In the eſtabliſhment of laws. However, as they had been aſked many things concerning laws by the gueſt, and had by no means ſatisfactorily anwſered his queſtions, and as he appeared to them to be well ſkilled in the ſubject, they requeſt him to aſſiſt them in framing laws for the city. The genius of Plato in compoſing theſe laws is truly admirable; for, prompted by a philanthropy of which a reſemblance has from time imme-