w state. 'Why do not you and
Megillus join us?' Athens is proud, and Sparta too; and they are both
a long way off. But let me proceed with my scheme. When the state is
permanently established, the mode of election will be as follows: All
who are serving, or have served, in the army will be electors; and the
election will be held in the most sacred of the temples. The voter
will place on the altar a tablet, inscribing thereupon the name of the
candidate whom he prefers, and of his father, tribe, and ward, writing
at the side of them his own name in like manner; and he may take away
any tablet which does not appear written to his mind, and place it in
the Agora for thirty days. The 300 who obtain the greatest number of
votes will be publicly announced, and out of them there will be a
second election of 100; and out of the 100 a third and final election
of thirty-seven, accompanied by the solemnity of the electors passing
through victims. But then who is to arrange all this? There is a common
saying, that the beginning is half the whole; and I should say a good
deal more than half. 'Most true.' The only way of making a beginning is
from the parent city; and though in after ages the tie may be broken,
and quarrels may arise between them, yet in early days the child
naturally looks to the mother for care and education. And, as I said
before, the Cnosians ought to take an interest in the colony, and select
100 elders of their own citizens, to whom shall be added 100 of the
colonists, to arrange and supervise the first elections and scrutinies;
and when the colony has been started, the Cnosians may return home and
leave the colonists to themselves.

The thirty-seven magistrates who have been elected in the manner
described, shall have the following duties: first, they shall be
guardians of the law; secondly, of the registers of property in the
four classes--not including the one, two, three, four minae, which are
allowed as a surplus. He who is found to possess what is not entered in
the registers, in addition to the confiscation of such property shall be
proceeded against by law, and if he be cast he shall lose his share
in the public property and in distributions of money; and his sentence
shall be inscribed in some public place. The guardians are to continue
in office twenty years only, and to commence holding office at fifty
years, or if elected at sixty they are not to remain after seventy.

Generals have now to be elect