f
scheme or plan of the book. The first wave, the second wave, the third
and greatest wave come rolling in, and we hear the roar of them. All
that can be said of the extravagance of Plato's proposals is anticipated
by himself. Nothing is more admirable than the hesitation with which he
proposes the solemn text, 'Until kings are philosophers,' etc.; or the
reaction from the sublime to the ridiculous, when Glaucon describes the
manner in which the new truth will be received by mankind.

Some defects and difficulties may be noted in the execution of the
communistic plan. Nothing is told us of the application of communism
to the lower classes; nor is the table of prohibited degrees capable of
being made out. It is quite possible that a child born at one hymeneal
festival may marry one of its own brothers or sisters, or even one of
its parents, at another. Plato is afraid of incestuous unions, but at
the same time he does not wish to bring before us the fact that the city
would be divided into families of those born seven and nine months after
each hymeneal festival. If it were worth while to argue seriously about
such fancies, we might remark that while all the old affinities are
abolished, the newly prohibited affinity rests not on any natural or
rational principle, but only upon the accident of children having been
born in the same month and year. Nor does he explain how the lots could
be so manipulated by the legislature as to bring together the fairest
and best. The singular expression which is employed to describe the age
of five-and-twenty may perhaps be taken from some poet.

In the delineation of the philosopher, the illustrations of the nature
of philosophy derived from love are more suited to the apprehension
of Glaucon, the Athenian man of pleasure, than to modern tastes or
feelings. They are partly facetious, but also contain a germ of truth.
That science is a whole, remains a true principle of inductive as well
as of metaphysical philosophy; and the love of universal knowledge is
still the characteristic of the philosopher in modern as well as in
ancient times.

At the end of the fifth book Plato introduces the figment of contingent
matter, which has exercised so great an influence both on the Ethics and
Theology of the modern world, and which occurs here for the first time
in the history of philosophy. He did not remark that the degrees of
knowledge in the subject have nothing corresponding to them in the
o