ce of how Er returned to the body, when the other souls went
shooting like stars to their birth,--add greatly to the probability of
the narrative. They are such touches of nature as the art of Defoe
might have introduced when he wished to win credibility for marvels and
apparitions.

*****

There still remain to be considered some points which have been
intentionally reserved to the end: (1) the Janus-like character of the
Republic, which presents two faces--one an Hellenic state, the other a
kingdom of philosophers. Connected with the latter of the two aspects
are (2) the paradoxes of the Republic, as they have been termed by
Morgenstern: (a) the community of property; (b) of families; (c) the
rule of philosophers; (d) the analogy of the individual and the State,
which, like some other analogies in the Republic, is carried too far. We
may then proceed to consider (3) the subject of education as conceived
by Plato, bringing together in a general view the education of youth
and the education of after-life; (4) we may note further some essential
differences between ancient and modern politics which are suggested by
the Republic; (5) we may compare the Politicus and the Laws; (6) we may
observe the influence exercised by Plato on his imitators; and (7)
take occasion to consider the nature and value of political, and (8) of
religious ideals.

1. Plato expressly says that he is intending to found an Hellenic State
(Book V). Many of his regulations are characteristically Spartan; such
as the prohibition of gold and silver, the common meals of the men, the
military training of the youth, the gymnastic exercises of the women.
The life of Sparta was the life of a camp (Laws), enforced even more
rigidly in time of peace than in war; the citizens of Sparta, like
Plato's, were forbidden to trade--they were to be soldiers and not
shopkeepers. Nowhere else in Greece was the individual so completely
subjected to the State; the time when he was to marry, the education of
his children, the clothes which he was to wear, the food which he was
to eat, were all prescribed by law. Some of the best enactments in the
Republic, such as the reverence to be paid to parents and elders,
and some of the worst, such as the exposure of deformed children, are
borrowed from the practice of Sparta. The encouragement of friendships
between men and youths, or of men with one another, as affording
incentives to bravery, is also Spartan; in Sparta too a n