ns. He attempts a task really impossible, which
is to unite the past of Greek history with the future of philosophy,
analogous to that other impossibility, which has often been the dream
of Christendom, the attempt to unite the past history of Europe with
the kingdom of Christ. Nothing actually existing in the world at all
resembles Plato's ideal State; nor does he himself imagine that such
a State is possible. This he repeats again and again; e.g. in the
Republic, or in the Laws where, casting a glance back on the Republic,
he admits that the perfect state of communism and philosophy was
impossible in his own age, though still to be retained as a pattern.
The same doubt is implied in the earnestness with which he argues in the
Republic that ideals are none the worse because they cannot be realized
in fact, and in the chorus of laughter, which like a breaking wave will,
as he anticipates, greet the mention of his proposals; though like
other writers of fiction, he uses all his art to give reality to his
inventions. When asked how the ideal polity can come into being, he
answers ironically, 'When one son of a king becomes a philosopher'; he
designates the fiction of the earth-born men as 'a noble lie'; and when
the structure is finally complete, he fairly tells you that his Republic
is a vision only, which in some sense may have reality, but not in the
vulgar one of a reign of philosophers upon earth. It has been said that
Plato flies as well as walks, but this falls short of the truth; for he
flies and walks at the same time, and is in the air and on firm ground
in successive instants.

Niebuhr has asked a trifling question, which may be briefly noticed in
this place--Was Plato a good citizen? If by this is meant, Was he loyal
to Athenian institutions?--he can hardly be said to be the friend of
democracy: but neither is he the friend of any other existing form of
government; all of them he regarded as 'states of faction' (Laws); none
attained to his ideal of a voluntary rule over voluntary subjects, which
seems indeed more nearly to describe democracy than any other; and the
worst of them is tyranny. The truth is, that the question has hardly any
meaning when applied to a great philosopher whose writings are not meant
for a particular age and country, but for all time and all mankind. The
decline of Athenian politics was probably the motive which led Plato to
frame an ideal State, and the Republic may be regarded as refl