r he has left those which exist in the
perfect State. And the philosopher 'who retires under the shelter of a
wall' can hardly have been esteemed happy by him, at least not in this
world. Still he maintains the true attitude of moral action. Let a man
do his duty first, without asking whether he will be happy or not, and
happiness will be the inseparable accident which attends him. 'Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you.'

Secondly, it may be remarked that Plato preserves the genuine character
of Greek thought in beginning with the State and in going on to the
individual. First ethics, then politics--this is the order of ideas to
us; the reverse is the order of history. Only after many struggles of
thought does the individual assert his right as a moral being. In early
ages he is not ONE, but one of many, the citizen of a State which is
prior to him; and he has no notion of good or evil apart from the law
of his country or the creed of his church. And to this type he is
constantly tending to revert, whenever the influence of custom, or of
party spirit, or the recollection of the past becomes too strong for
him.

Thirdly, we may observe the confusion or identification of the
individual and the State, of ethics and politics, which pervades early
Greek speculation, and even in modern times retains a certain degree of
influence. The subtle difference between the collective and individual
action of mankind seems to have escaped early thinkers, and we too are
sometimes in danger of forgetting the conditions of united human action,
whenever we either elevate politics into ethics, or lower ethics to the
standard of politics. The good man and the good citizen only coincide in
the perfect State; and this perfection cannot be attained by legislation
acting upon them from without, but, if at all, by education fashioning
them from within.

...Socrates praises the sons of Ariston, 'inspired offspring of
the renowned hero,' as the elegiac poet terms them; but he does not
understand how they can argue so eloquently on behalf of injustice while
their character shows that they are uninfluenced by their own arguments.
He knows not how to answer them, although he is afraid of deserting
justice in the hour of need. He therefore makes a condition, that having
weak eyes he shall be allowed to read the large letters first and then
go on to the smaller, that is, he must look for