t the duty of leaving men to themselves,
which is supposed to be the best way of taking care of them. The
question is often asked, What are the limits of legislation in relation
to morals? And the answer is to the same effect, that morals must take
care of themselves. There is a one-sided truth in these answers, if they
are regarded as condemnations of the interference with commerce in
the last century or of clerical persecution in the Middle Ages. But
'laissez-faire' is not the best but only the second best. What the
best is, Plato does not attempt to determine; he only contrasts the
imperfection of law with the wisdom of the perfect ruler.

Laws should be just, but they must also be certain, and we are obliged
to sacrifice something of their justice to their certainty. Suppose
a wise and good judge, who paying little or no regard to the law,
attempted to decide with perfect justice the cases that were brought
before him. To the uneducated person he would appear to be the ideal of
a judge. Such justice has been often exercised in primitive times, or at
the present day among eastern rulers. But in the first place it depends
entirely on the personal character of the judge. He may be honest,
but there is no check upon his dishonesty, and his opinion can only be
overruled, not by any principle of law, but by the opinion of another
judging like himself without law. In the second place, even if he
be ever so honest, his mode of deciding questions would introduce an
element of uncertainty into human life; no one would know beforehand
what would happen to him, or would seek to conform in his conduct to
any rule of law. For the compact which the law makes with men, that they
shall be protected if they observe the law in their dealings with
one another, would have to be substituted another principle of a more
general character, that they shall be protected by the law if they act
rightly in their dealings with one another. The complexity of human
actions and also the uncertainty of their effects would be increased
tenfold. For one of the principal advantages of law is not merely that
it enforces honesty, but that it makes men act in the same way, and
requires them to produce the same evidence of their acts. Too many laws
may be the sign of a corrupt and overcivilized state of society, too few
are the sign of an uncivilized one; as soon as commerce begins to
grow, men make themselves customs which have the validity of laws. Even
e