the
less the police interfered in love-relations, the better.

In one respect at least, Plato was certainly right: he advocated the
equality of the sexes, and declared that no woman should be owned by a
man nor forced into a mode of life, either by economic exigency or
marriage, that was repulsive to her. Also, that her right to bear
children or not should be strictly her own affair, and to dictate to a
mother as to who should father her children tended to the production of
a slavish race.

The eugenics of "The Republic" were tried for thirty years by the Oneida
Community with really good results, but one generation of communal
marriages was proved to be the limit, a thing Plato now knows from his
heights in Elysium, but which he in his bachelor dreams on earth did not
realize.

In his division of labor each was to do the thing he was best fitted to
do, and which he liked to do. It was assumed that each person had a
gift, and that to use this gift all that was necessary was to give him
an opportunity. That very modern cry of "equality of opportunity" harks
back to Plato.

The monastic impulse was a very old thing, even in the time of Plato.
The monastic impulse is simply cutting for sanctuary when the pressure
of society gets intense--a getting rid of the world by running away from
it. This usually occurs when the novitiate has exhausted his capacity
for sin, and so tries saintship in the hope of getting a new thrill.

Plato had been much impressed by the experiments of Pythagoras, who had
actually done the thing of which Plato only talked. Plato now picked the
weak points in the Pythagorean philosophy and sought, in imagination, to
construct a fabric that would stand the test of time.

However, all Utopias, like all monasteries and penitentiaries, are made
up of picked people. The Oneida Community was not composed of average
individuals, but of people who were selected with great care, and only
admitted after severe tests. And great as was Plato, he could not
outline an ideal plan of life except for an ideal people.

To remain in the world of work and share the burdens of all--to ask for
nothing which other people can not have on like terms--not to consider
yourself peculiar, unique and therefore immune and exempt--is now the
ideal of the best minds. We have small faith in monasticism or
monotheism, but we do have great faith in monism. We believe in the
Solidarity of the Race. We must all progress together. Wh