72 The sources of evil in states 



instances of the evil effects of amateurism in public affairs. It is true 

 that this line of argument contained a fallacy, as arguments from 

 analogy very often do. But it had a profound influence on Plato, and 

 it underlay all his political speculations. It was reinforced by an in- 

 fluence that affected many of his contemporaries, admiration of Sparta 

 on the score of the permanence 1 of her system of government. That 

 this admiration was misguided, and the permanence more apparent 

 than real, matters not: to a Greek thinker it was necessarily attractive, 

 seeking for some possibly permanent principle of government, and 

 disgusted with the everlasting flux of Hellenic politics. Nor was there 

 anything strange in imagining an ideal state in which sound principles 

 might be carried into effect. The foundation of colonies, in which the 

 settlers made a fresh start as new communities, was traditionally a 

 Greek custom. Such was the foundation, logical and apparently con- 

 sistent with experience, on which Plato designed to build an Utopia. 

 Avoiding the unscientific laisser-faire of democratic politics, functions 

 were to be divided on a rational system, and government placed in the 

 hands of trained specialists. 



It is well to note some of the defects of Greek civilization as Plato 

 saw it, particularly in Athens. The confusion and weakness of demo- 

 cratic government, largely the fruit of ignorance haste and prejudice, 

 has been referred to above. In most states the free citizen population 

 were born and bred at the will of their fathers under no scientific state- 

 regulation, not sifted out in youth by scientific selection, and only 

 trained up to the average standard locally approved. Something better 

 was needed, if more was to be got out of human capacity. But it seems 

 certain that Plato found the chief and most deep-seated source of social 

 and political evils in the economic situation. The unequal distribution 

 of wealth and the ceaseless struggle between rich and poor lay at the 

 root of that lack of harmonious unity in which he saw the cause of the 

 weakness and unhappiness of states. To get rid of the plutocrat and 

 the beggar 2 was a prime object. Confiscation and redistribution 3 offered 

 no lasting remedy, so long as men remained what they were. A com- 

 plete moral change was necessary, and this could only be effected by 

 an education that should train all citizens cheerfully and automatically 

 to bear their several parts in promoting the happiness of all. There 

 must be no more party-strivings after the advantage of this or that 

 section : the guiding principle must be diversity of individual functions 

 combined with unity of aim. An ideal state must be the Happy Land 



1 Even Isocrates, who hated Sparta, says of it rty ^d\t<rra ra TraXcua SiaffAfrvvav, Helen, 

 63 p 218, and attributes the merits of the Spartan government to imitation of Egypt, Busiris 

 17 p 225. He notes the moral change in Sparta, de pace 95 foil pp 178-180. 



a Republic p 421 <?, Laws 936 c, 744 e. 3 Laws 736 c, cf Rep 565 a, b. 



