78 Slavery accepted in principle, 



labour as a necessary basis. The conception of government as an art 

 is surely the chief cause of this attitude. The extreme specialization of 

 the Republic is moderated in the Laws, but there is not much less 

 demand for leisure, if the civic artists are to be unhampered in the 

 practice of their art. Of the dangers 1 of servile labour on a large scale 

 he was well aware, and he had evidently studied with attention 2 the 

 awkward features of serfdom, not only in the old Hellas, but in the 

 Greek colonial states of the East and West. Nevertheless he would 

 found his economy on the forced labour of human chattels. A system 

 that had grown up in the course of events, extending or contracting 

 according to changes of economic circumstance, was thus presented as 

 the deliberate result of independent thought. But the only theory at 

 the back of traditional slavery was the law 3 of superior force originally 

 the conqueror's will. Plato was therefore driven to accept this law as 

 a principle of human society. To accept it was to bring his specula- 

 tions more into touch with Greek notions; for no people have surpassed 

 the Greeks in readiness to devolve upon others the necessary but 

 monotonous drudgery of life. This attitude of his involves the conclu- 

 sion that the Barbarian is to serve the Greek, a position hardly con- 

 sistent with his earlier 4 doctrine, that no true line could be drawn 

 distinguishing Greek and Barbarian. Such a flux of speculative opinion 

 surely weakens our respect for Plato's judgment in these matters. We 

 can hardly say that he offers any effective solution of the great state- 

 problems of his age. But that these problems were serious and dis- 

 quieting his repeated efforts bear witness. And one of the most serious 

 was certainly that of placing the agricultural interest on a sound 

 footing. Its importance he saw : but neither of his schemes, neither 

 passive free farmers nor slave-holding landlords, was likely to produce 

 the desired result. To say this is not to blame a great man's failure. 

 Centuries have passed, and experience has been gained, without a 

 complete solution being reached : the end is not yet. 



A few details remain to be touched on separately. The employ- 

 ment of hired labourers is referred to as normal 5 in the Politicus 

 Republic and Laws. They are regarded simply as so much physical 

 strength at disposal. They are free, and so able to transfer their labour 

 from job to job according to demand. Intellectually and politically 

 they do not count. But the /u<r0a>ro9 is neither a chattel like the slave, 

 nor bound to the soil like the serf. I have found no suggestion of the 

 employment of this class in agriculture ; and, as I have said above, I 

 believe that they were in fact almost confined to the towns, especially 



1 Case of domestics, Rcpubl 578-9. 2 JMWS 776-7. 



3 Law 690 b. 4 p nticus 161 d. 



6 Politicus 289-90, Republ 371, Laws 742 a. 



