The problem of the start 93 



by aliens and slaves was a proposal sure to conciliate Greek pride. 

 And the resulting leisure for the enlightened discharge of the peculiarly 

 civic functions of war and government was an appeal to self-esteem 

 and ambition. But that the creation of a ruling class of Guardians 

 with absolute power, such as those of Plato's Republic, would commend 

 itself to democratic Greeks, was more than any practical man could 

 believe. Nor would the communism of those Guardians appear at- 

 tractive to the favourers of oligarchy. Therefore Plato himself had to 

 recast his scheme, and try to bring it out of dreamland by concessions 

 to facts of Greek life. Not much was gained thereby, and the great 

 difficulty, how to make a start, still remained. That much could be 

 done by direct legislative action was a tradition in Greek thought 

 fostered by tales of the achievements of early lawgivers. But to re- 

 model the whole fabric of a state so thoroughly that an entire change 

 should be effected in the political atmosphere in which the citizens 

 must live and act, while the citizens themselves would be the same 

 persons, reared in old conditions and ideas, was a project far beyond 

 the scope of ordinary legislation. To Aristotle it seemed that the 

 problem must be approached differently. 



This is not the place to discuss the two distinct lines taken by him ; 

 first, that the character of the state depends on that of its members, 

 and secondly, that the individual only finds his true self as member of 

 a state. The subject has been fully 1 treated, better than I could treat 

 it; and in constructing a model there remains the inevitable difficulty, 

 where to begin. The highest development of the individual is only 

 attainable under* the training provided by the model state, and this 

 state is only possible as an association of model citizens. If we may 

 conjecture Aristotle's answer from a rule 2 laid down in the Ethics, he 

 would say 'first learn by doing, and then you can do what you have 

 learnt to do.' That is, effort (at first imperfect) will improve faculty, 

 and by creating habit will develope full capacity. But even so it would 

 remain uncertain whether the individual, starting on a career of self- 

 improvement, is to work up to the making of a model state, or the 

 imperfect state to start training its present citizens to perfection. The 

 practical difficulty is there still. Nor is it removed by putting the first 

 beginnings of training so early 3 that they even precede the infant 

 citizen's birth, in the form of rules for eugenic breeding. Aristotle's 

 procedure is to postulate favourable equipment, geographical and 

 climatic, a population of high qualities (that is, Greek,) and then to 

 consider how he would organize the state and train its members if 

 the postulated conditions were realized and he had a free hand. In 



1 E Barker The political thought of Plato and Aristotle. 



2 Ethics II i 4. 3 Pol VII 16. 



