LAW IN POLITICS. 361 



cal employment, or the following of merchan- 

 dise, is condemned in an Ideal Government as 

 " ignoble and destructive to virtue." A maritime 

 situation is recommended, because of its conveni- 

 ence in enabling a city to receive from others pro- 

 duce which its own country does not afford, and 

 to export those necessaries of life of which it has 

 more than plenty. This looks like a perception of 

 the soundest maxims of Commerce. But in the next 

 breath, the whole richness and blessing of Com- 

 merce, as an element of civilisation, is repudiated 

 and destroyed by the stupid and selfish maxim 

 that a city must traffic to supply its own wants 

 only, and not the wants of others ; " for those who 

 make themselves into an open market for every 

 one, do it for the sake of revenue ; but if a State 

 ought to have no part in this kind of gain, neither 

 ought it to furnish such a mart." f 



It is surely wonderful that such a mind as that of 



* 6vre (3dvavsov filov out ayopaiov Set ^rjv roi/s TroXiras ayevvrjs 

 yap 6 tolovtos /3tos /cat irpos aperriv inrevavrios. — Bk. vii., c. 9. In 

 Mr Congreve's edition, Bk. iv., c. 9. 



+ avT-f] yap kp.iropiKT)v, d\X ov rot's &\\ols Set elvai rr\v ttoKlv. 61 5e 

 irape'xos'Tes <r0as aiTovs Trastv dyopdv irposbdov X&P lv TaOra irp&TTovuV 

 7)v 6e p.7] Set ttoXlv roiavrris /xerexetf 7r\eove^taj, 6vb" ip.Tropi.ov Set 

 KeKTTJaOai toiovtov. — Bk. vii., c. 6. 



