THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6830, 18 April 1890, Page 3

THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO.

' "Bdtide the windless and crystalline pool, , Where ever dwells on uuaraaiug waves TJw image of a temple builc above, ' instinct with column, arob.aud architrave, Acd'ptilm-iike capital." Before ua is the great original from which all. the long list of constructors of Ideal Commonwealths, from Sir Thomas More down to the author of " Looking Backward;," have borrowed and deviated j— the original, something of -which each of them has more or leas consciously imitated or elaborated. Yet as we read on through the Dialogue known as the " Republic,'* we are Btruck by noting that SJato seetas- to be scarcely thinking so much of the construction of an Ideal State as of discussing the attainment of abstract justice and the education of the Greek man to a state of inoial and physical perfection. He seems as he goes on to sketch as a secondary business, and almost carelessly, the outlines of an Ideal State,, while primarily bent on talking of the other topics. This is curious, when we think how strongly his outlined vision of a state has appealed to the imagination o£' mankind. As for his Ideal State ever being capable of realisation on enrth, he not only repudiates the suggestion that he is bound to prove this, but also humorously says that to make a beginning in any city it would be necessary for a philosophic ruling power to. banish all the citizens more than ten years old, and proceed to educate the children. Nevertheless,. though Plato thus walks in cloudland, he has his eye upon earthly institutions. In constructing his Republic he borrow 3 freely from the communal t-ysteui of the Dorianß, which in his time could still be seen in fair working order at Spttrtivand in Crete. The Dialogue begins with a talk about juotioej. between Socrates and some friends, of whom two, Glaucon and Adeimantus are the chief. Socrates goes on to fch.ow how justice should be found in a perfect commonwealth formed of perfect men and women. How is this perfection to be obtained ? Not by much law-making or constitution - mongering certainly, — Plato prof esses the profoundest conteti2.pt for both — but by education, trnmiag, and the allotment of every man and woman to the special sphere and duty for which they a.re most fitted. Let eacb one discover his own proper occupation and then go about it. Find out your business and then mind it! But let each citizen also be thoroughly taught and trained up with a view to that : business. Oaoe a man has found his work there mu6t be no thought of his changing it, or meddling with and dabbling in other occupations. If there is one thing in which Plato believes it is in the division of labour. If there is one thing in which be does not believe it is in the modern •' all-round" man. So, therefore, he proceeds, to divide his imaginary people into three orders: (1) The Guardians, or rulers;. (2 1 ) the Auxiliaries, or warriors ; (3) the Craftsmen, or, as we commonly say, the industrial classes. Elsewhere he names them the Golden, Silver, and Brazen Men. The first two orders, be it remembered, have much and do much in common. The guardians are but the picked men of these warrior-literati, selected in virtue of proved ability to lead and rule. With the third order Plato does not further concern himself. He merely says that any one of them, showing special fitness for the art of government ought to be received among the ruling class, just as any one of the latter if shown to be fit for nothing but mechanical labour would hace to become a craftsman. A golden father, he says, might very well have a silver son, and this should not be reckoned a disgrace since these things are pre-determined by the gods. It will be noticed then, that Plato, while saying little about the working people, expressly reserves for them what we call an " open career." Moreover, he would reduce the proportion of slaves amongst them by forbidding the enslavement of Greek prisoners of war. This at any rate was a ateg. in advance of his age, for we must noij forget the enormous mass of slavery which almost entirely made up the labouring class, of the ancient world. Having thus divided hjs ideal people, Plato (through his mouthpiece Socrates) goes on to prescribe minute regulations for the education of the ruling or guardian class. They are to be taught music and gymnastics, later on, mathematics. Before we laugh at this somewhat narrow course, let me explain that " music" included poetry, and that poetry then constituted nearly the whole of what we should call literature. Gymnastics comprehended diet and military exercises. As for mathematics, it was about all that remained for a Greek instructor to teach, barring dialectics. We must remember that the Athenian youth was spared the study of classics and modern languages ; that there was no science for him to learn; no history ; no geography ; no complicated and artificial grammar ; hardly even any " prose composition." But even if we called Plato's course narrow, no one after reading, it, as set out by Socrates, would style it ignoble or mean. Through all breathes the lofty purpose of a philosopher-poet. He will teach wisdom and virtue, moderation, temperance, and valour. All that is soft and effeminate in music and poetry must be excluded; so must lownesa and. buffoonery j so must coarseness and brutality. Nor shall the guardians of the State be mere athletes or soldiers. They are to be humane and cultured — philosophers of the true kind; and here Plato utters his immortal sentence that the world will be well governed only, "when kings are philosophers, or philosophers kings." Naturally, rulers trained to be philosophers will wish to shrink from the press, the worry, ' the heavy responsibility, and the thousand petty torments of official life. They will ! not wish to rule, but they will not be ! allowed to shirk their burden. Socrates explains that he has nob picked, and chosen/ aad trained them to perfection of mind and body with a view only to their own happiness as- a class, but that they might labour to make the whole State happy. In the Ideal State no one clasß is to be happy above,, or at the expense of, the rest. The guardians and their soldier auxili- j aries are to' inhabit simple dwellings aad eat in common. The State supports them. They must own neither private, property nor private houses, nor so much, as touch or handle 1 silver" and gold. "And

thia will be their salvation, and the salvation of the State. Bat, should they ever acquire homes or lands or moneys of their own, they will j become housekeepers and huabandmen inI stead of guardians ; enemies and tyrants inetead of allies of the other citizens ; hating and being hated, plotted and being plotted against, they will pass their lives in much greater tenor of internal than of external enemies, and the hour of ruin will be at hand/ Such is t&9 remarkable sentence in which Plato sums up the evils of Government by a propertied class. Such is his opinion as to the merits of rule by gentlemen owning " a stake in the country." Two thousand years have gone by, and we find this denunciation of I private property the keynote of the popular Socialist pamphlet of the hourBellamy's "Looking Backward." Plato does not forget woman. Far f ron accepting the half-Oriental view of th< Greeks that they were a. monotonous am inferior race, fit for nothing but domestit work and seclusion, he argues that the] differ in degree from each other jußt ai men do, and require, and are worthy of precisely the same education. They musl even pass through the full gymnastic course in order to gain the sound mind ii the sound body. They must be fit to b< mothers and companions of a race of hero philosophers. .Nevertheless-, though Plate thus honours and considers women, some oi his proposals regarding them, are repulsm in the highest degree to our notions oi morality and humanity. He would havt a community of wives and also' of children, and would arrange for the quiet removal of sickly and deformed infante.. On the details of this part of his plan we need not dwell. Christianity has rendered them for ever impracticable. Features of hie Ideal State, more worthy of notice and remembrance, are his prohibition of private property among his ruling olaes, bis advocacy of an order of professional politicians, of the division. OS labour, and of the education of women. To the exceeding beauty ofr his prose poem, for such the " Republic " ie even as it appears in Jowett's English version, I can only add my huinhle tribute. I can also merely refer to the beautiful and thoroughly Greek idea of order and harmony which runs through his picture of the perfect State compounded of perfect individuals, with the harmony of mind and body, the union of health and beauty in each individual. As the State is to be upheld and preserved by wisdom in the Guardians, valour in the Auxiliaries, obedience in the Craftsmen,, and attention to their own business on the part of all, so with each citizen. Wisdom, courage, self-control, and the minding of one's own business are to protect " the little state of man" from the assaults of the diseases and evil passions which are its enemieß without and within.