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But how did timocracy arise out of the perfect State? Plainly,

like all changes of government, from division in the rulers. But

whence came division? 'Sing, heavenly Muses,' as Homer says;-let

them condescend to answer us, as if we were children, to whom

they put on a solemn face in jest. 'And what will they say?' They

will say that human things are fated to decay, and even the

perfect State will not escape from this law of destiny, when 'the

wheel comes full circle' in a period short or long. Plants or

animals have times of fertility and sterility, which the

intelligence of rulers because alloyed by sense will not enable

them to ascertain, and children will be born out of season. For

whereas divine creations are in a perfect cycle or number, the

human creation is in a number which declines from perfection, and

has four terms and three intervals of numbers, increasing,

waning, assimilating, dissimilating, and yet perfectly

commensurate with each other.