Pagina 488 de 1391

The citizens, as in other Hellenic States, democratic as well as

aristocratic, are really an upper class; for, although no mention

is made of slaves, the lower classes are allowed to fade away

into the distance, and are represented in the individual by the

passions. Plato has no idea either of a social State in which all

classes are harmonized, or of a federation of Hellas or the world

in which different nations or States have a place. His city is

equipped for war rather than for peace, and this would seem to be

justified by the ordinary condition of Hellenic States. The myth

of the earth-born men is an embodiment of the orthodox tradition

of Hellas, and the allusion to the four ages of the world is also

sanctioned by the authority of Hesiod and the poets. Thus we see

that the Republic is partly founded on the ideal of the old Greek

polis, partly on the actual circumstances of Hellas in that age.