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The desire to maintain them unaltered seems to be the origin of

what at first sight is very surprising to us-the intolerant zeal

of Plato against innovators in religion or politics (Laws);

although with a happy inconsistency he is also willing that the

laws of other countries should be studied and improvements in

legislation privately communicated to the Nocturnal Council

(Laws). The additions which were made to them in later ages in

order to meet the increasing complexity of affairs were still

ascribed by a fiction to the original legislator; and the words

of such enactments at Athens were disputed over as if they had

been the words of Solon himself. Plato hopes to preserve in a

later generation the mind of the legislator; he would have his

citizens remain within the lines which he has laid down for them.