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In all of them excess-the excess first of wealth and then of

freedom, is the element of decay.

The eighth book of the Republic abounds in pictures of life and

fanciful allusions; the use of metaphorical language is carried

to a greater extent than anywhere else in Plato. We may remark,

(1), the description of the two nations in one, which become more

and more divided in the Greek Republics, as in feudal times, and

perhaps also in our own;

(2), the notion of democracy expressed in a sort of Pythagorean

formula as equality among unequals;

(3), the free and easy ways of men and animals, which are

characteristic of liberty, as foreign mercenaries and universal

mistrust are of the tyrant;