one of them having had endless forms of government; and if we can
ascertain the cause of these changes in states, that will probably explain
their origin. What do you think of ancient traditions about deluges and
destructions of mankind, and the preservation of a remnant? 'Every one
believes in them.' Then let us suppose the world to have been destroyed by
a deluge. The survivors would be hill-shepherds, small sparks of the human
race, dwelling in isolation, and unacquainted with the arts and vices of
civilization. We may further suppose that the cities on the plain and on
the coast have been swept away, and that all inventions, and every sort of
knowledge, have perished. 'Why, if all things were as they now are,
nothing would have ever been invented. All our famous discoveries have
been made within the last thousand years, and many of them are but of
yesterday.' Yes, Cleinias, and you must not forget Epimenides, who was
really of yesterday; he practised the lesson of moderation and abstinence
which Hesiod only preached. 'True.' After the great destruction we may
imagine that the earth was a desert, in which there were a herd or two of
oxen and a few goats, hardly enough to support those who tended them;
while of politics and governments the survivors would know nothing. And
out of this state of things have arisen arts and laws, and a great deal of
virtue and a great deal of vice; little by little the world has come to be
what it is. At first, the few inhabitants would have had a natural fear of
descending into the plains; although they would want to have intercourse
with one another, they would have a difficulty in getting about, having
lost the arts, and having no means of extracting metals from the earth, or
of felling timber; for even if they had saved any tools, these would soon
have been worn out, and they could get no more until the art of metallurgy
had been again revived. Faction and war would be extinguished among them,
for being solitary they would incline to be friendly; and having abundance
of pasture and plenty of milk and flesh, they would have nothing to
quarrel about. We may assume that they had also dwellings, clothes,