equality, of a divine government which has been or will be in some other
age or country, have greatly tended to educate and ennoble the human race.
And if not the first author of such ideals (for they are as old as
Hesiod), Plato has done more than any other writer to impress them on the
world. To those who censure his idealism we may reply in his own words--
'He is not the worse painter who draws a perfectly beautiful figure,
because no such figure of a man could ever have existed' (Republic).

A new thought about education suddenly occurs to him, and for a time
exercises a sort of fascination over his mind, though in the later books
of the Laws it is forgotten or overlooked. As true courage is allied to
temperance, so there must be an education which shall train mankind to
resist pleasure as well as to endure pain. No one can be on his guard
against that of which he has no experience. The perfectly trained citizen
should have been accustomed to look his enemy in the face, and to measure
his strength against her. This education in pleasure is to be given,
partly by festive intercourse, but chiefly by the song and dance. Youth
are to learn music and gymnastics; their elders are to be trained and
tested at drinking parties. According to the old proverb, in vino veritas,
they will then be open and visible to the world in their true characters;
and also they will be more amenable to the laws, and more easily moulded
by the hand of the legislator. The first reason is curious enough, though
not important; the second can hardly be thought deserving of much
attention. Yet if Plato means to say that society is one of the principal
instruments of education in after-life, he has expressed in an obscure
fashion a principle which is true, and to his contemporaries was also new.
That at a banquet a degree of moral discipline might be exercised is an
original thought, but Plato has not yet learnt to express his meaning in
an abstract form. He is sensible that moderation is better than total
abstinence, and that asceticism is but a one-sided training. He makes the