etic, are degraded in their general character; whether this defect
in them is due to some natural cause or to a bad legislator. For it
is clear that there are great differences in the power of regions to
produce good men: heat and cold, and water and food, have great effects
both on body and soul; and those spots are peculiarly fortunate in which
the air is holy, and the Gods are pleased to dwell. To all this the
legislator must attend, so far as in him lies.

BOOK VI. And now we are about to consider (1) the appointment of
magistrates; (2) the laws which they will have to administer must
be determined. I may observe by the way that laws, however good,
are useless and even injurious unless the magistrates are capable of
executing them. And therefore (1) the intended rulers of our imaginary
state should be tested from their youth upwards until the time of their
election; and (2) those who are to elect them ought to be trained in
habits of law, that they may form a right judgment of good and bad men.
But uneducated colonists, who are unacquainted with each other, will not
be likely to choose well. What, then, shall we do? I will tell you: The
colony will have to be intrusted to the ten commissioners, of whom you
are one, and I will help you and them, which is my reason for inventing
this romance. And I cannot bear that the tale should go wandering about
the world without a head,--it will be such an ugly monster. 'Very good.'
Yes; and I will be as good as my word, if God be gracious and old age
permit. But let us not forget what a courageously mad creation this our
city is. 'What makes you say so?' Why, surely our courage is shown in
imagining that the new colonists will quietly receive our laws? For no
man likes to receive laws when they are first imposed: could we only
wait until those who had been educated under them were grown up, and
of an age to vote in the public elections, there would be far greater
reason to expect permanence in our institutions. 'Very true.' The
Cnosian founders should take the utmost pains in the matter of the
colony, and in the election of the higher officers, particularly of the
guardians of the law. The latter should be appointed in this way: The
Cnosians, who take the lead in the colony, together with the colonists,
will choose thirty-seven persons, of whom nineteen will be colonists,
and the remaining eighteen Cnosians--you must be one of the eighteen
yourself, and become a citizen of the ne