he has
little sympathy with shopkeepers or retailers, although he makes the
reflection, which sometimes occurs to ourselves, that such occupations,
if they were carried on honestly by the best men and women, would be
delightful and honourable. For traders and artisans a moderate gain was,
in his opinion, best. He has never, like modern writers, idealized
the wealth of nations, any more than he has worked out the problems of
political economy, which among the ancients had not yet grown into a
science. The isolation of Greek states, their constant wars, the want of
a free industrial population, and of the modern methods and instruments
of 'credit,' prevented any great extension of commerce among them; and
so hindered them from forming a theory of the laws which regulate the
accumulation and distribution of wealth.

The constitution of the army is aristocratic and also democratic;
official appointment is combined with popular election. The two
principles are carried out as follows: The guardians of the law nominate
generals out of whom three are chosen by those who are or have been
of the age for military service; and the generals elected have the
nomination of certain of the inferior officers. But if either in the
case of generals or of the inferior officers any one is ready to swear
that he knows of a better man than those nominated, he may put the
claims of his candidate to the vote of the whole army, or of the
division of the service which he will, if elected, command. There is
a general assembly, but its functions, except at elections, are hardly
noticed. In the election of the Boule, Plato again attempts to mix
aristocracy and democracy. This is effected, first as in the Servian
constitution, by balancing wealth and numbers; for it cannot be supposed
that those who possessed a higher qualification were equal in number
with those who had a lower, and yet they have an equal number of
representatives. In the second place, all classes are compelled to vote
in the election of senators from the first and second class; but the
fourth class is not compelled to elect from the third, nor the third
and fourth from the fourth. Thirdly, out of the 180 persons who are thus
chosen from each of the four classes, 720 in all, 360 are to be taken by
lot; these form the council for the year.

These political adjustments of Plato's will be criticised by the
practical statesman as being for the most part fanciful and ineffectual.
He wi