choose one
from every magistracy. They are to be elected annually, and therefore
probably for a year only, and are liable to be called to account before
the guardians of the law. In cases of which death is the penalty, the
trial takes place before a special court, which is composed of the
guardians of the law and of the judges of appeal.

In treating of the subject in Book ix, he proposes to leave for the most
part the methods of procedure to a younger generation of legislators;
the procedure in capital causes he determines himself. He insists that
the vote of the judges shall be given openly, and before they vote they
are to hear speeches from the plaintiff and defendant. They are then
to take evidence in support of what has been said, and to examine
witnesses. The eldest judge is to ask his questions first, and then
the second, and then the third. The interrogatories are to continue for
three days, and the evidence is to be written down. Apparently he does
not expect the judges to be professional lawyers, any more than he
expects the members of the council to be trained statesmen.

In forming marriage connexions, Plato supposes that the public interest
will prevail over private inclination. There was nothing in this very
shocking to the notions of Greeks, among whom the feeling of love
towards the other sex was almost deprived of sentiment or romance.
Married life is to be regulated solely with a view to the good of the
state. The newly-married couple are not allowed to absent themselves
from their respective syssitia, even during their honeymoon; they are
to give their whole mind to the procreation of children; their duties to
one another at a later period of life are not a matter about which
the state is equally solicitous. Divorces are readily allowed for
incompatibility of temper. As in the Republic, physical considerations
seem almost to exclude moral and social ones. To modern feelings there
is a degree of coarseness in Plato's treatment of the subject. Yet he
also makes some shrewd remarks on marriage, as for example, that a man
who does not marry for money will not be the humble servant of his wife.
And he shows a true conception of the nature of the family, when he
requires that the newly-married couple 'should leave their father and
mother,' and have a separate home. He also provides against extravagance
in marriage festivals, which in some states of society, for instance in
the case of the Hindoos, has be