they make war that they
may return to their amusements. But neither wars nor amusements are the
true satisfaction of men, which is to be found only in the society of
the Gods, in sacrificing to them and propitiating them. Like a Christian
ascetic, Plato seems to suppose that life should be passed wholly in
the enjoyment of divine things. And after meditating in amazement on the
sadness and unreality of the world, he adds, in a sort of parenthesis,
'Be cheerful, Sirs' (Shakespeare, Tempest.)

In one of the noblest passages of Plato, he speaks of the relation of
the sexes. Natural relations between members of the same family have
been established of old; a 'little word' has put a stop to incestuous
connexions. But unnatural unions of another kind continued to prevail
at Crete and Lacedaemon, and were even justified by the example of the
Gods. They, too, might be banished, if the feeling that they were unholy
and abominable could sink into the minds of men. The legislator is
to cry aloud, and spare not, 'Let not men fall below the level of the
beasts.' Plato does not shrink, like some modern philosophers, from
'carrying on war against the mightiest lusts of mankind;' neither does
he expect to extirpate them, but only to confine them to their natural
use and purpose, by the enactments of law, and by the influence of
public opinion. He will not feed them by an over-luxurious diet, nor
allow the healthier instincts of the soul to be corrupted by music
and poetry. The prohibition of excessive wealth is, as he says, a very
considerable gain in the way of temperance, nor does he allow of those
enthusiastic friendships between older and younger persons which in
his earlier writings appear to be alluded to with a certain degree of
amusement and without reproof (compare Introduction to the Symposium).
Sappho and Anacreon are celebrated by him in the Charmides and the
Phaedrus; but they would have been expelled from the Magnesian state.

Yet he does not suppose that the rule of absolute purity can be enforced
on all mankind. Something must be conceded to the weakness of human
nature. He therefore adopts a 'second legal standard of honourable and
dishonourable, having a second standard of right.' He would abolish
altogether 'the connexion of men with men...As to women, if any man has
to do with any but those who come into his house duly married by sacred
rites, and he offends publicly in the face of all mankind, we shall be
right i