he
highest offices were to have a further education, not much inferior to
that provided for the guardians in the Republic, though the range of
their studies is narrowed to the nature and divisions of virtue: here
their philosophy comes to an end. (4) The entire number of the citizens
(5040) rarely, if ever, assembled, except for purposes of elections. The
whole people were divided into four classes, each having the right to be
represented by the same number of members in the Council. The result of
such an arrangement would be, as in the constitution of Servius Tullius,
to give a disproportionate share of power to the wealthier classes, who
may be supposed to be always much fewer in number than the poorer. This
tendency was qualified by the complicated system of selection by vote,
previous to the final election by lot, of which the object seems to be
to hand over to the wealthy few the power of selecting from the many
poor, and vice versa. (5) The most important body in the state was the
Nocturnal Council, which is borrowed from the Areopagus at Athens, as it
existed, or was supposed to have existed, in the days before Ephialtes
and the Eumenides of Aeschylus, when its power was undiminished. In
some particulars Plato appears to have copied exactly the customs and
procedure of the Areopagus: both assemblies sat at night (Telfy). There
was a resemblance also in more important matters. Like the Areopagus,
the Nocturnal Council was partly composed of magistrates and other
state officials, whose term of office had expired. (7) The constitution
included several diverse and even opposing elements, such as
the Assembly and the Nocturnal Council. (8) There was much less
exclusiveness than at Sparta; the citizens were to have an interest in
the government of neighbouring states, and to know what was going on in
the rest of the world.--All these were moderating influences.

A striking similarity between Athens and the constitution of the
Magnesian colony is the use of the lot in the election of judges
and other magistrates. That such a mode of election should have
been resorted to in any civilized state, or that it should have been
transferred by Plato to an ideal or imaginary one, is very singular
to us. The most extreme democracy of modern times has never thought of
leaving government wholly to chance. It was natural that Socrates
should scoff at it, and ask, 'Who would choose a pilot or carpenter or
flute-player by lot' (Xen. M