artly anticipated. Other teachers of philosophy are dried
up and withered,--after a few centuries they have become dust; but he
is fresh and blooming, and is always begetting new ideas in the minds of
men. They are one-sided and abstract; but he has many sides of wisdom.
Nor is he always consistent with himself, because he is always moving
onward, and knows that there are many more things in philosophy than can
be expressed in words, and that truth is greater than consistency. He
who approaches him in the most reverent spirit shall reap most of
the fruit of his wisdom; he who reads him by the light of ancient
commentators will have the least understanding of him.

We may see him with the eye of the mind in the groves of the Academy,
or on the banks of the Ilissus, or in the streets of Athens, alone or
walking with Socrates, full of those thoughts which have since become
the common possession of mankind. Or we may compare him to a statue hid
away in some temple of Zeus or Apollo, no longer existing on earth,
a statue which has a look as of the God himself. Or we may once more
imagine him following in another state of being the great company
of heaven which he beheld of old in a vision (Phaedr.). So, 'partly
trifling, but with a certain degree of seriousness' (Symp.), we linger
around the memory of a world which has passed away (Phaedr.).

LAWS

BOOK I.

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: An Athenian Stranger, Cleinias (a Cretan),
Megillus (a Lacedaemonian).

ATHENIAN: Tell me, Strangers, is a God or some man supposed to be the
author of your laws?

CLEINIAS: A God, Stranger; in very truth a God: among us Cretans he is
said to have been Zeus, but in Lacedaemon, whence our friend here comes,
I believe they would say that Apollo is their lawgiver: would they not,
Megillus?

MEGILLUS: Certainly.

ATHENIAN: And do you, Cleinias, believe, as Homer tells, that every
ninth year Minos went to converse with his Olympian sire, and was
inspired by him to make laws for your cities?

CLEINIAS: Yes, that is our tradition; and there was Rhadamanthus, a
brother of his, with whose name you are familiar; he is reputed to have
been the justest of men, and we Cretans are of opinion that he earned
this reputation from his righteous administration of justice when he was
alive.

ATHENIAN: Yes, and a noble reputation it was, worthy of a son of Zeus.
As you and Megillus have been trained in these institutions, I dare say
that yo