has its
counterpart in the history of humanity. There is (1.) _The age of
popular and unconscious morality_; (2.) _The transitional, skeptical, or
sophistical age_; and (3.) _The philosophic or conscious age of
morality_.[899] In the "Republic" of Plato, we have these three eras
represented by different persons, through the course of the dialogue.
The question is started--what is Justice? and an answer is given from
the stand-point of popular morality, by Polemarchus, who quotes the
words of the poet Simonides,

"To give to each his due is just;"[900]

that is, justice is paying your debts. This doctrine being proved
inadequate, an answer is given from the Sophistical point of view by
Thrasymachus, who defines justice as "the advantage of the
strongest"--that is, might is right, and right is might.[901] This
answer being sharply refuted, the way is opened for a more philosophic
account, which is gradually evolved in book iv., Glaucon and Adimantus
personifying the practical understanding, which is gradually brought
into harmony with philosophy, and Socrates the higher reason, as the
purely philosophic conception. Justice is found to be the right
proportion and harmonious development of all the elements of the soul,
and the equal balance of all the interests of society, so as to secure a
well-regulated and harmonious whole.

[Footnote 899: Grant's "Aristotle's Ethics," vol. i. p. 46.]

[Footnote 900: "Republic," bk. i. Sec. 6.]

[Footnote 901: Ibid., bk. i. Sec. 12.]

The era of _popular and unconscious morality_ is represented by the
times of Homer, Hesiod, the Gnomic poets, and "the Seven Wise Men of
Greece."

This was an age of instinctive action, rather than reflection--of poetry
and feeling, rather than analytic thought. The rules of life were
presented in maxims and proverbs, which do not rise above prudential
counsels or empirical deductions. Morality was immediately associated
with the religion of the state, and the will of the gods was the highest
law for men. "Homer and Hesiod, and the Gnomic poets, constituted the
educational course," to which may be added the saws and aphorisms of the
Seven Wise Men, and we have before us the main sources of Greek views of
duty. When the question was asked--"What is right?" the answer was given
by a quotation from Homer, Hesiod, Simonides, and the like. The morality
of Homer "is concrete, not abstract; it expresses the conception of a
heroic life, rather than a