gymnastic exercises of the elders are performed in it. It
is also proper, that for performing these exercises the citizens should
be divided into distinct classes, according to their ages, and that the
young persons should have proper officers to be with them, and that the
seniors should be with the magistrates; for having them before their
eyes would greatly inspire true modesty and ingenuous fear. There ought
to be another square [1331b] separate from this for buying and selling,
which should be so situated as to be commodious for the reception
of goods both by sea and land. As the citizens may be divided into
magistrates and priests, it is proper that the public tables of
the priests should be in buildings near the temples. Those of the
magistrates who preside over contracts, indictments, and such-like, and
also over the markets, and the public streets near the square, or some
public way, I mean the square where things are bought and sold; for I
intended the other for those who are at leisure, and this for necessary
business. The same order which I have directed here should be observed
also in the country; for there also their magistrates such as the
surveyors of the woods and overseers of the grounds, must necessarily
have their common tables and their towers, for the purpose of protection
against an enemy. There ought also to be temples erected at proper
places, both to the gods and the heroes; but it is unnecessary to dwell
longer and most minutely on these particulars--for it is by no means
difficult to plan these things, it is rather so to carry them into
execution; for the theory is the child of our wishes, but the practical
part must depend upon fortune; for which reason we shall decline saying
anything farther upon these subjects.

CHAPTER XIII

We will now show of what numbers and of what sort of people a government
ought to consist, that the state may be happy and well administered.
As there are two particulars on which the excellence and perfection of
everything depend, one of these is, that the object and end proposed
should be proper; the other, that the means to accomplish it should be
adapted to that purpose; for it may happen that these may either agree
or disagree with each other; for the end we propose may be good, but in
taking the means to obtain it we may err; at other times we may have
the right and proper means in our power, but the end may be bad,
and sometimes we may mistake in both;