n Book ii. at first seemed to be a paradox,
yet was afterwards ascertained to be a truth. And Plato might also have
found that the intuition of evil may be consistent with the abhorrence
of it. There is a directness of aim in virtue which gives an insight
into vice. And the knowledge of character is in some degree a natural
sense independent of any special experience of good or evil.

5. One of the most remarkable conceptions of Plato, because un-Greek and
also very different from anything which existed at all in his age of
the world, is the transposition of ranks. In the Spartan state there had
been enfranchisement of Helots and degradation of citizens under
special circumstances. And in the ancient Greek aristocracies, merit
was certainly recognized as one of the elements on which government was
based. The founders of states were supposed to be their benefactors, who
were raised by their great actions above the ordinary level of humanity;
at a later period, the services of warriors and legislators were held to
entitle them and their descendants to the privileges of citizenship and
to the first rank in the state. And although the existence of an ideal
aristocracy is slenderly proven from the remains of early Greek history,
and we have a difficulty in ascribing such a character, however the idea
may be defined, to any actual Hellenic state--or indeed to any state
which has ever existed in the world--still the rule of the best was
certainly the aspiration of philosophers, who probably accommodated a
good deal their views of primitive history to their own notions of good
government. Plato further insists on applying to the guardians of his
state a series of tests by which all those who fell short of a fixed
standard were either removed from the governing body, or not admitted
to it; and this 'academic' discipline did to a certain extent prevail in
Greek states, especially in Sparta. He also indicates that the system of
caste, which existed in a great part of the ancient, and is by no means
extinct in the modern European world, should be set aside from time
to time in favour of merit. He is aware how deeply the greater part of
mankind resent any interference with the order of society, and therefore
he proposes his novel idea in the form of what he himself calls a
'monstrous fiction.' (Compare the ceremony of preparation for the two
'great waves' in Book v.) Two principles are indicated by him: first,
that there is a distinc