ato had heard or seen of Sparta was applied by him in a mistaken
way to his ideal commonwealth. He probably observed that both the
Spartan men and women were superior in form and strength to the other
Greeks; and this superiority he was disposed to attribute to the laws
and customs relating to marriage. He did not consider that the desire
of a noble offspring was a passion among the Spartans, or that their
physical superiority was to be attributed chiefly, not to their marriage
customs, but to their temperance and training. He did not reflect that
Sparta was great, not in consequence of the relaxation of morality, but
in spite of it, by virtue of a political principle stronger far than
existed in any other Grecian state. Least of all did he observe that
Sparta did not really produce the finest specimens of the Greek
race. The genius, the political inspiration of Athens, the love of
liberty--all that has made Greece famous with posterity, were wanting
among the Spartans. They had no Themistocles, or Pericles, or Aeschylus,
or Sophocles, or Socrates, or Plato. The individual was not allowed to
appear above the state; the laws were fixed, and he had no business to
alter or reform them. Yet whence has the progress of cities and nations
arisen, if not from remarkable individuals, coming into the world we
know not how, and from causes over which we have no control?
Something too much may have been said in modern times of the value of
individuality. But we can hardly condemn too strongly a system which,
instead of fostering the scattered seeds or sparks of genius and
character, tends to smother and extinguish them.

Still, while condemning Plato, we must acknowledge that neither
Christianity, nor any other form of religion and society, has hitherto
been able to cope with this most difficult of social problems, and that
the side from which Plato regarded it is that from which we turn away.
Population is the most untameable force in the political and social
world. Do we not find, especially in large cities, that the greatest
hindrance to the amelioration of the poor is their improvidence in
marriage?--a small fault truly, if not involving endless consequences.
There are whole countries too, such as India, or, nearer home, Ireland,
in which a right solution of the marriage question seems to lie at the
foundation of the happiness of the community. There are too many people
on a given space, or they marry too early and bring into th