condition of human things. And still those who have the
charge of youth may find a way by watchfulness, by affection, by the
manliness and innocence of their own lives, by occasional hints, by
general admonitions which every one can apply for himself, to mitigate
this terrible evil which eats out the heart of individuals and corrupts
the moral sentiments of nations. In no duty towards others is there more
need of reticence and self-restraint. So great is the danger lest he who
would be the counsellor of another should reveal the secret prematurely,
lest he should get another too much into his power; or fix the passing
impression of evil by demanding the confession of it.

Nor is Plato wrong in asserting that family attachments may interfere
with higher aims. If there have been some who 'to party gave up what was
meant for mankind,' there have certainly been others who to family
gave up what was meant for mankind or for their country. The cares
of children, the necessity of procuring money for their support, the
flatteries of the rich by the poor, the exclusiveness of caste, the
pride of birth or wealth, the tendency of family life to divert men from
the pursuit of the ideal or the heroic, are as lowering in our own age
as in that of Plato. And if we prefer to look at the gentle influences
of home, the development of the affections, the amenities of society,
the devotion of one member of a family for the good of the others, which
form one side of the picture, we must not quarrel with him, or perhaps
ought rather to be grateful to him, for having presented to us the
reverse. Without attempting to defend Plato on grounds of morality, we
may allow that there is an aspect of the world which has not unnaturally
led him into error.

We hardly appreciate the power which the idea of the State, like all
other abstract ideas, exercised over the mind of Plato. To us the State
seems to be built up out of the family, or sometimes to be the framework
in which family and social life is contained. But to Plato in his
present mood of mind the family is only a disturbing influence which,
instead of filling up, tends to disarrange the higher unity of the
State. No organization is needed except a political, which,
regarded from another point of view, is a military one. The State is
all-sufficing for the wants of man, and, like the idea of the Church in
later ages, absorbs all other desires and affections. In time of war the
thousand citize