r;
king or vermin-destroyer are objects of equal interest to science
(compare Parmen.). There are other passages which show that the irony
of Socrates was a lesson which Plato was not slow in learning--as, for
example, the passing remark, that 'the kings and statesmen of our day
are in their breeding and education very like their subjects;' or the
anticipation that the rivals of the king will be found in the class
of servants; or the imposing attitude of the priests, who are the
established interpreters of the will of heaven, authorized by law.
Nothing is more bitter in all his writings than his comparison of the
contemporary politicians to lions, centaurs, satyrs, and other animals
of a feebler sort, who are ever changing their forms and natures. But,
as in the later dialogues generally, the play of humour and the charm of
poetry have departed, never to return.

Still the Politicus contains a higher and more ideal conception of
politics than any other of Plato's writings. The city of which there
is a pattern in heaven (Republic), is here described as a Paradisiacal
state of human society. In the truest sense of all, the ruler is not
man but God; and such a government existed in a former cycle of human
history, and may again exist when the gods resume their care of mankind.
In a secondary sense, the true form of government is that which has
scientific rulers, who are irresponsible to their subjects. Not power
but knowledge is the characteristic of a king or royal person. And the
rule of a man is better and higher than law, because he is more able
to deal with the infinite complexity of human affairs. But mankind, in
despair of finding a true ruler, are willing to acquiesce in any law or
custom which will save them from the caprice of individuals. They are
ready to accept any of the six forms of government which prevail in the
world. To the Greek, nomos was a sacred word, but the political idealism
of Plato soars into a region beyond; for the laws he would substitute
the intelligent will of the legislator. Education is originally to
implant in men's minds a sense of truth and justice, which is the divine
bond of states, and the legislator is to contrive human bonds, by which
dissimilar natures may be united in marriage and supply the deficiencies
of one another. As in the Republic, the government of philosophers, the
causes of the perversion of states, the regulation of marriages, are
still the political problems with wh