the Supreme Being. But whether applied to Divine or
to human governors the conception is faulty for two reasons, neither of
which are noticed by Plato:--first, because all good government supposes
a degree of co-operation in the ruler and his subjects,--an 'education
in politics' as well as in moral virtue; secondly, because government,
whether Divine or human, implies that the subject has a previous
knowledge of the rules under which he is living. There is a fallacy,
too, in comparing unchangeable laws with a personal governor. For the
law need not necessarily be an 'ignorant and brutal tyrant,' but gentle
and humane, capable of being altered in the spirit of the legislator,
and of being administered so as to meet the cases of individuals. Not
only in fact, but in idea, both elements must remain--the fixed law
and the living will; the written word and the spirit; the principles of
obligation and of freedom; and their applications whether made by law or
equity in particular cases.

There are two sides from which positive laws may be attacked:--either
from the side of nature, which rises up and rebels against them in the
spirit of Callicles in the Gorgias; or from the side of idealism, which
attempts to soar above them,--and this is the spirit of Plato in the
Statesman. But he soon falls, like Icarus, and is content to walk
instead of flying; that is, to accommodate himself to the actual state
of human things. Mankind have long been in despair of finding the true
ruler; and therefore are ready to acquiesce in any of the five or six
received forms of government as better than none. And the best thing
which they can do (though only the second best in reality), is to reduce
the ideal state to the conditions of actual life. Thus in the Statesman,
as in the Laws, we have three forms of government, which we may venture
to term, (1) the ideal, (2) the practical, (3) the sophistical--what
ought to be, what might be, what is. And thus Plato seems to stumble,
almost by accident, on the notion of a constitutional monarchy, or of a
monarchy ruling by laws.

The divine foundations of a State are to be laid deep in education
(Republic), and at the same time some little violence may be used in
exterminating natures which are incapable of education (compare Laws).
Plato is strongly of opinion that the legislator, like the physician,
may do men good against their will (compare Gorgias). The human bonds
of states are formed by the inter