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Plato next passes in review the ancient legends of his own country—the Trojan War, the Return of the Heraclidæ, the Dorian settlement in the Peloponnese; and he traces in the history of those times seven distinct and recognised titles to obedience—namely, the authority of parents over children, of nobles over inferiors, of elder over younger, of master over slave, the natural principle that the strong should rule the weak, and the no less natural principle that the wise should have dominion over the fool; and lastly, there is the power conferred by the casting of the lot—in which Plato recognises, as distinctly as the Hebrew legislator, the hand of Heaven.

A great lesson, he continues, may be learned from these ancient States—for they all perished from internal discords—that limited power among the rulers, and harmony and obedience to the laws among the subjects, are the safeguards of every community. Thus Providence wisely tempered the kingly power in Sparta with Ephors and a Senate, and so produced a healthy balance in the constitution; while Persia fell from her high place among the nations from the excess of despotic power, and the want of goodwill between the despot and his people. The great Cyrus and Darius both received a warrior's training, and won their own way to the throne; while Cambyses and Xerxes, born in the purple and bred in the harem, proved weak and degenerate princes, and their ruin was the result of their evil bringing up. Athens, again, went wrong in the other extreme; for with us, says the Athenian, it is always excess of freedom that does the