Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/331

THE 'REPUBLIC 307 Individual's own character — but because it is easier to see things on a big scale. This is not the place to attempt an analysis of the Republic ; and, indeed, any statement of its results apart from its details is misleading. To say that it involves Socialism and Communism, the equalising of the sexes, the abolition of marriage, the crushing of commerce, the devotion of the whole resources of the state to education, a casual and unemphasised abolition of slavery, and an element of despotism in the hands of a class of soldier-saints — such a description results in caricature. The spirit of the Repiiblic can naturally only be got from itself, and only then by the help of much study of the Greek mind, or else real power of imaginative sympathy. It yields as little to skimming as do most of the great living works of the past. Plato's gifts of thought and expression are at their highest in the Republic, but several of the notes of his later years are beginning to be heard — the predominant political interest ; the hankering after a reformed and docile Dionysius ; the growing bitterness of the poet- philosopher against the siren who seems to keep him from Truth. Plato speaks of poetrj^ as Mr. Ruskin speaks of literary form. ' " I show men their plain duty ; and they reply that my style is charming ! " ' Poetry is utter delusion. It is not Truth nor a shadow of Truth : it is the third remove, the copy of a shadow, worthless ; and yet it can intoxicate people, and make them mad with delight ! It must be banished utterly from the righteous city.' Aristotle and the rest of us, who are not in peril from our excess of imagination, who have not spent years in working passionately towards an ideal of Truth for which poetry is always offering us a mirage, will very properly deplore Plato's want of appreciation. We