Ath. In the first place, the desolation of these primitive men wouldcreate in them a feeling of affection and good-will towards oneanother; and, secondly, they would have no occasion to quarrel abouttheir subsistence, for they would have pasture in abundance, exceptjust at first, and in some particular cases; and from theirpasture-land they would obtain the greater part of their food in aprimitive age, having plenty of milk and flesh; moreover they wouldprocure other food by the chase, not to be despised either in quantityor quality. They would also have abundance of clothing, and bedding,and dwellings, and utensils either capable of standing on the fireor not; for the plastic and weaving arts do not require any use ofiron: and God has given these two arts to man in order to providehim with all such things, that, when reduced to the last extremity,the human race may still grow and increase. Hence in those daysmankind were not very poor; nor was poverty a cause of differenceamong them; and rich they could not have been, having neither gold norsilver:-such at that time was their condition. And the community whichhas neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblestprinciples; in it there is no insolence or injustice, nor, again,are there any contentions or envyings. And therefore they were good,and also because they were what is called simple-minded; and when theywere told about good and evil, they in their simplicity believedwhat they heard to be very truth and practised it. No one had thewit to suspect another of a falsehood, as men do now; but what theyheard about Gods and men they believed to be true, and livedaccordingly; and therefore they were in all respects such as we havedescribed them.
Cle. That quite accords with my views, and with those of my friendhere.
Ath. Would not many generations living on in a simple manner,although ruder, perhaps, and more ignorant of the arts generally,and in particular of those of land or naval warfare, and likewise ofother arts, termed in cities legal practices and party conflicts,and including all conceivable ways of hurting one another in wordand deed;-although inferior to those who lived before the deluge, orto the men of our day in these respects, would they not, I say, besimpler and more manly, and also more temperate and altogether morejust? The reason has been already explained.
Cle. Very true.
Ath. I should wish you to understand that what has preceded and whatis about to follow, has been, and will be said, with the intentionof explaining what need the men of that time had of laws, and whowas their lawgiver.
Cle. And thus far what you have said has been very well said.
Ath. They could hardly have wanted lawgivers as yet; nothing of thatsort was likely to have existed in their days, for they had no lettersat this early period; they lived by habit and the customs of theirancestors, as they are called.
Cle. Probably.
Ath. But there was already existing a form of government which, if Iam not mistaken, is generally termed a lordship, and this stillremains in many places, both among Hellenes and barbarians, and is thegovernment which is declared by Homer to have prevailed among theCyclopes:
They have neither councils nor judgments, but they dwell in hollowcaves on the tops of high mountains, and every one gives law to hiswife and children, and they do not busy themselves about one another.
Cle. That seems to be a charming poet of yours; I have read someother verses of his, which are very clever; but I do not know muchof him, for foreign poets are very little read among the Cretans.
Megillus. But they are in Lacedaemon, and he appears to be theprince of them all; the manner of life, however, which he describes isnot Spartan, but rather Ionian, and he seems quite to confirm what youare saying, when he traces up the ancient state of mankind by the helpof tradition to barbarism.
Ath. Yes, he does confirm it; and we may accept his witness to thefact that such forms of government sometimes arise.
Cle. We may.
Ath. And were not such states composed of men who had been dispersedin single habitations and families by the poverty which attended thedevastations; and did not the eldest then rule among them, becausewith them government originated in the authority of a father and amother, whom, like a flock of birds, they followed, forming onetroop under the patriarchal rule and sovereignty of their parents,which of all sovereignties is the most just?
Cle. Very true.
Ath. After this they came together in greater numbers, and increasedthe size of their cities, and betook themselves to husbandry, first ofall at the foot of the mountains, and made enclosures of loose wallsand works of defence, in order to keep off wild beasts; thuscreating a single large and common habitation.
Cle. Yes; at least we may suppose so.
Ath. There is another thing which would probably happen.
Cle. What?
Ath. When these larger habitations grew up out of the lesseroriginal ones, each of the lesser ones would survive in the larger;every family would be under the rule of the eldest, and, owing totheir separation from one another, would have peculiar customs inthings divine and human, which they would have received from theirseveral parents who had educated them; and these customs would inclinethem to order, when the parents had the element of order in theirnature, and to courage, when they had the element of courage. And theywould naturally stamp upon their children, and upon their children"schildren, their own likings; and, as we are saying, they would findtheir way into the larger society, having already their own peculiarlaws.
Cle. Certainly.
Ath. And every man surely likes his own laws best, and the laws ofothers not so well.
Cle. True.
Ath. Then now we seem to have stumbled upon the beginnings oflegislation.
Cle. Exactly.