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The division into books, like all similar divisions (Cp. Sir G.C.

Lewis in the Classical Museum, vol. ii. p 1.), is probably later

than the age of Plato. The natural divisions are five in

number;-(1) Book I and the first half of Book II down to the

paragraph beginning, 'I had always admired the genius of Glaucon

and Adeimantus,' which is introductory; the first book containing

a refutation of the popular and sophistical notions of justice,

and concluding, like some of the earlier Dialogues, without

arriving at any definite result. To this is appended a

restatement of the nature of justice according to common opinion,

and an answer is demanded to the question-What is justice,

stripped of appearances? The second division (2) includes the

remainder of the second and the whole of the third and fourth

books, which are mainly occupied with the construction of the

first State and the first education.