Pagina 223 di 1391

The fifth book is the new beginning of the Republic, in which the

community of property and of family are first maintained, and the

transition is made to the kingdom of philosophers. For both of

these Plato, after his manner, has been preparing in some chance

words of Book IV, which fall unperceived on the reader's mind, as

they are supposed at first to have fallen on the ear of Glaucon

and Adeimantus. The 'paradoxes,' as Morgenstern terms them, of

this book of the Republic will be reserved for another place; a

few remarks on the style, and some explanations of difficulties,

may be briefly added.