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There is a directness of aim in virtue which gives an insight

into vice. And the knowledge of character is in some degree a

natural sense independent of any special experience of good or

evil.

5. One of the most remarkable conceptions of Plato, because

un-Greek and also very different from anything which existed at

all in his age of the world, is the transposition of ranks. In

the Spartan state there had been enfranchisement of Helots and

degradation of citizens under special circumstances. And in the

ancient Greek aristocracies, merit was certainly recognized as

one of the elements on which government was based. The founders

of states were supposed to be their benefactors, who were raised

by their great actions above the ordinary level of humanity; at a

later period, the services of warriors and legislators were held

to entitle them and their descendants to the privileges of

citizenship and to the first rank in the state.