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The optimist temperament of some great writers has assisted the

creation of it, while the opposite character has led a few to

regard the future of the world as dark. The 'spectator of all

time and of all existence' sees more of 'the increasing purpose

which through the ages ran' than formerly: but to the inhabitant

of a small state of Hellas the vision was necessarily limited

like the valley in which he dwelt. There was no remote past on

which his eye could rest, nor any future from which the veil was

partly lifted up by the analogy of history. The narrowness of

view, which to ourselves appears so singular, was to him natural,

if not unavoidable.

5. For the relation of the Republic to the Statesman and the

Laws, and the two other works of Plato which directly treat of

politics, see the Introductions to the two latter; a few general

points of comparison may be touched upon in this place.

And first of the Laws.