Pagina 646 de 1391

Pol.): he replies, that his citizens being happy and contented in

themselves (they are required to work only four hours a day),

will have greater regard for their fellows than exists among men

at present. He thinks, like Plato, that if he abolishes private

feelings and interests, a great public feeling will take their

place.

Other writings on ideal states, such as the 'Oceana' of

Harrington, in which the Lord Archon, meaning Cromwell, is

described, not as he was, but as he ought to have been; or the

'Argenis' of Barclay, which is an historical allegory of his own

time, are too unlike Plato to be worth mentioning. More

interesting than either of these, and far more Platonic in style

and thought, is Sir John Eliot's 'Monarchy of Man,' in which the

prisoner of the Tower, no longer able 'to be a politician in the

land of his birth,' turns away from politics to view 'that other

city which is within him,' and finds on the very threshold of the

grave that the secret of human happiness is the mastery of self.

The change of government in the time of the English Commonwealth

set men thinking about first principles, and gave rise to many

works of this class...The great original genius of Swift owes

nothing to Plato; nor is there any trace in the conversation or

in the works of Dr.