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Men and women without feeling or imagination are justly called

brutes; yet Plato takes away these qualities and puts nothing in

their place, not even the desire of a noble offspring, since

parents are not to know their own children. The most important

transaction of social life, he who is the idealist philosopher

converts into the most brutal. For the pair are to have no

relation to one another, except at the hymeneal festival; their

children are not theirs, but the state's; nor is any tie of

affection to unite them. Yet here the analogy of the animals

might have saved Plato from a gigantic error, if he had 'not lost

sight of his own illustration.' For the 'nobler sort of birds and

beasts' nourish and protect their offspring and are faithful to

one another.