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Of the first decline he gives no intelligible account; he would

not have liked to admit the most probable causes of the fall of

his ideal State, which to us would appear to be the

impracticability of communism or the natural antagonism of the

ruling and subject classes. He throws a veil of mystery over the

origin of the decline, which he attributes to ignorance of the

law of population. Of this law the famous geometrical figure or

number is the expression. Like the ancients in general, he had no

idea of the gradual perfectibility of man or of the education of

the human race. His ideal was not to be attained in the course of

ages, but was to spring in full armour from the head of the

legislator. When good laws had been given, he thought only of the

manner in which they were likely to be corrupted, or of how they

might be filled up in detail or restored in accordance with their

original spirit.