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6. Others as well as Plato have chosen an ideal Republic to be

the vehicle of thoughts which they could not definitely express,

or which went beyond their own age. The classical writing which

approaches most nearly to the Republic of Plato is the 'De

Republica' of Cicero; but neither in this nor in any other of his

dialogues does he rival the art of Plato. The manners are clumsy

and inferior; the hand of the rhetorician is apparent at every

turn. Yet noble sentiments are constantly recurring: the true

note of Roman patriotism-'We Romans are a great people'-resounds

through the whole work. Like Socrates, Cicero turns away from the

phenomena of the heavens to civil and political life. He would

rather not discuss the 'two Suns' of which all Rome was talking,

when he can converse about 'the two nations in one' which had

divided Rome ever since the days of the Gracchi.