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And many of the latest conceptions of modern thinkers and

statesmen, such as the unity of knowledge, the reign of law, and

the equality of the sexes, have been anticipated in a dream by

him.

The argument of the Republic is the search after Justice, the

nature of which is first hinted at by Cephalus, the just and

blameless old man-then discussed on the basis of proverbial

morality by Socrates and Polemarchus-then caricatured by

Thrasymachus and partially explained by Socrates-reduced to an

abstraction by Glaucon and Adeimantus, and having become

invisible in the individual reappears at length in the ideal

State which is constructed by Socrates. The first care of the

rulers is to be education, of which an outline is drawn after the

old Hellenic model, providing only for an improved religion and

morality, and more simplicity in music and gymnastic, a manlier

strain of poetry, and greater harmony of the individual and the

State.