preside over this equality, and to preserve it. If the number of children exceed the number of shares, he may send out a colony; if it fall short, he may (in cases of great necessity) introduce the sons of foreigners. No alienation of lands to be permitted.

P. 741. The increase of fortune by commerce is to be prohibited, and the use of gold or silver small money, of a species not valued, nor in request with other people, only permitted for the ordinary uses of life. The common coin of Greece is to be in the hands of the publick, or employed only on occasion of an embassy, or of an expedition into foreign states. No private person may go abroad without leave of the government; and if he bring back with him any foreign money, he must deposit it in the hands of the magistrate, or he, and all who are privy to the concealment, shall forfeit twice the value, and incur disgrace.

P. 742. No securities shall be given among citizens in any case: no fortune paid on a marriage; no money lent on interest.

The folly of a legislator who thinks of making a great, a flourishing, a rich, and a happy state, without regard to the virtue1 of the inhabitants.

P. 743. The inconsistency of great wealth 2 and of great virtue. The good men will never acquire any thing by unjust means, nor ever refuse to be at any expense on decent and honest occasions. He, therefore, who scruples 3 not to acquire by fair and by unfair

1 Vid. L. 4. p. 707.

2 V. de Republ. L. 4. p. 421. and L. 8. p. 552.

3 Η εκ δικαιου και αδικου κτησις πλεον η διπλασια εστι της εκ 'H του δικαιου μονον τα τε αναλωματα μητε καλως μητε αισχρως

VOL. IV.

X

means, and will be at no expense on any occasion, must naturally be thrice as rich as the former. A good man will not lavish all he has in idle pleasures and prodigality; he will not therefore be very poor. Business and 1 acquisition ought to employ no more of our time, than may be spared from the improvement of our mind and of our body.

1

P. 744. A colony cannot be formed of men perfectly equal in point of fortune; it will be therefore necessary to divide the citizens into classes according to their circumstances, that they may pay impositions to the publick service in proportion to them. The wealthier members are also, cæteris paribus, to be preferred. before others to offices and dignities of expense; which will bring every one's fortune gradually to a level.

Four such classes to be instituted: the first worth the value of his land, the fourth, four times as much. Above or below this proportion no one is to go, on pain of forfeiture and disgrace: therefore, the substance of every man is to be publickly enrolled, under the inspection of a magistracy.

P. 745. The division of the country. Every man's lot is to consist of two half-shares, the one near the city, the other near the frontier: every one also is to have two houses, likewise within the city, the one near the midst of it, the other near the walls. The country is to be divided into twelve tribes, and the city into as

εθελοντα αναλίσκεσθαι των καλων, και εις καλα εθελοντων δαπανασθαι διπλασίως ελαττονα. Ουκ εισιν οι παμπλουσιοι αγαθοι, ει δε μη αγαθοι, ουδε ευδαιμονες.

1 Οποσα μη χρηματιζομενον αναγκασελεν αμελειν, ών ένεκα πεφυκε τα χρηματα ταυτα δ' εστι ψυχη και σωμα.

many regions; and each of them to be dedicated to its several divinity.

P. 746. An apology for this scheme, which to some will seem impracticable.

P. 747. The great difference of climates and of situations, and the sensible effects which they produce not on the bodies alone, but on the souls of men, are stated.

It is matter of just but unavailing regret, that Mr. Gray proceeded no further in his analysis and annotations on the books of Plato De Legibus. [MATHIAS.]

THE EPISTLES.

Ed. Serrani, H. Steph. 1578. Vol. 3. p. 309, &c.

DIOGENES LAERTIUS, who lived probably about the time of Septimius Severus, in the catalogue he gives us of Plato's works, counts thirteen epistles, and enumerates their titles, by which they appear to be the same as those which we now have. Yet we are not thence to conclude them to be all genuine alike. Fictions of this kind are far more ancient than that author's time; and his judgment and accuracy were not sufficient to distinguish the true from the false, as plainly appears from those palpable forgeries, the letters of the seven sages, which yet easily passed upon him as genuine.

Plat. Op. Serrani, Vol. 3. p. 309.

This letter is not from Plato, but from his favourite scholar, the famous Dion; nor is it possible that the philosopher himself could have any hand in it, he being with Dionysius at Syracuse (as he tells us himself) when Dion was forced away, and continuing there some time after. It is sent by Baccheus, who

had conducted Dion on his way, together with a sum of money which Dionysius had ordered to be given to him for his expenses, which he returns to the tyrant with much contempt. The spirit of it and the sentiments are not amiss; and yet it is not very consistent with the indignation which Dion must have felt, and with the suddenness of the occasion, to end his letter with three scraps of poetry, though never so well applied. To say the truth, I much doubt of this epistle, and the more so, as it contradicts a fact in Plutarch, who assures us, that at the same time when Dion was hurried away, his friends were permitted to load two ships with his wealth and furniture, and to transport them to him in Peloponnesus, besides which 1 his revenues were regularly remitted to him, till Plato went into Sicily for the last time, which was at least six years after.

EPISTLE II. TO DIONYSIUS. Ol. 105. 1.

Plat. Op. Serrani, Vol. 3. p. 310.

2

This epistle appears to have been written soon after Plato's return 2 from his third voyage to Syracuse, and the interview which he had with Dion at the olympick games, which he himself mentions, Epist. 7. p. 350. and in this place also. Archedemus, who brought the letter from Dionysius, and returned with this answer,

1 Ου πολυν χρονον διαλιπων, &c. Plato, Ep. 7. p. 345.

2 The reasons for placing the voyages of Plato so early, and Dion's banishment so different from the chronology of Diodorus, will appear in the observations on Plato's seventh epistle.