precursor of the famous passages of Milton and Ruskin on the same theme. All classes of citizens in the state are brothers.276 The rulers are saviors (σωτῆρας), allies, shepherds (ποίμενες), nurses (τροφέας), paymasters, and friends.277 This happy unity (ὁμόνοια), or harmony (ξυμφωνία), of all classes is to Plato the highest goal toward which the true statesman should strive,278 and the point of next highest importance to the communism of the guards is the proper regulation of wealth and poverty for the artisans.279 The mere fact that he does not believe the artisans to be capable of political independence by no means indicates that he is indifferent to their social or economic welfare. It is to conserve this that he would put the government into the hands of the most capable,280 and, in any event, the artisans are not to be held in subjection so much by external force as by their own free self-restraint.281 This, in itself, is sufficient evidence that Plato intended to include the third class in his lower scheme of education, a fact borne out also by other passages.282
It must be admitted that a somewhat different spirit pervades the Laws, where he seems to have despaired of the lofty ideal of the Republic. He relegates