The ancient Greek historians (Harvard lectures) by J. B. Bury.

v

PLATO

185

suggested the idea of the first history of civilisation. In the Laws, where he descends to lower
heights, nearer to the actual conditions of terrestrial society, Plato has sketched a reconstruction
of the development of the human race. It is
governed by the idea of cataclysms, such as
deluges or pestilences which wiped out the human
race, leaving only a remnant, which had to begin
at the very beginning and weave civilisation, like
the web of Penelope, all over again. The latest of
these periodic cataclysms was a deluge, and the
few survivors who had gained safety on the tops
of high hills found themselves without the means
of travelling and without arts; the metals had
disappeared and there were no means of felling
timber. "The desolation of these primitive men
would create in them a feeling of affection and
friendship towards one another; and they would
have no occasion to fight for their subsistence; for
they would have a pasture in abundance"; also
abundance of clothing, bedding, and dwellings, and
utensils; so that they were not very poor. And
they were not rich, as there was no gold or silver.
But "the community which has neither poverty
nor riches will always have the noblest principles;
there is no insolence or injustice, nor, again, are
there any contentions or envyings among them."
Plato draws here the picture of an age which is
ethically golden; although he does not use the

1 Laws, 678-9, transl. Jowett. The cycle of degenerate states in
-Republic viii. is a sequence in thought, not in time.