[26] Plato, Legg. i. p. 630 D, ii. p. 667 A.
[27] Plato, Legg. i. pp. 625-626. ὅρον τῆς εὖ πολιτευομένης πόλεως, &c. (p. 626 B).
[28] Plato, Legg. i. p. 627 C. ὀρθότητός τε καὶ ἁμαρτίας πέρι νόμων, ἥτις ποτ’ ἐστὶ φύσει. Also 630 E.
Compare the inquiry in the Kratylus respecting naming, wherein consists the ὀρθότης φύσει τῶν ὀνομάτων. See above, [vol. iii. ch. xxxi.] p. 285, seq.
[29] Plato, Legg. i. p. 626.
[30] Plato, Legg. i. p. 628 D.
[31] Plato, Legg. i. p. 627 E. ὃς ἂν τοὺς μὲν χρηστοὺς ἄρχειν, τοὺς χείρους δ’ ἐάσας ζῇν ἄρχεσθαι ἕκοντας ποιήσειε.
The idéal which Plato here sets forth coincides mainly with that which Xenophon adopts as his theme both in the Cyropædia and in the Œconomicus (see the beginning of the former and the close of the latter) τὸ ἐθελόντων ἄρχειν.
[32] Aristotle cites and approves this criticism of Plato, ἐν τοῖς Νόμοις, Politic. ii. 9, p. 1271, b. 1. Compare vii. 14, 1333, b. 15.
[33] Plato, Legg. i. p. 630 A. The doctrine — that courage is possessed by many persons who have no other virtue — which is here assigned by Plato to his leading speaker the Athenian, appears in the Protagoras as advocated by Protagoras and impugned by Sokrates (p. 349 D-E). But the arguments whereby Sokrates impugns it are (according to Stallbaum) known by Plato himself to be mere captious tricks (laquei dialetici — captiosé et arguté conclusa, ad sophistam ludendum et perturbandum comparata) employed only for the purpose of puzzling and turning into ridicule an eminent Sophist. (See Stallbaum, not. ad Protag. p. 349 E. and Præf. ad Protag. p. 28.) I have already remarked elsewhere, that I think this supposition alike gratuitous and improbable.