Justly holding that the best laws will be of little avail unless the administrators of them shall be just and virtuous, Sokrates, in the Third Book, proceeds to lay down rules for the education and diet of the magistrates or executive, whom he calls—in conformity with the Communistic system—guardians:—
“‘We have already said,’ proceeds Sokrates, ‘that the persons in question must refrain from drunkenness; for a guardian is the last person in the world, I should think, to be allowed to get drunk, and not know where he is.’
“‘Truly it would be ridiculous for a guardian to require a guard.’
“‘But about eating: our men are combatants in a most important arena, are they not?’
“‘They are.’
“‘Then will the habit of body which is cultivated by the trained fighters of the Palæstra be suitable to such persons?’
“‘Perhaps it will.’
“‘Well, but this is a sleepy kind of regimen, and produces a precarious state of health; for do you not observe that men in the regular training sleep their life away, and, if they depart only slightly from the prescribed diet, are attacked by serious maladies in their worst form?’
“‘I do.’