"Human life and conduct are affected by ideals in the same way that they are affected by the examples of eminent men. Neither the one nor the other is immediately applicable to practice, but there is a virtue flowing from them which tends to raise individuals above the common routine of society or trade, and to elevate states above the mere interests of commerce or the necessities of self-defense. Most men live in a corner, and see but a little way beyond their own home or place or occupation; they 'do not lift up their eyes to the hills;' they are not awake when the dawn appears. But in Plato, as from some 'tower of speculation,' we look into the distance and behold the future of the world and of philosophy. The ideal of the state and of the life of the philosopher; the ideal of an education continuing through life and extending equally to both sexes; the ideal of the unity and correlation of knowledge; the faith in good and immortality—are the vacant forms of light on which Plato is seeking to fix the eye of mankind."
In Plato's Ideal Republic the ruler is to be a man of wisdom and probity, and is to consider only the good of his subjects. "Until political greatness and wisdom meet in one, cities never will cease from ill." The citizen must perfect his calling, however humble, as an artist perfects his art, and must form a harmonious and useful factor in the state. States must be organized on the "heavenly," that is, the ideal, pattern. After developing the understanding of justice through the ten books of the "Republic," Socrates concludes: "Need we hire a herald, or shall I proclaim the result—that the best and the justest man is also the happiest,
