A city which is without trade or commerce must consider what it will do about the going abroad of its own people and the admission of strangers.  For out of intercourse with strangers there arises great confusion of manners, which in most states is not of any consequence, because the confusion exists already; but in a well-ordered state it may be a great evil.  Yet the absolute prohibition of foreign travel, or the exclusion of strangers, is impossible, and would appear barbarous to the rest of mankind.  Public opinion should never be lightly regarded, for the many are not so far wrong in their judgments as in their lives.  Even the worst of men have often a divine instinct, which enables them to judge of the differences between the good and bad.  States are rightly advised when they desire to have the praise of men; and the greatest and truest praise is that of virtue.  And our Cretan colony should, and probably will, have a character for virtue, such as few cities have.  Let this, then, be our law about foreign travel and the reception of strangers:—­No one shall be allowed to leave the country who is under forty years of age—­of course military service abroad is not included in this regulation—­and no one at all except in a public capacity.  To the Olympic, and Pythian, and Nemean, and Isthmian games, shall be sent the fairest and best and bravest, who shall support the dignity of the city in time of peace.  These, when they come home, shall teach the youth the inferiority of all other governments.  Besides those who go on sacred missions, other persons shall be sent out by permission of the guardians to study the institutions of foreign countries.  For a people which has no experience, and no knowledge of the characters of men or the reason of things, but lives by habit only, can never be perfectly civilized.  Moreover, in all states, bad as well as good, there are holy and inspired men; these the citizen of a well-ordered city should be ever seeking out; he should go forth to find them over sea and over land, that he may more firmly establish institutions in his own state which are good already and amend the bad.  ’What will be the best way of accomplishing such an object?’ In the first place, let the visitor of foreign countries be between fifty and sixty years of age, and let him be a citizen of repute, especially in military matters.  On his return he shall appear before the Nocturnal Council:  this is a body which sits from dawn to sunrise, and includes amongst its members the priests who have gained the prize of virtue, and the ten oldest guardians of the law, and the director and past directors of education; each of whom has power to bring with him a younger friend of his own selection, who is between thirty and forty.  The assembly thus constituted shall consider the laws of their own and other states, and gather information relating to them.  Anything of the sort which is approved by the elder members of the council shall be studied with all diligence