the past to the future, that the process is always going on, or that the institutions of nations are relative to their stage of civilization.  If he could have stamped indelibly upon Hellenic states the will of the legislator, he would have been satisfied.  The utmost which he expects of future generations is that they should supply the omissions, or correct the errors which younger statesmen detect in his enactments.  When institutions have been once subjected to this process of criticism, he would have them fixed for ever.

The preamble.

Book I. Strangers, let me ask a question of you—­Was a God or a man the author of your laws?  ’A God, Stranger.  In Crete, Zeus is said to have been the author of them; in Sparta, as Megillus will tell you, Apollo.’  You Cretans believe, as Homer says, that Minos went every ninth year to converse with his Olympian sire, and gave you laws which he brought from him.  ’Yes; and there was Rhadamanthus, his brother, who is reputed among us to have been a most righteous judge.’  That is a reputation worthy of the son of Zeus.  And as you and Megillus have been trained under these laws, I may ask you to give me an account of them.  We can talk about them in our walk from Cnosus to the cave and temple of Zeus.  I am told that the distance is considerable, but probably there are shady places under the trees, where, being no longer young, we may often rest and converse.  ’Yes, Stranger, a little onward there are beautiful groves of cypresses, and green meadows in which we may repose.’

My first question is, Why has the law ordained that you should have common meals, and practise gymnastics, and bear arms?  ’My answer is, that all our institutions are of a military character.  We lead the life of the camp even in time of peace, keeping up the organization of an army, and having meals in common; and as our country, owing to its ruggedness, is ill-suited for heavy-armed cavalry or infantry, our soldiers are archers, equipped with bows and arrows.  The legislator was under the idea that war was the natural state of all mankind, and that peace is only a pretence; he thought that no possessions had any value which were not secured against enemies.’  And do you think that superiority in war is the proper aim of government?  ’Certainly I do, and my Spartan friend will agree with me.’  And are there wars, not only of state against state, but of village against village, of family against family, of individual against individual?  ‘Yes.’  And is a man his own enemy?  ’There you come to first principles, like a true votary of the goddess Athene; and this is all the better, for you will the sooner recognize the truth of what I am saying—­ that all men everywhere are the enemies of all, and each individual of every other and of himself; and, further, that there is a victory and defeat—­the best and the worst—­which each man sustains, not at the hands of another, but of himself.’  And does this extend to states and villages as well