In carrying out the distribution of the land, a prudent legislator will be careful to respect any provision for religious worship which has been sanctioned by ancient tradition or by the oracles of Delphi, Dodona, or Ammon.  All sacrifices, and altars, and temples, whatever may be their origin, should remain as they are.  Every division should have a patron God or hero; to these a portion of the domain should be appropriated, and at their temples the inhabitants of the districts should meet together from time to time, for the sake of mutual help and friendship.  All the citizens of a state should be known to one another; for where men are in the dark about each other’s characters, there can be no justice or right administration.  Every man should be true and single-minded, and should not allow himself to be deceived by others.

And now the game opens, and we begin to move the pieces.  At first sight, our constitution may appear singular and ill-adapted to a legislator who has not despotic power; but on second thoughts will be deemed to be, if not the very best, the second best.  For there are three forms of government, a first, a second, and a third best, out of which Cleinias has now to choose.  The first and highest form is that in which friends have all things in common, including wives and property,—­in which they have common fears, hopes, desires, and do not even call their eyes or their hands their own.  This is the ideal state; than which there never can be a truer or better—­a state, whether inhabited by Gods or sons of Gods, which will make the dwellers therein blessed.  Here is the pattern on which we must ever fix our eyes; but we are now concerned with another, which comes next to it, and we will afterwards proceed to a third.

Inasmuch as our citizens are not fitted either by nature or education to receive the saying, Friends have all things in common, let them retain their houses and private property, but use them in the service of their country, who is their God and parent, and of the Gods and demigods of the land.  Their first care should be to preserve the number of their lots.  This may be secured in the following manner:  when the possessor of a lot dies, he shall leave his lot to his best-beloved child, who will become the heir of all duties and interests, and will minister to the Gods and to the family, to the living and to the dead.  Of the remaining children, the females must be given in marriage according to the law to be hereafter enacted; the males may be assigned to citizens who have no children of their own.  How to equalize families and allotments will be one of the chief cares of the guardians of the laws.  When parents have too many children they may give to those who have none, or couples may abstain from having children, or, if there is a want of offspring, special care may be taken to obtain them; or if the number of citizens becomes excessive, we may send away the surplus to found a colony.  If, on the other hand, a war or plague diminishes the number of inhabitants, new citizens must be introduced; and these ought not, if possible, to be men of low birth or inferior training; but even God, it is said, cannot always fight against necessity.