and Megillus join us?’ Athens is proud, and Sparta too; and they are both a long way off.  But let me proceed with my scheme.  When the state is permanently established, the mode of election will be as follows:  All who are serving, or have served, in the army will be electors; and the election will be held in the most sacred of the temples.  The voter will place on the altar a tablet, inscribing thereupon the name of the candidate whom he prefers, and of his father, tribe, and ward, writing at the side of them his own name in like manner; and he may take away any tablet which does not appear written to his mind, and place it in the Agora for thirty days.  The 300 who obtain the greatest number of votes will be publicly announced, and out of them there will be a second election of 100; and out of the 100 a third and final election of thirty-seven, accompanied by the solemnity of the electors passing through victims.  But then who is to arrange all this?  There is a common saying, that the beginning is half the whole; and I should say a good deal more than half.  ‘Most true.’  The only way of making a beginning is from the parent city; and though in after ages the tie may be broken, and quarrels may arise between them, yet in early days the child naturally looks to the mother for care and education.  And, as I said before, the Cnosians ought to take an interest in the colony, and select 100 elders of their own citizens, to whom shall be added 100 of the colonists, to arrange and supervise the first elections and scrutinies; and when the colony has been started, the Cnosians may return home and leave the colonists to themselves.

The thirty-seven magistrates who have been elected in the manner described, shall have the following duties:  first, they shall be guardians of the law; secondly, of the registers of property in the four classes—­ not including the one, two, three, four minae, which are allowed as a surplus.  He who is found to possess what is not entered in the registers, in addition to the confiscation of such property shall be proceeded against by law, and if he be cast he shall lose his share in the public property and in distributions of money; and his sentence shall be inscribed in some public place.  The guardians are to continue in office twenty years only, and to commence holding office at fifty years, or if elected at sixty they are not to remain after seventy.

Generals have now to be elected, and commanders of horse and brigadiers of foot.  The generals shall be natives of the city, proposed by the guardians of the law, and elected by those who are or have been of the age for military service.  Any one may challenge the person nominated and start another candidate, whom he affirms upon oath to be better qualified.  The three who obtain the greatest number of votes shall be elected.  The generals thus elected shall propose the taxiarchs or brigadiers, and the challenge may be made, and the voting shall take place, in the