Any one who pleases may take away any tablet which he does not thinkproperly filled up, and exhibit it in the Agara for a period of notless than thirty days. The tablets which are judged to be first, tothe number of 300, shall be shown by the magistrates to the wholecity, and the citizens shall in like manner select from these thecandidates whom they prefer; and this second selection, to thenumber of 100, shall be again exhibited to the citizens; in the third,let any one who pleases select whom pleases out of the 100, walkingthrough the parts of victims, and let them choose for magistratesand proclaim the seven and thirty who have the greatest number ofvotes. But who, Cleinias and Megillus, will order for us in the colonyall this matter of the magistrates, and the scrutinies of them? Ifwe reflect, we shall see that cities which are in process ofconstruction like ours must have some such persons, who cannotpossibly be elected before there are any magistrates; and yet theymust be elected in some way, and they are not to be inferior men,but the best possible. For as the proverb says, "a good beginning ishalf the business"; and "to have begun well" is praised by all, and inmy opinion is a great deal more than half the business, and hasnever been praised by any one enough.
Cle. That is very true.
Ath. Then let us recognize the difficulty, and make clear to our ownminds how the beginning is to be accomplished. There is only oneproposal which I have to offer, and that is one which, under ourcircumstances, is both necessary and expedient.
Cle. What is it?
Ath. I maintain that this colony of ours has a father and mother,who are no other than the colonizing state. Well I know that manycolonies have been, and will be, at enmity with their parents. Butin early days the child, as in a family, loves and is beloved; even ifthere come a time later when the tie is broken, still, while he isin want of education, he naturally loves his parents and is beloved bythem, and flies to his relatives for protection, and finds in them hisonly natural allies in time of need; and this parental feeling alreadyexists in the Cnosians, as is shown by their care of the new city; andthere is a similar feeling on the part of the young city towardsCnosus. And I repeat what I was saying-for there is no harm inrepeating a good thing-that the Cnosians should take a common interestin all these matters, and choose, as far as they can, the eldest andbest of the colonists, to the number of not less than a hundred; andlet there be another hundred of the Cnosians themselves. These, I say,on their arrival, should have a joint care that the magistrates shouldbe appointed according to law, and that when they are appointed theyshould undergo a scrutiny. When this has been effected, the Cnosiansshall return home, and the new city do the best she can for her ownpreservation and happiness. I would have the seven-and-thirty now, andin all future time, chosen to fulfil the following duties:-Let them,in the first place, be the guardians of the law; and, secondly, of theregisters in which each one registers before the magistrate the amountof his property, excepting four minae which are allowed to citizens ofthe first class, three allowed to the second, two to the third, anda single mina to the fourth. And if any one, despising the laws forthe sake of gain, be found to possess anything more which has not beenregistered, let all that he has in excess be confiscated, and lethim be liable to a suit which shall be the reverse of honourable orfortunate. And let any one who will, indict him on the charge ofloving base gains, and proceed against him before the guardians of thelaw. And if he be cast, let him lose his share of the publicpossessions, and when there is any public distribution, let him havenothing but his original lot; and let him be written down acondemned man as long as he lives, in some place in which any onewho pleases can read about his onces. The guardian of the law shallnot hold office longer than twenty years, and shall not be less thanfifty years of age when he is elected; or if he is elected when heis sixty years of age, he shall hold office for ten years only; andupon the same principle, he must not imagine that he will be permittedto hold such an important office as that of guardian of the laws afterhe is seventy years of age, if he live so long.