678
Athenian
Ath. Shall we, then, state that, at the time when the destruction took place, human affairs were in this position: there was fearful and widespread desolation over a vast tract of land; most of the animals were destroyed, and the few herds of oxen and flocks of goats that happened to survive afforded at the first but scanty sustenance to their herdsmen?
Athenian
Ath. And as to the matters with which our present discourse is concerned—States and statecraft and legislation,—do we think they could have retained any memory whatsoever, broadly speaking, of such matters?
Clinias
Clin. By no means.
Athenian
Ath. So from those men, in that situation, there has sprung the whole of our present order—States and constitutions, arts and laws, with a great amount both of evil and of good?
5
Clinias
Clin. How do you mean?
Athenian
Ath. Do we imagine, my good Sir, that the men of that age, who were unversed in the ways of city life—many of them noble, many ignoble,—were perfect either in virtue or in vice?
Clinias
Clin. Well said! We grasp your meaning.
Athenian
Ath. As time went on and our race multiplied, all things advanced—did they not?—to the condition which now exists.
Clinias
Clin. Very true.
10
Athenian
Ath. But, in all probability, they advanced, not all at once, but by small degrees, during an immense space of time.
Clinias
Clin. Yes, that is most likely.
Athenian
Ath. For they all, I fancy, felt as it were still ringing in their ears a dread of going down from the highlands to the plains.