In the third book of the Republic a nearer approach is made to a theory of art than anywhere else in Plato.

His views may be summed up as follows:--True art is not fanciful and imitative, but simple and ideal,--the expression of the highest moral energy, whether in action or repose.

To live among works of plastic art which are of this noble and simple character, or to listen to such strains, is the best of influences,--the true Greek atmosphere, in which youth should be brought up.

That is the way to create in them a natural good taste, which will have a feeling of truth and beauty in all things.

For though the poets are to be expelled, still art is recognized as another aspect of reason--like love in the Symposium, extending over the same sphere, but confined to the preliminary education, and acting through the power of habit; and this conception of art is not limited to strains of music or the forms of plastic art, but pervades all nature and has a wide kindred in the world.