The genius, the political inspiration of Athens, the love of liberty--all that has made Greece famous with posterity, were wanting among the Spartans.

They had no Themistocles, or Pericles, or Aeschylus, or Sophocles, or Socrates, or Plato.

The individual was not allowed to appear above the state; the laws were fixed, and he had no business to alter or reform them.

Yet whence has the progress of cities and nations arisen, if not from remarkable individuals, coming into the world we know not how, and from causes over which we have no control?
Something too much may have been said in modern times of the value of individuality.

But we can hardly condemn too strongly a system which, instead of fostering the scattered seeds or sparks of genius and character, tends to smother and extinguish them.
Still, while condemning Plato, we must acknowledge that neither Christianity, nor any other form of religion and society, has hitherto been able to cope with this most difficult of social problems, and that the side from which Plato regarded it is that from which we turn away.
Population is the most untameable force in the political and social world.