It is also to be ascribed in a measure to the greater study of the philosophy of history.

The optimist temperament of some great writers has assisted the creation of it, while the opposite character has led a few to regard the future of the world as dark.
The 'spectator of all time and of all existence' sees more of 'the increasing purpose which through the ages ran' than formerly: but to the inhabitant of a small state of Hellas the vision was necessarily limited like the valley in which he dwelt.

There was no remote past on which his eye could rest, nor any future from which the veil was partly lifted up by the analogy of history.

The narrowness of view, which to ourselves appears so singular, was to him natural, if not unavoidable.
5.

For the relation of the Republic to the Statesman and the Laws, and the two other works of Plato which directly treat of politics, see the Introductions to the two latter; a few general points of comparison may be touched upon in this place.
And first of the Laws.
(1) The Republic, though probably written at intervals, yet speaking generally and judging by the indications of thought and style, may be reasonably ascribed to the middle period of Plato's life: the Laws are certainly the work of his declining years, and some portions of them at any rate seem to have been written in extreme old age.
(2) The Republic is full of hope and aspiration: the Laws bear the stamp of failure and disappointment.