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?
Clin. Yes.
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?
Clin. By no means.
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?
Clin. How do you mean?
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?
Clin. Well said! We grasp your meaning.
Ath. As time went on and our race multiplied, all things advanced—did they not?—to the condition which now exists.
Clin. Very true.
Ath. But, in all probability, they advanced, not all at once, but by small degrees, during an immense space of time.
Clin. Yes, that is most likely.
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.
Clin. Of course.
Ath. And because there were so few of them round about in those days, were they not delighted to see one another, but for the fact that means of transport, whereby they might visit one another by sea or land, had practically all perished along with the arts? Hence intercourse, I imagine, was not very easy. For iron and bronze and all the metals in the mines had been flooded and had disappeared; so that it was extremely difficult to extract fresh metal; and there was a dearth, in consequence, of felled timber. For even if there happened to be some few tools still left somewhere on the mountains, these were soon worn out, and they could not be replaced by others until men had rediscovered the art of metal-working.
Clin. They could not.
Ath. Now, how many generations, do we suppose, had passed before this took place?
Clin. A great many, evidently.
Ath. And during all this period, or even longer, all the arts that require iron and bronze and all such metals must have remained in abeyance?
Clin. Of course.
Ath. Moreover, civil strife and war also disappeared during that time, and that for many reasons.
Clin. How so?