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5.] This prejudice against change excluded the apprehension of
civilisation as a progressive movement. It did not occur to Plato or
any one else that a perfect order might be attainable by a long
series of changes and adaptations. Such an order, being an
embodiment of reason, could be created only by a deliberate and
immediate act of a planning mind. It might be devised by the wisdom
of a philosopher or revealed by the Deity. Hence the salvation of a
community must lie in preserving intact, so far as possible, the
institutions imposed by the enlightened lawgiver, since change meant
corruption and disaster. These a priori principles account for the
admiration of the Spartan state entertained by many Greek
philosophers, because it was supposed to have preserved unchanged
for an unusually long period a system established by an inspired
legislator.
2.
Thus time was regarded as the enemy of humanity. Horace's verse,

Damnosa quid non imminuit dies?

"time depreciates the value of the world," expresses the pessimistic
axiom accepted in most systems of ancient thought.


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