Cleinias:  Excellent, Stranger.

Athenian:  Yes; and I will be as good as my word.

Cleinias:  Let us by all means do as you propose.

Athenian:  That we will, by the grace of God, if old age will only permit us.

Cleinias:  But God will be gracious.

Athenian:  Yes; and under his guidance let us consider a further point.

Cleinias:  What is it?

Athenian:  Let us remember what a courageously mad and daring creation this our city is.

Cleinias:  What had you in your mind when you said that?

Athenian:  I had in my mind the free and easy manner in which we are ordaining that the inexperienced colonists shall receive our laws.  Now a man need not be very wise, Cleinias, in order to see that no one can easily receive laws at their first imposition.  But if we could anyhow wait until those who have been imbued with them from childhood, and have been nurtured in them, and become habituated to them, take their part in the public elections of the state; I say, if this could be accomplished, and rightly accomplished by any way or contrivance—­then, I think that there would be very little danger, at the end of the time, of a state thus trained not being permanent.

Cleinias:  A reasonable supposition.

Athenian:  Then let us consider if we can find any way out of the difficulty; for I maintain, Cleinias, that the Cnosians, above all the other Cretans, should not be satisfied with barely discharging their duty to the colony, but they ought to take the utmost pains to establish the offices which are first created by them in the best and surest manner.  Above all, this applies to the selection of the guardians of the law, who must be chosen first of all, and with the greatest care; the others are of less importance.

Cleinias:  What method can we devise of electing them?

Athenian:  This will be the method:—­Sons of the Cretans, I shall say to them, inasmuch as the Cnosians have precedence over the other states, they should, in common with those who join this settlement, choose a body of thirty-seven in all, nineteen of them being taken from the settlers, and the remainder from the citizens of Cnosus.  Of these latter the Cnosians shall make a present to your colony, and you yourself shall be one of the eighteen, and shall become a citizen of the new state; and if you and they cannot be persuaded to go, the Cnosians may fairly use a little violence in order to make you.

Cleinias:  But why, Stranger, do not you and Megillus take a part in our new city?