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.