The subject is then changed and the old quarrel of poetry and philosophy which had been more lightly treated in the earlier books of the Republic is now resumed and fought out to a conclusion.

Poetry is discovered to be an imitation thrice removed from the truth, and Homer, as well as the dramatic poets, having been condemned as an imitator, is sent into banishment along with them.

And the idea of the State is supplemented by the revelation of a future life.
The division into books, like all similar divisions (Cp.

Sir G.C.

Lewis in the Classical Museum.), is probably later than the age of Plato.