He will 'carry them over the stream;' he will answer for them when the argument is beyond their comprehension; he is afraid of their ignorance of mathematics, and thinks that gymnastic is likely to be more intelligible to them;--he has repeated his words several times, and yet they cannot understand him.

The subject did not properly take the form of dialogue, and also the literary vigour of Plato had passed away.

The old men speak as they might be expected to speak, and in this there is a touch of dramatic truth.

Plato has given the Laws that form or want of form which indicates the failure of natural power.

There is no regular plan--none of that consciousness of what has preceded and what is to follow, which makes a perfect style,--but there are several attempts at a plan; the argument is 'pulled up,' and frequent explanations are offered why a particular topic was introduced.
The fictions of the Laws have no longer the verisimilitude which is characteristic of the Phaedrus and the Timaeus, or even of the Statesman.