Hebrew prophecies and Homeric poems and Laws of Manu may have grown together in early times, but there is no reason to think that any of the dialogues of Plato is the result of a similar process of accumulation.

It is therefore rash to say with Oncken (Die Staatslehre des Aristoteles) that the form in which Aristotle knew the Laws of Plato must have been different from that in which they have come down to us.
It must be admitted that these principles are difficult of application.
Yet a criticism may be worth making which rests only on probabilities or impressions.

Great disputes will arise about the merits of different passages, about what is truly characteristic and original or trivial and borrowed.

Many have thought the Laws to be one of the greatest of Platonic writings, while in the judgment of Mr.Grote they hardly rise above the level of the forged epistles.

The manner in which a writer would or would not have written at a particular time of life must be acknowledged to be a matter of conjecture.