17a-19b Recap of the Republic Socrates briefly recaps the ideal city described the previous day. He refers to the division of classes, including guardians and producers such as farmers and craftsmen; but he speaks mostly about guardians. He addresses the equality of women among the guardians; the communal sharing of wives and children; regulated breeding for civic harmony; and an educational system ordered toward cultivating virtue and selecting the best guardians. Keywords:

The Timaeus is one of Plato's odder works. It’s one of his most unusual dialogues in genre, tone, and method. It's not even much of a dialogue. It's mostly one man talking. Some have proposed that it is an unfinished dialogue, even an experimental work. I think there is something to that claim. I sat with Dr DT Sheffler in a seminar where we did a close reading of Timaeus. I found it odd, given my background with medieval literature, that I'd never read it before. It was one

G.K. Chesterton’s “The Secret Garden” is less a detective story than a moral parable. Father Brown solves the case by reading souls, not...