In the _Laws_, Plato reluctantly abandons some of the utopian suggestions of the _Republic_ for a more practical legislation,[326] though his ideal is really unchanged. Communism of property and of the family are both discarded even for the rulers, as feasible only for a supernatural order of beings.[327] As a noble ideal, however, it still hovers before him.[328] Private property is permitted to the citizens,[329] but under protest, and if practicable, Plato would like to prohibit it, as the primary root of all social disturbance and corruption.[330] He would advocate, therefore, a return to the old régime of family tenure, somewhat on the model of the Spartan system.[331] He would also hamper this by limitations so as to make it no real ownership at all. The land is to be practically state property, over which the citizens exercise merely the right of use.[332] It is to be divided into lots of equal value, corresponding exactly to the number of citizens.[333] Natural disadvantages shall be compensated for by an increase in the size of the lot, and part of each allotment shall be near, and part at a distance from the city, that all may be on an equal footing, and alike ready to defend against invasion.[334] In order that no citizen may lose his lot, and no man may possess more than one, very stringent regulations are advised.[335] No lot may be purchased or sold,[336] confiscated,[337] or divided by will to more than one heir,[338] and no citizen, in any manner whatsoever, may become owner of more than one lot.[339] The living of the other members of the family is arranged for by a provision for a general distribution of the product of the soil, in imitation of the Cretan law.[340] The annual product of grain and cattle shall be divided into three equal parts, one for citizens, one for their servants, and one for the artisans, metics, and strangers. The first two parts shall not be subject to sale, but each head of a family shall receive from them enough to nourish his family and slaves. It is evident from all these regulations that Plato’s citizens do not actually own their lots, but merely enjoy the usufruct of them from the state on certain conditions. He takes away with one hand what he gives with the other. Under such a system all his precautionary measures could not have prevented the growth of an even more oppressive poverty, unless the growth of population could be checked.