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Athenian Stranger. Listen, all ye who have just now heard the laws
about Gods, and about our dear forefathers:-Of all the things which
a man has, next to the Gods, his soul is the most divine and most
truly his own. Now in every man there are two parts: the better and
superior, which rules, and the worse and inferior, which serves; and
the ruling part of him is always to be preferred to the subject.
Wherefore I am right in bidding every one next to the Gods, who are
our masters, and those who in order follow them [i.e., the demons], to
honour his own soul, which every one seems to honour, but no one
honours as he ought; for honour is a divine good, and no evil thing is
honourable; and he who thinks that he can honour the soul by word or
gift, or any sort of compliance, without making her in any way better,
seems to honour her, but honours her not at all. For example, every
man, from his very boyhood, fancies that he is able to know
everything, and thinks that he honours his soul by praising her, and
he is very ready to let her do whatever she may like. But I mean to
say that in acting thus he injures his soul, and is far from honouring
her; whereas, in our opinion, he ought to honour her as second only to
the Gods. Again, when a man thinks that others are to be blamed, and
not himself, for the errors which he has committed from time to
time, and the many and great evils which befell him in consequence,
and is always fancying himself to be exempt and innocent, he is
under the idea that he is honouring his soul; whereas the very reverse
is the fact, for he is really injuring her. And when, disregarding the
word and approval of the legislator, he indulges in pleasure, then
again he is far from honouring her; he only dishonours her, and
fills her full of evil and remorse; or when he does not endure to
the end the labours and fears and sorrows and pains which the
legislator approves, but gives way before them, then, by yielding,
he does not honour the soul, but by all such conduct he makes her to
be dishonourable; nor when he thinks that life at any price is a good,
does he honour her, but yet once more he dishonours her; for the
soul having a notion that the world below is all evil, he yields to
her, and does not resist and teach or convince her that, for aught she
knows, the world of the Gods below, instead of being evil, may be
the greatest of all goods. Again, when any one prefers beauty to
virtue, what is this but the real and utter dishonour of the soul? For
such a preference implies that the body is more honourable than the
soul; and this is false, for there is nothing of earthly birth which
is more honourable than the heavenly, and he who thinks otherwise of
the soul has no idea how greatly he undervalues this wonderful
possession; nor, again, when a person is willing, or not unwilling, to
acquire dishonest gains, does he then honour his soul with gifts-far
otherwise; he sells her glory and honour for a small piece of gold;
but all the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to
give in exchange for virtue. In a word, I may say that he who does not
estimate the base and evil, the good and noble, according to the
standard of the legislator, and abstain in every possible way from the
one and practise the other to the utmost of his power, does not know
that in all these respects he is most foully and disgracefully abusing
his soul, which is the divinest part of man; for no one, as I may say,
ever considers that which is declared to be the greatest penalty of
evil-doing--namely, to grow into the likeness of bad men, and
growing like them to fly from the conversation of the good, and be cut
off from them, and cleave to and follow after the company of the
bad. And he who is joined to them must do and suffer what such men
by nature do and say to one another-a suffering which is not justice
but retribution; for justice and the just are noble, whereas
retribution is the suffering which waits upon injustice; and whether a
man escape or endure this, he is miserable-in the former case, because
he is not cured; while in the latter, he perishes in order that the
rest of mankind may be saved.
Speaking generally, our glory is to follow the better and improve
the inferior, which is susceptible of improvement, as far as this is
possible. And of all human possessions, the soul is by nature most
inclined to avoid the evil, and track out and find the chief good;
which when a man has found, he should take up his abode with it during
the remainder of his life. Wherefore the soul also is second [or
next to God] in honour; and third, as every one will perceive, comes
the honour of the body in natural order. Having determined this, we
have next to consider that there is a natural honour of the body,
and that of honours some are true and some are counterfeit. To
decide which are which is the business of the legislator; and he, I
suspect, would intimate that they are as follows:-Honour is not to
be given to the fair body, or to the strong or the swift or the
tall, or to the healthy body (although many may think otherwise),
any more than to their opposites; but the mean states of all these
habits are by far the safest and most moderate; for the one extreme
makes the soul braggart and insolent, and the other, illiberal and
base; and money, and property, and distinction all go to the same
tune. The excess of any of these things is apt to be a source of
hatreds and divisions among states and individuals; and the defect
of them is commonly a cause of slavery. And, therefore, I would not
have any one fond of heaping up riches for the sake of his children,
in order that he may leave them as rich as possible. For the
possession of great wealth is of no use, either to them or to the
state. The condition of youth which is free from flattery, and at
the same time not in need of the necessaries of life, is the best
and most harmonious of all, being in accord and agreement with our
nature, and making life to be most entirely free from sorrow. Let
parents, then, bequeath to their children not a heap of riches, but
the spirit of reverence. We, indeed, fancy that they will inherit
reverence from us, if we rebuke them when they show a want of
reverence. But this quality is not really imparted to them by the
present style of admonition, which only tells them that the young
ought always to be reverential. A sensible legislator will rather
exhort the elders to reverence the younger, and above all to take heed
that no young man sees or hears one of themselves doing or saying
anything disgraceful; for where old men have no shame, there young men
will most certainly be devoid of reverence. The best way of training
the young is to train yourself at the same time; not to admonish them,
but to be always carrying out your own admonitions in practice. He who
honours his kindred, and reveres those who share in the same Gods
and are of the same blood and family, may fairly expect that the
Gods who preside over generation will be propitious to him, and will
quicken his seed. And he who deems the services which his friends
and acquaintances do for him, greater and more important than they
themselves deem them, and his own favours to them less than theirs
to him, will have their good-will in the intercourse of life. And
surely in his relations to the state and his fellow citizens, he is by
far the best, who rather than the Olympic or any other victory of
peace or war, desires to win the palm of obedience to the laws of
his country, and who, of all mankind, is the person reputed to have
obeyed them best through life. In his relations to strangers, a man
should consider that a contract is a most holy thing, and that all
concerns and wrongs of strangers are more directly dependent on the
protection of God, than wrongs done to citizens; for the stranger,
having no kindred and friends, is more to be pitied by Gods and men.
Wherefore, also, he who is most able to avenge him is most zealous
in his cause; and he who is most able is the genius and the god of the
stranger, who follow in the train of Zeus, the god of strangers. And
for this reason, he who has a spark of caution in him, will do his
best to pass through life without sinning against the stranger. And of
offences committed, whether against strangers or fellow-countrymen,
that against suppliants is the greatest. For the god who witnessed
to the agreement made with the suppliant, becomes in a special
manner the guardian of the sufferer; and he will certainly not
suffer unavenged.
Thus we have fairly described the manner in which a man is to act
about his parents, and himself, and his own affairs; and in relation
to the state, and his friends, and kindred, both in what concerns
his own countrymen, and in what concerns the stranger. We will now
consider what manner of man he must be who would best pass through
life in respect of those other things which are not matters of law,
but of praise and blame only; in which praise and blame educate a man,
and make him more tractable and amenable to the laws which are about
to be imposed.
Truth is the beginning of every good thing, both to Gods and men;
and he who would be blessed and happy, should be from the first a
partaker of the truth, that he may live a true man as long as
possible, for then he can be trusted; but he is not to be trusted
who loves voluntary falsehood, and he who loves involuntary
falsehood is a fool. Neither condition is enviable, for the
untrustworthy and ignorant has no friend, and as time advances he
becomes known, and lays up in store for himself isolation in crabbed
age when life is on the wane: so that, whether his children or friends
are alive or not, he is equally solitary.-Worthy of honour is he who
does no injustice, and of more than twofold honour, if he not only
does no injustice himself, but hinders others from doing any; the
first may count as one man, the second is worth many men, because he
informs the rulers of the injustice of others. And yet more highly
to be esteemed is he who co-operates with the rulers in correcting the
citizens as far as he can-he shall be proclaimed the great and perfect
citizen, and bear away the palm of virtue. The same praise may be
given about temperance and wisdom, and all other goods which may be
imparted to others, as well as acquired by a man for himself; he who
imparts them shall be honoured as the man of men, and he who is
willing, yet is not able, may be allowed the second place; but he
who is jealous and will not, if he can help, allow others to partake
in a friendly way of any good, is deserving of blame: the good,
however, which he has, is not to be undervalued by us because it is
possessed by him, but must be acquired by us also to the utmost of our
power. Let every man, then, freely strive for the prize of virtue, and
let there be no envy. For the unenvious nature increases the greatness
of states-he himself contends in the race, blasting the fair fame of
no man; but the envious, who thinks that he ought to get the better by
defaming others, is less energetic himself in the pursuit of true
virtue, and reduces his rivals to despair by his unjust slanders of
them. And so he makes the whole city to enter the arena untrained in
the practice of virtue, and diminishes her glory as far as in him
lies. Now every man should be valiant, but he should also be gentle.
From the cruel, or hardly curable, or altogether incurable acts of
injustice done to him by others, a man can only escape by fighting and
defending himself and conquering, and by never ceasing to punish them;
and no man who is not of a noble spirit is able to accomplish this. As
to the actions of those who do evil, but whose evil is curable, in the
first place, let us remember that the unjust man is not unjust of
his own free will. For no man of his own free will would choose to
possess the greatest of evils, and least of all in the most honourable
part of himself. And the soul, as we said, is of a truth deemed by all
men the most honourable. In the soul, then, which is the most
honourable part of him, no one, if he could help, would admit, or
allow to continue the greatest of evils. The unrighteous and vicious
are always to be pitied in any case; and one can afford to forgive
as well as pity him who is curable, and refrain and calm one's
anger, not getting into a passion, like a woman, and nursing
ill-feeling. But upon him who is incapable of reformation and wholly
evil, the vials of our wrath should be poured out; wherefore I say
that good men ought, when occasion demands, to be both gentle and
passionate.
Of all evils the greatest is one which in the souls of most men is
innate, and which a man is always excusing in himself and never
correcting; mean, what is expressed in the saying that "Every man by
nature is and ought to be his own friend." Whereas the excessive
love of self is in reality the source to each man of all offences; for
the lover is blinded about the beloved, so that he judges wrongly of
the just, the good, and the honourable, and thinks that he ought
always to prefer himself to the truth. But he who would be a great man
ought to regard, not himself or his interests, but what is just,
whether the just act be his own or that of another. Through a
similar error men are induced to fancy that their own ignorance is
wisdom, and thus we who may be truly said to know nothing, think
that we know all things; and because we will not let others act for us
in what we do not know, we are compelled to act amiss ourselves.
Wherefore let every man avoid excess of self-love, and condescend to
follow a better man than himself, not allowing any false shame to
stand in the way. There are also minor precepts which are often
repeated, and are quite as useful; a man should recollect them and
remind himself of them. For when a stream is flowing out, there should
be water flowing in too; and recollection flows in while wisdom is
departing. Therefore I say that a man should refrain from excess
either of laughter or tears, and should exhort his neighbour to do the
same; he should veil his immoderate sorrow or joy, and seek to
behave with propriety, whether the genius of his good fortune
remains with him, or whether at the crisis of his fate, when he
seems to be mounting high and steep places, the Gods oppose him in
some of his enterprises. Still he may ever hope, in the case of good
men, that whatever afflictions are to befall them in the future God
will lessen, and that present evils he will change for the better; and
as to the goods which are the opposite of these evils, he will not
doubt that they will be added to them, and that they will be
fortunate. Such should be men's hopes, and such should be the
exhortations with which they admonish one another, never losing an
opportunity, but on every occasion distinctly reminding themselves and
others of all these things, both in jest and earnest.
Enough has now been said of divine matters, both as touching the
practices which men ought to follow, and as to the sort of persons who
they ought severally to be. But of human things we have not as yet
spoken, and we must; for to men we are discoursing and not to Gods.
Pleasures and pains and desires are a part of human nature, and on
them every mortal being must of necessity hang and depend with the
most eager interest. And therefore we must praise the noblest life,
not only as the fairest in appearance, but as being one which, if a
man will only taste, and not, while still in his youth, desert for
another, he will find to surpass also in the very thing which we all
of us desire-I mean in having a greater amount of pleasure and less of
pain during the whole of life. And this will be plain, if a man has
a true taste of them, as will be quickly and clearly seen. But what is
a true taste? That we have to learn from the argument-the point
being what is according to nature, and what is not according to
nature. One life must be compared with another, the more pleasurable
with the more painful, after this manner:-We desire to have
pleasure, but we neither desire nor choose pain; and the neutral state
we are ready to take in exchange, not for pleasure but for pain; and
we also wish for less pain and greater pleasure, but less pleasure and
greater pain we do not wish for; and an equal balance of either we
cannot venture to assert that we should desire. And all these differ
or do not differ severally in number and magnitude and intensity and
equality, and in the opposites of these when regarded as objects of
choice, in relation to desire. And such being the necessary order of
things, we wish for that life in which there are many great and
intense elements of pleasure and pain, and in which the pleasures
are in excess, and do not wish for that in which the opposites exceed;
nor, again, do we wish for that in which the clements of either are
small and few and feeble, and the pains exceed. And when, as I said
before, there is a balance of pleasure and pain in life, this is to be
regarded by us as the balanced life; while other lives are preferred
by us because they exceed in what we like, or are rejected by us
because they exceed in what we dislike. All the lives of men may be
regarded by us as bound up in these, and we must also consider what
sort of lives we by nature desire. And if we wish for any others, I
say that we desire them only through some ignorance and inexperience
of the lives which actually exist.
Now, what lives are they, and how many in which, having searched out
and beheld the objects of will and desire and their opposites, and
making of them a law, choosing, I say, the dear and the pleasant and
the best and noblest, a man may live in the happiest way possible? Let
us say that the temperate life is one kind of life, and the rational
another, and the courageous another, and the healthful another; and to
these four let us oppose four other lives-the foolish, the cowardly,
the intemperate, the diseased. He who knows the temperate life will
describe it as in all things gentle, having gentle pains and gentle
pleasures, and placid desires and loves not insane; whereas the
intemperate life is impetuous in all things, and has violent pains and
pleasures, and vehement and stinging desires, and loves utterly
insane; and in the temperate life the pleasures exceed the pains,
but in the intemperate life the pains exceed the pleasures in
greatness and number and frequency. Hence one of the two lives is
naturally and necessarily more pleasant and the other more painful,
and he who would live pleasantly cannot possibly choose to live
intemperately. And if this is true, the inference clearly is that no
man is voluntarily intemperate; but that the whole multitude of men
lack temperance in their lives, either from ignorance, or from want of
self-control, or both. And the same holds of the diseased and
healthy life; they both have pleasures and pains, but in health the
pleasure exceeds the pain, and in sickness the pain exceeds the
pleasure. Now our intention in choosing the lives is not that the
painful should exceed, but the life in which pain is exceeded by
pleasure we have determined to be the more pleasant life. And we
should say that the temperate life has the elements both of pleasure
and pain fewer and smaller and less frequent than the intemperate, and
the wise life than the foolish life, and the life of courage than
the life of cowardice; one of each pair exceeding in pleasure and
the other in pain, the courageous surpassing the cowardly, and the
wise exceeding the foolish. And so the one dass of lives exceeds the
other class in pleasure; the temperate and courageous and wise and
healthy exceed the cowardly and foolish and intemperate and diseased
lives; and generally speaking, that which has any virtue, whether of
body or soul, is pleasanter than the vicious life, and far superior in
beauty and rectitude and excellence and reputation, and causes him who
lives accordingly to be infinitely happier than the opposite.
Enough of the preamble; and now the laws should follow; or, to speak
more correctly, outline of them. As, then, in the case of a web or any
other tissue, the warp and the woof cannot be made of the same
materials, but the warp is necessarily superior as being stronger, and
having a certain character of firmness, whereas the woof is softer and
has a proper degree of elasticity;-in a similar manner those who are
to hold great offices in states, should be distinguished truly in each
case from those who have been but slenderly proven by education. Let
us suppose that there are two parts in the constitution of a state-one
the creation of offices, the other the laws which are assigned to them
to administer.
But, before all this, comes the following consideration:-The
shepherd or herdsman, or breeder of horses or the like, when he has
received his animals will not begin to train them until he has first
purified them in a manner which befits a community of animals; he will
divide the healthy and unhealthy, and the good breed and the bad
breed, and will send away the unhealthy and badly bred to other herds,
and tend the rest, reflecting that his labours will be vain and have
no effect, either on the souls or bodies of those whom nature and
ill nurture have corrupted, and that they will involve in
destruction the pure and healthy nature and being of every other
animal, if he should neglect to purify them. Now the case of other
animals is not so important-they are only worth introducing for the
sake of illustration; but what relates to man is of the highest
importance; and the legislator should make enquiries, and indicate
what is proper for each one in the way of purification and of any
other procedure. Take, for example, the purification of a city-there
are many kinds of purification, some easier and others more difficult;
and some of them, and the best and most difficult of them, the
legislator, if he be also a despot, may be able to effect; but the
legislator, who, not being a despot, sets up a new government and
laws, even if he attempt the mildest of purgations, may think
himself happy if he can complete his work. The best kind of
purification is painful, like similar cures in medicine, involving
righteous punishment and inflicting death or exile in the last resort.
For in this way we commonly dispose of great sinners who are
incurable, and are the greatest injury of the whole state. But the
milder form of purification is as follows:-when men who have
nothing, and are in want of food, show a disposition to follow their
leaders in an attack on the property of the rich-these, who are the
natural plague of the state, are sent away by the legislator in a
friendly spirit as far as he is able; and this dismissal of them is
euphemistically termed a colony. And every legislator should
contrive to do this at once. Our present case, however, is peculiar.
For there is no need to devise any colony or purifying separation
under the circumstances in which we are placed. But as, when many
streams flow together from many sources, whether springs or mountain
torrents, into a single lake, we ought to attend and take care that
the confluent waters should be perfectly clear, and in order to effect
this, should pump and draw off and divert impurities, so in every
political arrangement there may be trouble and danger. But, seeing
that we are now only discoursing and not acting, let our selection
be supposed to be completed, and the desired purity attained. Touching
evil men, who want to join and be citizens of our state, after we have
tested them by every sort of persuasion and for a sufficient time,
we will prevent them from coming; but the good we will to the utmost
of our ability receive as friends with open arms.
Another piece of good fortune must not be forgotten, which, as we
were saying, the Heraclid colony had, and which is also ours-that we
have escaped division of land and the abolition of debts; for these
are always a source of dangerous contention, and a city which is
driven by necessity to legislate upon such matters can neither allow
the old ways to continue, nor yet venture to alter them. We must
have recourse to prayers, so to speak, and hope that a slight change
may be cautiously effected in a length of time. And such a change
can be accomplished by those who have abundance of land, and having
also many debtors, are willing, in a kindly spirit, to share with
those who are in want, sometimes remitting and sometimes giving,
holding fast in a path of moderation, and deeming poverty to be the
increase of a man's desires and not the diminution of his property.
For this is the great beginning of salvation to a state, and upon this
lasting basis may be erected afterwards whatever political order is
suitable under the circumstances; but if the change be based upon an
unsound principle, the future administration of the country will be
full of difficulties. That is a danger which, as I am saying, is
escaped by us, and yet we had better say how, if we had not escaped,
we might have escaped; and we may venture now to assert that no
other way of escape, whether narrow or broad, can be devised but
freedom from avarice and a sense of justice-upon this rock our city
shall be built; for there ought to be no disputes among citizens about
property. If there are quarrels of long standing among them, no
legislator of any degree of sense will proceed a step in the
arrangement of the state until they are settled. But that they to whom
God has given, as he has to us, to be the founders of a new state as
yet free from enmity-that they should create themselves enmities by
their mode of distributing lands and houses, would be superhuman folly
and wickedness.
How then can we rightly order the distribution of the land? In the
first place, the number of the citizens has to be determined, and also
the number and size of the divisions into which they will have to be
formed; and the land and the houses will then have to be apportioned
by us as fairly as we can. The number of citizens can only be
estimated satisfactorily in relation to the territory and the
neighbouring states. The territory must be sufficient to maintain a
certain number of inhabitants in a moderate way of life-more than this
is not required; and the number of citizens should be sufficient to
defend themselves against the injustice of their neighbours, and
also to give them the power of rendering efficient aid to their
neighbours when they are wronged. After having taken a survey of
theirs and their neighbours' territory, we will determine the limits
of them in fact as well as in theory. And now, let us proceed to
legislate with a view to perfecting the form and outline of our state.
The number of our citizens shall be 5040-this will be a convenient
number; and these shall be owners of the land and protectors of the
allotment. The houses and the land will be divided in the same way, so
that every man may correspond to a lot. Let the whole number be
first divided into two parts, and then into three; and the number is
further capable of being divided into four or five parts, or any
number of parts up to ten. Every legislator ought to know so much
arithmetic as to be able to tell what number is most likely to be
useful to all cities; and we are going to take that number which
contains the greatest and most regular and unbroken series of
divisions. The whole of number has every possible division, and the
number 5040 can be divided by exactly fifty-nine divisors, and ten
of these proceed without interval from one to ten: this will furnish
numbers for war and peace, and for all contracts and dealings,
including taxes and divisions of the land. These properties of
number should be ascertained at leisure by those who are bound by
law to know them; for they are true, and should be proclaimed at the
foundation of the city, with a view to use. Whether the legislator
is establishing a new state or restoring an old and decayed one, in
respect of Gods and temples-the temples which are to be built in
each city, and the Gods or demi-gods after whom they are to be
called-if he be a man of sense, he will make no change in anything
which the oracle of Delphi, or Dodona, or the God Ammon, or any
ancient tradition has sanctioned in whatever manner, whether by
apparitions or reputed inspiration of Heaven, in obedience to which
mankind have established sacrifices in connection with mystic rites,
either originating on the spot, or derived from Tyrrhenia or Cyprus or
some other place, and on the strength of which traditions they have
consecrated oracles and images, and altars and temples, and
portioned out a sacred domain for each of them. The least part of
all these ought not to be disturbed by the legislator; but he should
assign to the several districts some God, or demi-god, or hero, and,
in the distribution of the soil, should give to these first their
chosen domain and all things fitting, that the inhabitants of the
several districts may meet at fixed times, and that they may readily
supply their various wants, and entertain one another with sacrifices,
and become friends and acquaintances; for there is no greater good
in a state than that the citizens should be known to one another. When
not light but darkness and ignorance of each other's characters
prevails among them, no one will receive the honour of which he is
deserving, or the power or the justice to which he is fairly entitled:
wherefore, in every state, above all things, every man should take
heed that he have no deceit in him, but that he be always true and
simple; and that no deceitful person take any advantage of him.
The next move in our pastime of legislation, like the withdrawal
of the stone from the holy line in the game of draughts, being an
unusual one, will probably excite wonder when mentioned for the
first time. And yet, if a man will only reflect and weigh the matter
with care, he will see that our city is ordered in a manner which,
if not the best, is the second best. Perhaps also some one may not
approve this form, because he thinks that such a constitution is ill
adapted to a legislator who has not despotic power. The truth is, that
there are three forms of government, the best, the second and the
third best, which we may just mention, and then leave the selection to
the ruler of the settlement. Following this method in the present
instance, let us speak of the states which are respectively first,
second, and third in excellence, and then we will leave the choice
to Cleinias now, or to any one else who may hereafter have to make a
similar choice among constitutions, and may desire to give to his
state some feature which is congenial to him and which he approves
in his own country.
The first and highest form of the state and of the government and of
the law is that in which there prevails most widely the ancient
saying, that "Friends have all things in common." Whether there is
anywhere now, or will ever be, this communion of women and children
and of property, in which the private and individual is altogether
banished from life, and things which are by nature private, such as
eyes and ears and hands, have become common, and in some way see and
hear and act in common, and all men express praise and blame and
feel joy and sorrow on the same occasions, and whatever laws there are
unite the city to the utmost-whether all this is possible or not, I
say that no man, acting upon any other principle, will ever constitute
a state which will be truer or better or more exalted in virtue.
Whether such a state is governed by Gods or sons of Gods, one, or more
than one, happy are the men who, living after this manner, dwell
there; and therefore to this we are to look for the pattern of the
state, and to cling to this, and to seek with all our might for one
which is like this. The state which we have now in hand, when created,
will be nearest to immortality and the only one which takes the second
place; and after that, by the grace of God, we will complete the third
one. And we will begin by speaking of the nature and origin of the
second.
Let the citizens at once distribute their land and houses, and not
till the land in common, since a community of goods goes beyond
their proposed origin, and nurture, and education. But in making the
distribution, let the several possessors feel that their particular
lots also belong to the whole city; and seeing that the earth is their
parent, let them tend her more carefully than children do their
mother. For she is a goddess and their queen, and they are her
mortal subjects. Such also are the feelings which they ought to
entertain to the Gods and demi-gods of the country. And in order
that the distribution may always remain, they ought to consider
further that the present number of families should be always retained,
and neither increased nor diminished. This may be secured for the
whole city in the following manner:-Let the possessor of a lot leave
the one of his children who is his best beloved, and one only, to be
the heir of his dwelling, and his successor in the duty of ministering
to the Gods, the state and the family, as well the living members of
it as those who are departed when he comes into the inheritance; but
of his other children, if he have more than one, he shall give the
females in marriage according to the law to be hereafter enacted,
and the males he shall distribute as sons to those citizens who have
no children and are disposed to receive them; or if there should be
none such, and particular individuals have too many children, male
or female, or too few, as in the case of barrenness-in all these cases
let the highest and most honourable magistracy created by us judge and
determine what is to be done with the redundant or deficient, and
devise a means that the number of 5040 houses shall always remain
the same. There are many ways of regulating numbers; for they in
whom generation is affluent may be made to refrain, and, on the
other hand, special care may be taken to increase the number of births
by rewards and stigmas, or we may meet the evil by the elder men
giving advice and administering rebuke to the younger-in this way
the object may be attained. And if after all there be very great
difficulty about the equal preservation of the 5040 houses, and
there be an excess of citizens, owing to the too great love of those
who live together, and we are at our wits' end, there is still the old
device often mentioned by us of sending out a colony, which will
part friends with us, and be composed of suitable persons. If, on
the other hand, there come a wave bearing a deluge of disease, or a
plague of war, and the inhabitants become much fewer than the
appointed number by reason of bereavement, we ought not to introduce
citizens of spurious birth and education, if this can be avoided;
but even God is said not to be able to fight against necessity.
Wherefore let us suppose this "high argument" of ours to address
us in the following terms:-Best of men, cease not to honour
according to nature similarity and equality and sameness and
agreement, as regards number and every good and noble quality. And,
above all, observe the aforesaid number 5040 throughout life; in the
second place, do not disparage the small and modest proportions of the
inheritances which you received in the distribution, by buying and
selling them to one another. For then neither will the God who gave
you the lot be your friend, nor will the legislator; and indeed the
law declares to the disobedient that these are the terms upon which he
may or may not take the lot. In the first place, the earth as he is
informed is sacred to the Gods; and in the next place, priests and
priestesses will offer up prayers over a first, and second, and even a
third sacrifice, that he who buys or sells the houses or lands which
he has received, may suffer the punishment which he deserves; and
these their prayers they shall write down in the temples, on tablets
of cypress-wood, for the instruction of posterity. Moreover they
will set a watch over all these things, that they may be observed;-the
magistracy which has the sharpest eyes shall keep watch that any
infringement of these commands may be discovered and punished as
offences both against the law and the God. How great is the benefit of
such an ordinance to all those cities, which obey and are administered
accordingly, no bad man can ever know, as the old proverb says; but
only a man of experience and good habits. For in such an order of
things there will not be much opportunity for making money; no man
either ought, or indeed will be allowed, to exercise any ignoble
occupation, of which the vulgarity is a matter of reproach to a
freeman, and should never want to acquire riches by any such means.
Further, the law enjoins that no private man shall be allowed to
possess gold and silver, but only coin for daily use, which is
almost necessary in dealing with artisans, and for payment of
hirelings, whether slaves or immigrants, by all those persons who
require the use of them. Wherefore our citizens, as we say, should
have a coin passing current among themselves, but not accepted among
the rest of mankind; with a view, however, to expeditions and journeys
to other lands-for embassies, or for any other occasion which may
arise of sending out a herald, the state must also possess a common
Hellenic currency. If a private person is ever obliged to go abroad,
let him have the consent of the magistrates and go; and if when he
returns he has any foreign money remaining, let him give the surplus
back to the treasury, and receive a corresponding sum in the local
currency. And if he is discovered to appropriate it, let it be
confiscated, and let him who knows and does not inform be subject to
curse and dishonour equally him who brought the money, and also to a
fine not less in amount than the foreign money which has been
brought back. In marrying and giving in marriage, no one shall give or
receive any dowry at all; and no one shall deposit money with
another whom he does not trust as a friend, nor shall he lend money
upon interest; and the borrower should be under no obligation to repay
either capital or interest. That these principles are best, any one
may see who compares them with the first principle and intention of
a state. The intention, as we affirm, of a reasonable statesman, is
not what the many declare to be the object of a good legislator,
namely, that the state for the true interests of which he is
advising should be as great and as rich as possible, and should
possess gold and silver, and have the greatest empire by sea and
land;-this they imagine to be the real object of legislation, at the
same time adding, inconsistently, that the true legislator desires
to have the city the best and happiest possible. But they do not see
that some of these things are possible, and some of them are
impossible; and he who orders the state will desire what is
possible, and will not indulge in vain wishes or attempts to
accomplish that which is impossible. The citizen must indeed be
happy and good, and the legislator will seek to make him so; but
very rich and very good at the same time he cannot be, not, at
least, in the sense in which the many speak of riches. For they mean
by "the rich" the few who have the most valuable possessions, although
the owner of them may quite well be a rogue. And if this is true, I
can never assent to the doctrine that the rich man will be happy-he
must be good as well as rich. And good in a high degree, and rich in a
high degree at the same time, he cannot be. Some one will ask, why
not? And we shall answer-Because acquisitions which come from
sources which are just and unjust indifferently, are more than
double those which come from just sources only; and the sums which are
expended neither honourably nor disgracefully, are only half as
great as those which are expended honourably and on honourable
purposes. Thus, if the one acquires double and spends half, the
other who is in the opposite case and is a good man cannot possibly be
wealthier than he. The first-I am speaking of the saver and not of the
spender-is not always bad; he may indeed in some cases be utterly bad,
but, as I was saying, a good man he never is. For he who receives
money unjustly as well as justly, and spends neither nor unjustly,
will be a rich man if he be also thrifty. On the other hand, the
utterly bad is in general profligate, and therefore very poor; while
he who spends on noble objects, and acquires wealth by just means
only, can hardly be remarkable for riches, any more than he can be
very poor. Our statement, then, is true, that the very rich are not
good, and, if they are not good, they are not happy. But the intention
of our laws was that the citizens should be as happy as may be, and as
friendly as possible to one another. And men who are always at law
with one another, and amongst whom there are many wrongs done, can
never be friends to one another, but only those among whom crimes
and lawsuits are few and slight. Therefore we say that gold and silver
ought not to be allowed in the city, nor much of the vulgar sort of
trade which is carried on by lending money, or rearing the meaner
kinds of live stock; but only the produce of agriculture, and only
so much of this as will not compel us in pursuing it to neglect that
for the sake of which riches exist-I mean, soul and body, which
without gymnastics, and without education, will never be worth
anything; and therefore, as we have said not once but many times,
the care of riches should have the last place in our thoughts. For
there are in all three things about which every man has an interest;
and the interest about money, when rightly regarded, is the third
and lowest of them: midway comes the interest of the body; and,
first of all, that of the soul; and the state which we are
describing will have been rightly constituted if it ordains honours
according to this scale. But if, in any of the laws which have been
ordained, health has been preferred to temperance, or wealth to health
and temperate habits, that law must clearly be wrong. Wherefore, also,
the legislator ought often to impress upon himself the
question-"What do I want?" and "Do I attain my aim, or do I miss the
mark?" In this way, and in this way only, he ma acquit himself and
free others from the work of legislation.
Let the allottee then hold his lot upon the conditions which we have
mentioned.
It would be well that every man should come to the colony having all
things equal; but seeing that this is not possible, and one man will
have greater possessions than another, for many reasons and in
particular in order to preserve equality in special crises of the
state, qualifications of property must be unequal, in order that
offices and contributions and distributions may be proportioned to the
value of each person's wealth, and not solely to the virtue of his
ancestors or himself, nor yet to the strength and beauty of his
person, but also to the measure of his wealth or poverty; and so by
a law of inequality, which will be in proportion to his wealth, he
will receive honours and offices as equally as possible, and there
will be no quarrels and disputes. To which end there should be four
different standards appointed according to the amount of property:
there should be a first and a second and a third and a fourth class,
in which the citizens will be placed, and they will be called by these
or similar names: they may continue in the same rank, or pass into
another in any individual case, on becoming richer from being, poorer,
or poorer from being richer. The form of law which I should propose as
the natural sequel would be as follows:-In a state which is desirous
of being saved from the greatest of all plagues-not faction, but
rather distraction;-here should exist among the citizens neither
extreme poverty, nor, again, excess of wealth, for both are productive
of both these evils. Now the legislator should determine what is to be
the limit of poverty or wealth. Let the limit of poverty be the
value of the lot; this ought to be preserved, and no ruler, nor any
one else who aspires after a reputation for virtue, will allow the lot
to be impaired in any case. This the legislator gives as a measure,
and he will permit a man to acquire double or triple, or as much as
four times the amount of this. But if a person have yet greater
riches, whether he has found them, or they have been given to him,
or he has made them in business, or has acquired by any stroke of
fortune that which is in excess of the measure, if he give back the
surplus to the state, and to the Gods who are the patrons of the
state, he shall suffer no penalty or loss of reputation; but if he
disobeys this our law any one who likes may inform against him and
receive half the value of the excess, and the delinquent shall pay a
sum equal to the excess out of his own property, and the other half of
the excess shall belong to the Gods. And let every possession of every
man, with the exception of the lot, be publicly registered before
the magistrates whom the law appoints, so that all suits about money
may be easy and quite simple.
The next thing to be noted is, that the city should be placed as
nearly as possible in the centre of the country; we should choose a
place which possesses what is suitable for a city, and this may easily
be imagined and described. Then we will divide the city into twelve
portions, first founding temples to Hestia, to Zeus and to Athene,
in a spot which we will call the Acropolis, and surround with a
circular wall, making the division of the entire city and country
radiate from this point. The twelve portions shall be equalized by the
provision that those which are of good land shall be smaller. while
those of inferior quality shall be larger. The number of the lots
shall be 5040, and each of them shall be divided into two, and every
allotment shall be composed of two such sections; one of land near the
city, the other of land which is at a distance. This arrangement shall
be carried out in the following manner: The section which is near
the city shall be added to that which is on borders, and form one lot,
and the portion which is next nearest shall be added to the portion
which is next farthest; and so of the rest. Moreover, in the two
sections of the lots the same principle of equalization of the soil
ought to be maintained; the badness and goodness shall be
compensated by more and less. And the legislator shall divide the
citizens into twelve parts, and arrange the rest of their property, as
far as possible, so as to form twelve equal parts; and there shall
be a registration of all. After this they shall assign twelve lots
to twelve Gods, and call them by their names, and dedicate to each God
their several portions, and call the tribes after them. And they shall
distribute the twelve divisions of the city in the same way in which
they divided the country; and every man shall have two habitations,
one in the centre of the country, and the other at the extremity.
Enough of the manner of settlement.
Now we ought by all means to consider that there can never be such a
happy concurrence of circumstances as we have described; neither can
all things coincide as they are wanted. Men who will not take
offence at such a mode of living together, and will endure all their
life long to have their property fixed at a moderate limit, and to
beget children in accordance with our ordinances, and will allow
themselves to be deprived of gold and other things which the
legislator, as is evident from these enactments, will certainly forbid
them; and will endure, further, the situation of the land with the
city in the middle and dwellings round about;-all this is as if the
legislator were telling his dreams, or making a city and citizens of
wax. There is truth in these objections, and therefore every one
should take to heart what I am going to say. Once more, then, the
legislator shall appear and address us:-"O my friends," he will say to
us, "do not suppose me ignorant that there is a certain degree of
truth in your words; but I am of opinion that, in matters which are
not present but future, he who exhibits a pattern of that at which
he aims, should in nothing fall short of the fairest and truest; and
that if he finds any part of this work impossible of execution he
should avoid and not execute it, but he should contrive to carry out
that which is nearest and most akin to it; you must allow the
legislator to perfect his design, and when it is perfected, you should
join with him in considering what part of his legislation is expedient
and what will arouse opposition; for surely the artist who is to be
deemed worthy of any regard at all, ought always to make his work
self-consistent."
Having determined that there is to be a distribution into twelve
parts, let us now see in what way this may be accomplished. There is
no difficulty in perceiving that the twelve parts admit of the
greatest number of divisions of that which they include, or in
seeing the other numbers which are consequent upon them, and are
produced out of them up to 5040; wherefore the law ought to order
phratries and demes and villages, and also military ranks and
movements, as well as coins and measures, dry and liquid, and weights,
so as to be commensurable and agreeable to one another. Nor should
we fear the appearance of minuteness, if the law commands that all the
vessels which a man possesses should have a common measure, when we
consider generally that the divisions and variations of numbers have a
use in respect of all the variations of which they are susceptible,
both in themselves and as measures of height and depth, and in all
sounds, and in motions, as well those which proceed in a straight
direction, upwards or downwards, as in those which go round and round.
The legislator is to consider all these things and to bid the
citizens, as far as possible, not to lose sight of numerical order;
for no single instrument of youthful education has such mighty
power, both as regards domestic economy and politics, and in the arts,
as the study of arithmetic. Above all, arithmetic stirs up him who
is by nature sleepy and dull, and makes him quick to learn, retentive,
shrewd, and aided by art divine he makes progress quite beyond his
natural powers. All such things, if only the legislator, by other laws
and institutions, can banish meanness and covetousness from the
souls of men, so that they can use them properly and to their own
good, will be excellent and suitable instruments of education. But
if he cannot, he will unintentionally create in them, instead of
wisdom, the habit of craft, which evil tendency may be observed in the
Egyptians and Phoenicians, and many other races, through the general
vulgarity of their pursuits and acquisitions, whether some unworthy
legislator theirs has been the cause, or some impediment of chance
or nature. For we must not fail to observe, O Megillus and Cleinias,
that there is a difference in places, and that some beget better men
and others worse; and we must legislate accordingly. Some places are
subject to strange and fatal influences by reason of diverse winds and
violent heats, some by reason of waters; or, again, from the character
of the food given by the earth, which not only affects the bodies of
men for good or evil, but produces similar results in their souls. And
in all such qualities those spots excel in which there is a divine
inspiration, and in which the demi-gods have their appointed lots, and
are propitious, not adverse, to the settlers in them. To all these
matters the legislator, if he have any sense in him, will attend as
far as man can, and frame his laws accordingly. And this is what
you, Cleinias, must do, and to matters of this kind you must turn your
mind since you are going to colonize a new country.
Cleinias. Your words, Athenian Stranger, are excellent, and I will
do as you say.
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