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I had always admired the genius of Glaucon and Adeimantus, but on
hearing these words I was quite delighted, and said: Sons of an
illustrious father, that was not a bad beginning of the Elegiac verses
which the admirer of Glaucon made in honour of you after you had
distinguished yourselves at the battle of Megara:--
'Sons of Ariston,' he sang, 'divine offspring of an illustrious
hero.'
The epithet is very appropriate, for there is something truly divine
in being able to argue as you have done for the superiority of
injustice, and remaining unconvinced by your own arguments. And I do
believe that you are not convinced --this I infer from your general
character, for had I judged only from your speeches I should have
mistrusted you. But now, the greater my confidence in you, the greater
is my difficulty in knowing what to say. For I am in a strait
between two; on the one hand I feel that I am unequal to the task; and
my inability is brought home to me by the fact that you were not
satisfied with the answer which I made to Thrasymachus, proving, as
I thought, the superiority which justice has over injustice. And yet I
cannot refuse to help, while breath and speech remain to me; I am
afraid that there would be an impiety in being present when justice is
evil spoken of and not lifting up a hand in her defence. And therefore
I had best give such help as I can.
Glaucon and the rest entreated me by all means not to let the
question drop, but to proceed in the investigation. They wanted to
arrive at the truth, first, about the nature of justice and injustice,
and secondly, about their relative advantages. I told them, what I
--really thought, that the enquiry would be of a serious nature, and
would require very good eyes. Seeing then, I said, that we are no
great wits, I think that we had better adopt a method which I may
illustrate thus; suppose that a short-sighted person had been asked by
some one to read small letters from a distance; and it occurred to
some one else that they might be found in another place which was
larger and in which the letters were larger --if they were the same
and he could read the larger letters first, and then proceed to the
lesser --this would have been thought a rare piece of good fortune.
Very true, said Adeimantus; but how does the illustration apply to
our enquiry?
I will tell you, I replied; justice, which is the subject of our
enquiry, is, as you know, sometimes spoken of as the virtue of an
individual, and sometimes as the virtue of a State.
True, he replied.
And is not a State larger than an individual?
It is.
Then in the larger the quantity of justice is likely to be larger
and more easily discernible. I propose therefore that we enquire
into the nature of justice and injustice, first as they appear in
the State, and secondly in the individual, proceeding from the greater
to the lesser and comparing them.
That, he said, is an excellent proposal.
And if we imagine the State in process of creation, we shall see the
justice and injustice of the State in process of creation also.
I dare say.
When the State is completed there may be a hope that the object of
our search will be more easily discovered.
Yes, far more easily.
But ought we to attempt to construct one? I said; for to do so, as I
am inclined to think, will be a very serious task. Reflect therefore.
I have reflected, said Adeimantus, and am anxious that you should
proceed.
A State, I said, arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind;
no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants. Can any other
origin of a State be imagined?
There can I be no other.
Then, as we have many wants, and many persons are needed to supply
them, one takes a helper for one purpose and another for another;
and when these partners and helpers are gathered together in one
habitation the body of inhabitants is termed a State.
True, he said.
And they exchange with one another, and one gives, and another
receives, under the idea that the exchange will be for their good.
Very true.
Then, I said, let us begin and create in idea a State; and yet the
true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention.
Of course, he replied.
Now the first and greatest of necessities is food, which is the
condition of life and existence.
Certainly.
The second is a dwelling, and the third clothing and the like.
True.
And now let us see how our city will be able to supply this great
demand: We may suppose that one man is a husbandman, another a
builder, some one else a weaver --shall we add to them a shoemaker, or
perhaps some other purveyor to our bodily wants?
Quite right.
The barest notion of a State must include four or five men.
Clearly.
And how will they proceed? Will each bring the result of his labours
into a common stock? --the individual husbandman, for example,
producing for four, and labouring four times as long and as much as he
need in the provision of food with which he supplies others as well as
himself; or will he have nothing to do with others and not be at the
trouble of producing for them, but provide for himself alone a
fourth of the food in a fourth of the time, and in the remaining
three-fourths of his time be employed in making a house or a coat or a
pair of shoes, having no partnership with others, but supplying
himself all his own wants?
Adeimantus thought that he should aim at producing food only and not
at producing everything.
Probably, I replied, that would be the better way; and when I hear
you say this, I am myself reminded that we are not all alike; there
are diversities of natures among us which are adapted to different
occupations.
Very true.
And will you have a work better done when the workman has many
occupations, or when he has only one?
When he has only one.
Further, there can be no doubt that a work is spoilt when not done
at the right time?
No doubt.
For business is not disposed to wait until the doer of the
business is at leisure; but the doer must follow up what he is
doing, and make the business his first object.
He must.
And if so, we must infer that all things are produced more
plentifully and easily and of a better quality when one man does one
thing which is natural to him and does it at the right time, and
leaves other things.
Undoubtedly..
Then more than four citizens will be required; for the husbandman
will not make his own plough or mattock, or other implements of
agriculture, if they are to be good for anything. Neither will the
builder make his tools --and he too needs many; and in like manner the
weaver and shoemaker.
True.
Then carpenters, and smiths, and many other artisans, will be
sharers in our little State, which is already beginning to grow?
True.
Yet even if we add neatherds, shepherds, and other herdsmen, in
order that our husbandmen may have oxen to plough with, and builders
as well as husbandmen may have draught cattle, and curriers and
weavers fleeces and hides, --still our State will not be very large.
That is true; yet neither will it be a very small State which
contains all these.
Then, again, there is the situation of the city --to find a place
where nothing need be imported is well-nigh impossible.
Impossible.
Then there must be another class of citizens who will bring the
required supply from another city?
There must.
But if the trader goes empty-handed, having nothing which they
require who would supply his need, he will come back empty-handed.
That is certain.
And therefore what they produce at home must be not only enough
for themselves, but such both in quantity and quality as to
accommodate those from whom their wants are supplied.
Very true.
Then more husbandmen and more artisans will be required?
They will.
Not to mention the importers and exporters, who are called
merchants?
Yes.
Then we shall want merchants?
We shall.
And if merchandise is to be carried over the sea, skilful sailors
will also be needed, and in considerable numbers?
Yes, in considerable numbers.
Then, again, within the city, how will they exchange their
productions? To secure such an exchange was, as you will remember, one
of our principal objects when we formed them into a society and
constituted a State.
Clearly they will buy and sell.
Then they will need a market-place, and a money-token for purposes
of exchange.
Certainly.
Suppose now that a husbandman, or an artisan, brings some production
to market, and he comes at a time when there is no one to exchange
with him, --is he to leave his calling and sit idle in the
market-place?
Not at all; he will find people there who, seeing the want,
undertake the office of salesmen. In well-ordered States they are
commonly those who are the weakest in bodily strength, and therefore
of little use for any other purpose; their duty is to be in the
market, and to give money in exchange for goods to those who desire to
sell and to take money from those who desire to buy.
This want, then, creates a class of retail-traders in our State.
Is not 'retailer' the term which is applied to those who sit in the
market-place engaged in buying and selling, while those who wander
from one city to another are called merchants?
Yes, he said.
And there is another class of servants, who are intellectually
hardly on the level of companionship; still they have plenty of bodily
strength for labour, which accordingly they sell, and are called, if I
do not mistake, hirelings, hire being the name which is given to the
price of their labour.
True.
Then hirelings will help to make up our population?
Yes.
And now, Adeimantus, is our State matured and perfected?
I think so.
Where, then, is justice, and where is injustice, and in what part of
the State did they spring up?
Probably in the dealings of these citizens with one another.
cannot imagine that they are more likely to be found anywhere else.
I dare say that you are right in your suggestion, I said; we had
better think the matter out, and not shrink from the enquiry.
Let us then consider, first of all, what will be their way of
life, now that we have thus established them. Will they not produce
corn, and wine, and clothes, and shoes, and build houses for
themselves? And when they are housed, they will work, in summer,
commonly, stripped and barefoot, but in winter substantially clothed
and shod. They will feed on barley-meal and flour of wheat, baking and
kneading them, making noble cakes and loaves; these they will serve up
on a mat of reeds or on clean leaves, themselves reclining the while
upon beds strewn with yew or myrtle. And they and their children
will feast, drinking of the wine which they have made, wearing
garlands on their heads, and hymning the praises of the gods, in happy
converse with one another. And they will take care that their families
do not exceed their means; having an eye to poverty or war.
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