Phaedrus — Plato

p. 212of the party recollects that he has seen the very same letters elsewhere written larger and on a larger scale — if they were the same and we could read the larger letters first, and then proceed to the lesser — that would be thought a rare piece of good fortune. Very true, said Adeimantus, but how does this apply to our present inquiry ?

I will tell you, I replied ; justice, which is the subject of our inquiry, is, as you know, sometimes spoken of as a 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 will be larger and more easily discernible.

I propose therefore that we inquire «6o ^^^^ *^^ nature of justice and injustice as appearing in the State first, and secondly in the individual, proceeding from the greater to the lesser and comparing them. That, he said, is an excellent proposal. And suppose we imagine the State as in a process of creation, and then we shall see the justice and injustice of the State in process of creation also. Very likely.

When the State is completed there may be a hope that the object of our search will be more easily discovered. Yes, more easily. And shall we make the attempt ? I said ; although I cannot promise you as an inducement that the task will be a light one. 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 ? None, he replied. 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 helpers and partners are gathered together in one habitation, the body of inhabitants is termed a State. True, he said.

THE REPUBLIC 2l3 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 a State ; and yet the true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention. True, 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 that sort of thing. 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 then will they proceed ?

Will each give the result of his labors to all ? — the husbandnian, for example, producing, for four, and laboring in the production of food for himself and others four times as long and as much as he needs to labor ; or shall he leave others and not be at the trouble of producing for them, but produce a fourth for himself 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 ?

Adeimantus thought that the former would be the better way. I dare say that you are right, I replied, for I am reminded as you speak 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?

214 PLATO TPIE TEACHER No doubt of that. For business is not disposed to, wait until the doer of the business is at leisure ; but the doer must be at command, and make the business his first object. He must. Thus then all things are produced more plentifully and easily and of a better quahty when one man does. one. -thing which is natural _to_Jlim and is done 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 the same may be said of the weaver and shoemaker. True. Then carpenters, and smiths, and 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 have the use of beasts of burden for their carrying, and weavers and curriers of their fleeces and skins, — ^still our State will not be very large. That is true ; yet neither will that be a very small State which contains all the3e.

Further, I said, to place the city on a spot where no imports are required 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, taking nothing which those who are to supply the need want, 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.