Phaedrus — Plato

THE REPUBLIC 21$ That is 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, skillful sailors will be needed, and in considerable numbers ? Yes, in considerable numbers.

Then, again, within the city, how will they exchange their productions ? and this, as you may remember, was the object of our society. The way will be, that 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 possibly 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 work and sit idle in the market-place? Not at all ; he will find people there who, seeing this want, take upon themselves the duty of sale.

In well-ordered States they are commonly those who are the weakest in bodily strength, and therefore unable to do anything else ; for all they have to do is to be in the market, and take money of those who desire to buy goods, and in exchange for goods to give money to those who desire to sell. This want, then, will introduce retailers into our State.

Is not '* retailer '* the term which is applied to those who sit in the market-place 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 labor, 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 labor. True.

2l6 PLATO THE TEACHER Then hirelings willjielp to. make our population. And now, Adeimantus, is our State matured and perfected ? Surely. Where, then, is justice, and where is injustice, and in which part of the State are they to be found ? Probably in the relations of these citizens with one an- ^' other. I cannot imagine any other place in which they are more likely to be found.

I dare say that you are right in that suggestion, I said ; still, we had better consider the matter further, and not shrink from the task. First, then, let us consider 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 and wheat, baking the wheat and kneading the flour, making noble puddings and loaves ; these they will serve up on a mat of reeds or clean leaves, themselves reclining the while upon beds of yew or myrtle boughs.

And they and their children will feast, drinking of the wine which they have made, wearing garlands on their heads, and having the praises of the gods on their lips, living in sweet society, and having a care that their families do not exceed their means; for they will have an eye to poverty or war. But, said Glaucon, interposing, you have not given them a relish to their meal.

True, I replied, I had forgotten that ; of course they will have a relish, — salt, and olives, and cheese, and onions, and cabbages or other country herbs which are fit for boiling ; and we shall give them a dessert of figs, and pulse, and beans, and myrtle-berries, and beech-nuts, which they will roast at the fire, drinking in moderation.

And with such a diet they may be expected to live in peace to a good old age, and bequeath a similar life to their children after them. Yes, Socrates, he said, and if you were making a city of pigs, how else would you feed the beasts ? But what would you have, Glaucon ? I replied. Why, he said, you should give them the properties of life.

THE REPUBLIC 21/ People who are to be comfortable are accustomed to lie on sofas, and dine off tables, and they should have dainties and dessert in the modern fashion. Yes, said I, now I understand ; the question which you would have me consider is, not only how a State, but how a luxurious State is to be created ; and possibly there is no harm in this, for in such a State we shall be more likely to see how justice and injustice grow up.

I am certainly of opinion that the true State, and that which may be said to be a healthy constitution, is the one which I have described. But if you would like to see the inflamed constitution, there is no objection to this. For I suppose that many will be dissatisfied with the simpler way of life.

They will be for add- ' ing sofas, and tables, and other furniture ; also dainties, and perfumes, and incense, and courtesans, and cakes, not of one sort only, but in profusion and variety ; oiu: imagination must not be limited to the necessaries of which I was at first speaking, such as houses, and clothes, and shoes ; but the art of the painter and embroiderer will have to be set in motion, and gold and ivory and other materials of art will be required.

True, he said. Then we must enlarge our borders ; for the original healthy State is too small.

Now will the city have to fill and swell with a multitude of callings which go beyond what is required by any natural want ; such as the whole tribe of hunters and actors ^^ of which one large class have to do with figures and colors, another are musicians ; there will be poets and their attendant train of rhapsodists,^' players, dancers, contractors; also makers of divers kinds of utensils, not forgetting women's ornaments.

And we shall want more servants. Will not tutors be also in request, and nurses wet and dry, tirewomen and barbers, as well as confectioners and cooks ; and swineherds, too, who were not needed and therefore not included in the former edition of our State, but needed in this?

They » • Bosanquet in his Companion to Plato's Republic, has the foUow/ng note : " • Hunters" and 'imitators.* (i) The predatory classes, including lawyers, political orators, and professional teachers (Sophists) ; and (2) those who practice the arts of deception, again including the Sophist, together with the sculptor, painter, musician, poet, and here apparently those who have to do with women's toilet." ^^ See Phaednis, note 6a.