Laws
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
(compare Republic),--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
(compare Arist. Pol.), 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 may 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,