[
464a]
“And did we not say that this conviction and way of speech
1 brings with it a community in
pleasures and pains?” “And rightly, too.”
“Then these citizens, above all others, will have one and the same
thing in common which they will name mine, and by virtue of this communion
they will have their pleasures and pains in common.”
“Quite so.” “And is not the cause of this,
besides the general constitution of the state, the community of wives and
children among the guardians?” “It will certainly be the
chief cause,” he said.
[
464b]
“But we further agreed that
this unity is the greatest blessing for a state, and we compared a well
governed state to the human body in its relation to the pleasure and pain of
its parts.” “And we were right in so
agreeing.” “Then it is the greatest blessing for a state
of which the community of women and children among the helpers has been
shown to be the cause.” “Quite so,” he said.
“And this is consistent with what we said before. For we
said,
2 I believe,
that these helpers must not possess houses of their own or
[
464c]
land or any other property, but that they
should receive from the other citizens for their support the wage of their
guardianship and all spend it in common. That was the condition of their
being true guardians.” “Right,” he said.
“Is it not true, then, as I am trying to say, that those former
and these present prescriptions tend to make them still more truly guardians
and prevent them from distracting the city by referring
‘mine’ not to the same but to different things, one man
dragging off to his own house anything he is able to acquire apart from the
rest,
[
464d]
and another doing the same to his
own separate house, and having women and children apart, thus introducing
into the state the pleasures and pains of individuals? They should all
rather, we said, share one conviction about their own, tend to one goal, and
so far as practicable have one experience of pleasure and pain.”
“By all means,” he said. “Then will not
law-suits and accusations against one another vanish,
3 one may say,
4 from among them, because they have
nothing in private possession but their bodies, but all else in common?
[
464e]
So that we can count on their being
free from the dissensions that arise among men from the possession of
property, children, and kin.” “They will necessarily be
quit of these,” he said. “And again, there could not
rightly arise among them any law-suit for assault or bodily injury. For as
between age-fellows
5 we shall say that self-defence is
honorable and just, thereby compelling them to keep their bodies in
condition.” “Right,” he said.