[555c]
“In what way?” “Why, since its rulers owe
their offices to their wealth, they are not willing to prohibit by law the
prodigals who arise among the youth from spending and wasting their
substance. Their object is, by lending money on the property of such men,
and buying it in, to become still richer and more esteemed.”
“By all means.” “And is it not at once
apparent in a state that this honoring of wealth is incompatible with a
sober and temperate citizenship,1
1 Ackermann, Das Christliche bei Plato, compares Luke xvi.13 “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” Cf. also Laws 742 D-E, 727 E f., 831 C.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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