[1260b]
[1]
for the mechanic artisan is
under a sort of limited slavery, and whereas the slave is one of the natural
classes, no shoemaker or other craftsman belongs to his trade by
nature.) It is manifest
therefore that the master ought to be the cause to the slave of the virtue
proper to a slave, but not as possessing that art of mastership which teaches a
slave his tasks. Hence those persons are mistaken who deprive the slave of
reasoning and tell us to use command only; for admonition is more properly
employed with slaves than with children.But on
these subjects let us conclude our decisions in this manner; while the question
of the virtue severally belonging to man and woman and children and father, and
of the right and wrong mode of conducting their mutual intercourse and the
proper way of pursuing the good mode and avoiding the bad one, are matters that
it will be necessary to follow up in the part of our treatise dealing with the
various forms of constitution.1
For since every household is part
of a state, and these relationships are part of the household, and the
excellence of the part must have regard to that of the whole, it is necessary
that the education both of the children and of the women should be carried on
with a regard to the form of the constitution, if it makes any difference as
regards the goodness of the state for the children and the women to be good. And
it must necessarily make a difference; for the women are a half of the free
population, and the children
[20]
grow up
to be the partners in the government of the state. So that as these questions
have been decided, and those that remain must be discussed elsewhere, let us
relinquish the present subjects as completed, and make a fresh start in our
discourse, and first let us consider those thinkers who have advanced views
about the Ideal State.
1 As a matter of fact in Books 7, 8 dealing with the best constitution this subject is not reached.
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