THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO - Studyplace

II. 373J mE LUXUlUOUS STATE 61
inJustice take root in society. The community I have described
seems to me the ideal one, in sound health as it were: but if you
want to see one suffering from inflammation, there is nothing to
hinder us. So some people, it seems, will not be satisfied to live in
this simple way; they must have couches and tables and furniture
of all sorts; and delicacies too, perfumes, unguents, courtesans,
sweetmeats, all in plentiful variety. And besides, we must not limit
ourselves now to those bare necessaries of house and clothes and
shoes; we shall have to set going the arts of embroidery and painting,
and collect rich materials, like gold and ivory.
Yes.
Then we must once more enlarge our community. The healthy
one will not be big enough now; it must be swollen up with a
whole multitude of callings not ministering to any bare necessity:
hunters and fishermen, for instance; artists in sculpture, painting,
and music; poets with their attendant train of professional reciters,
actors, dancers, producers; and makers of all sorts of household
gear, including everything for women's adornment.. And we shall
want more servants: children's nurses and attendants, lady's maids,
barbers, cooks and confectioners. And then swineherds-there was
no need for them in our original state, but we shall want them
now; and a great quantity of sheep and cattle too, if people are
going to live on meat.
Of course.
And with this manner of life physicians will be in much greater
request.
No doubt.
The country, too, whicll was large enough to support the original
inhabitants, will now be too small. If we are to have enough
pasture and plough land, we shall have to cut off a slice of our
neighbours' territory; and if they too are not cont(:nt with necessaries,
but give themselves up to getting unlimited wealth, they
will want a slice of ours.
That is inevitable, Socrates.
So the next thing will be, Glaucon, that we shall be at war.
No doubt.
We need not say yet whether war does good or harm, but only