But, before all this, comes the following consideration:-Theshepherd or herdsman, or breeder of horses or the like, when he hasreceived his animals will not begin to train them until he has firstpurified them in a manner which befits a community of animals; he willdivide the healthy and unhealthy, and the good breed and the badbreed, and will send away the unhealthy and badly bred to other herds,and tend the rest, reflecting that his labours will be vain and haveno effect, either on the souls or bodies of those whom nature andill nurture have corrupted, and that they will involve indestruction the pure and healthy nature and being of every otheranimal, if he should neglect to purify them. Now the case of otheranimals is not so important-they are only worth introducing for thesake of illustration; but what relates to man is of the highestimportance; and the legislator should make enquiries, and indicatewhat is proper for each one in the way of purification and of anyother procedure. Take, for example, the purification of a city-thereare many kinds of purification, some easier and others more difficult;and some of them, and the best and most difficult of them, thelegislator, if he be also a despot, may be able to effect; but thelegislator, who, not being a despot, sets up a new government andlaws, even if he attempt the mildest of purgations, may thinkhimself happy if he can complete his work. The best kind ofpurification is painful, like similar cures in medicine, involvingrighteous punishment and inflicting death or exile in the last resort.
For in this way we commonly dispose of great sinners who areincurable, and are the greatest injury of the whole state. But themilder form of purification is as follows:-when men who havenothing, and are in want of food, show a disposition to follow theirleaders in an attack on the property of the rich-these, who are thenatural plague of the state, are sent away by the legislator in afriendly spirit as far as he is able; and this dismissal of them iseuphemistically termed a colony. And every legislator shouldcontrive to do this at once. Our present case, however, is peculiar.
For there is no need to devise any colony or purifying separationunder the circumstances in which we are placed. But as, when manystreams flow together from many sources, whether springs or mountaintorrents, into a single lake, we ought to attend and take care thatthe confluent waters should be perfectly clear, and in order to effectthis, should pump and draw off and divert impurities, so in everypolitical arrangement there may be trouble and danger. But, seeingthat we are now only discoursing and not acting, let our selectionbe supposed to be completed, and the desired purity attained. Touchingevil men, who want to join and be citizens of our state, after we havetested them by every sort of persuasion and for a sufficient time,we will prevent them from coming; but the good we will to the utmostof our ability receive as friends with open arms.
Another piece of good fortune must not be forgotten, which, as wewere saying, the Heraclid colony had, and which is also ours-that wehave escaped division of land and the abolition of debts; for theseare always a source of dangerous contention, and a city which isdriven by necessity to legislate upon such matters can neither allowthe old ways to continue, nor yet venture to alter them. We musthave recourse to prayers, so to speak, and hope that a slight changemay be cautiously effected in a length of time. And such a changecan be accomplished by those who have abundance of land, and havingalso many debtors, are willing, in a kindly spirit, to share withthose who are in want, sometimes remitting and sometimes giving,holding fast in a path of moderation, and deeming poverty to be theincrease of a man"s desires and not the diminution of his property.
For this is the great beginning of salvation to a state, and upon thislasting basis may be erected afterwards whatever political order issuitable under the circumstances; but if the change be based upon anunsound principle, the future administration of the country will befull of difficulties. That is a danger which, as I am saying, isescaped by us, and yet we had better say how, if we had not escaped,we might have escaped; and we may venture now to assert that noother way of escape, whether narrow or broad, can be devised butfreedom from avarice and a sense of justice-upon this rock our cityshall be built; for there ought to be no disputes among citizens aboutproperty. If there are quarrels of long standing among them, nolegislator of any degree of sense will proceed a step in thearrangement of the state until they are settled. But that they to whomGod has given, as he has to us, to be the founders of a new state asyet free from enmity-that they should create themselves enmities bytheir mode of distributing lands and houses, would be superhuman follyand wickedness.
How then can we rightly order the distribution of the land? In thefirst place, the number of the citizens has to be determined, and alsothe number and size of the divisions into which they will have to beformed; and the land and the houses will then have to be apportionedby us as fairly as we can. The number of citizens can only beestimated satisfactorily in relation to the territory and theneighbouring states. The territory must be sufficient to maintain acertain number of inhabitants in a moderate way of life-more than thisis not required; and the number of citizens should be sufficient todefend themselves against the injustice of their neighbours, andalso to give them the power of rendering efficient aid to theirneighbours when they are wronged. After having taken a survey oftheirs and their neighbours" territory, we will determine the limitsof them in fact as well as in theory. And now, let us proceed tolegislate with a view to perfecting the form and outline of our state.