REPUBLIC(BOOKII) 75
“And doubtless the land that was sufficient then to feed the people will now have
gone from sufficient to small. Or how do we put it?”
“That way,” he said.
“Then does something have to be cut off by us from our neighbors’ land if we’re
going to have enough to graze on and plow, and by them in turn from ours if they too give
themselves over to the unlimited acquisition of money, exceeding the limit of necessities?”
“That’s a great necessity, Socrates,” he said.
“So what comes after this, Glaucon, is that we go to war? Or how will it be?”
“That way,” he said.
“And let’s say nothing yet, at any rate,” I said, “about whether war accomplishes
anything bad or good, but only this much, that we have discovered in its turn the origin
of war, in those things out of which most of all cities incur evils both in private and in
public, when they do incur them.”
“Very much so.”
“So, my friend, there’s a need for the city to be still bigger, not by a small amount but
by a whole army, which will go out in defense of all their wealth and in defense of the
things we were just now talking about, and do battle with those who come against them.”
“Why’s that?” he said. “Aren’t they themselves sufficient?”
“Not if it was beautifully done,” I said, “for you and all of us to be in agreement
when we were shaping the city; surely we agreed, if you recall, that one person has no
power to do a beautiful job at many arts.”
“What you say is true,” he said.
“Then what?” I said. “Does the contest involved in war not seem to you to
require art?”
“Much of it,” he said.
“So is there any need to go to more trouble over leatherworking than over warfare?”
“By no means.”
“But that’s the very reason we prevented the leatherworker from attempting at the
same time to be a farmer or a weaver or a housebuilder, but just be a leatherworker, so that
the work of leathercraft would be done beautifully for us, and in the same way we gave out
one job to one person for each of the others, the job into which each had grown naturally
and for which he was going to stay at leisure from the other jobs, working at it throughout
life and not letting the critical moments slip by to accomplish it beautifully. But isn’t it of
the greatest consequence that the things involved in war be accomplished well? Or are they
so easy that even some farmer is going to be skilled at warfare at the same time, or a
leatherworker or anyone working at any other art whatever, while no one could become
sufficiently skillful at playing checkers or dice who didn’t practice that very thing from his
youth but treated it as a sideline? And someone who picks up a shield or any other weapon
or implement of war, on that very day is going to be an adequate combatant in heavy-armor
fighting or any other sort of battle that’s needed in war, when no other implement that’s
picked up is going to make anyone a craftsman or fighter or even be usable to someone who
hasn’t gotten any knowledge about it or been supplied with adequate training?”
“Those implements would be worth a lot,” he said.
“So then,” I said, “to the extent that the work of the guardians is the most impor-
tant, would it also be in need of the most leisure compared to other pursuits, as well as
of the greatest art and care?”
“I certainly imagine so,” he said.
“So wouldn’t it also need a nature adapted to that very pursuit?”
“How could it not?”
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