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justice, and courage, and wisdom, whose very names they cannot bear to hear? How could wealth be acquired by all, if all were honored with equal standing? How, if there were equality of rights, and all were equally well-off in money, would they enjoy the necessities? or who would endure to serve, having the same abundance? Who would attend to the hearth and prepare meals, if need did not compel it? Who would bake bread, or grind wheat at the mill, and separate the flour with a sieve, and knead it, and bake it, and endure the flaming fire? Who would lead plow oxen under the yoke, and work the land and cast seeds, and having cut them when they sprouted and ripened, deliver them to the threshing floor, and separate them from the chaff, if poverty did not push them to these labors? Who would attend to quarries, and bring the materials of stone for buildings, and having fitted them together well and beautifully, build houses, if need were not goading and moving them to work? Who would have taken up the sailor's art? who the pilot's trade, and the seaman's diligence? who weaving and shoemaking? who pottery and bronze-working? For if the possession of money were equal, one would not allow another to serve him; but of two things one would be necessary: either each person would pursue every craft with diligence out of need, or we all would have perished together from the lack of necessities. That it is impossible for one person to pursue all crafts, there is no need of words, as experience testifies. For if someone should wish to learn two at the same time, he loses both, the one being marred by the other. For the mind, being divided between both and not able to grasp both, learns certain parts from both, but receives an accurate and complete knowledge of neither. It remained, therefore, for all to suffer utter destruction, on account of the equal abundance of money, and for the same thing to happen as to those who destroy pleasure by a surfeit of food. For they dull their appetites by the constant succession of dishes; and these, through the love of money, desire to become destitute of necessities, and prefer destruction with money to life with poverty. But let us leave them to their nonsense, and let us here demonstrate the providence of God, and show that what they call inequality is a source of a pleasant life, and the basis of the best polity. For the ruler of all things will be shown to be governing with equality here also. 83.657 For first, He gave the earth's surface as common to all, a common hearth, and nurse, and mother, and tomb, one source of formation, the dust of the first father; He stretched out the heaven as a common roof. The sun, and moon, and the other luminaries, like certain torch-bearers, He bestowed as common gifts; He poured out the air in the midst, having set forth this too as a kind of common wealth for all alike. For the rich do not draw in more of it than the poor, but poverty receives an equal share here also, or rather a greater one; for her nurslings are more numerous, and have stronger senses, and are freed from superfluous burdens. Rivers and springs, again, gush forth common streams for all; and again, He created bodies equal for both these and those; or rather, here too the poor have the advantage, for theirs are stronger. For want is the mother of health, according to the wisest of physicians; and labors, and exercises, are co-workers of health, according to this same teacher. And the souls of both these and those have the same nature; one is the source of conception for both these and those, marriage is the basis of one creation, equal are the months of gestation. For time does not respect the abundance of wealth, nor does it endure, out of deference to wealth, to send forth the infant before the appointed limits, or to confine it longer in the womb; but that of the rich and that of the poor come forth alike. Birth-pangs

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δικαιοσύνην, καὶ ἀνδρείαν, καὶ φρόνησιν, ὧν οὐδὲ τὰς προσηγορίας ἀκούειν ἀνέχονται; Πῶς ἂν ὁ πλοῦτος ὑφ' ἁπάντων ἐκτήθη, πάντων ὁμοτιμίᾳ τετιμημένων; Πῶς δ' ἂν ἰσονο μίας οὔσης, καὶ χρημάτων ὁμοίως ἅπαντες εὐπο ροῦντες, τῶν ἀναγκαίων ἀπήλαυσαν; ἢ τίς ἂν δια κονεῖν ἠνέσχετο, τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχων περιουσίαν; Τίς ἐσχάρᾳ προσεδρεύειν, καὶ ὄψα κατασκευάζειν, οὐκ ἀναγκαζούσης ἐνδείας; Τίς ἀρτοποιεῖν, ἢ μύλῃ τὸν σῖτον ἀλήθειν, καὶ διακρίνειν κοσκίνῳ τὰ ἄλευρα, καὶ μάττειν, καὶ πέπτειν, καὶ πυρὸς ἀν έχεσθαι φλέγοντος; Τίς δ' ἂν βοῦς ἀροτῆρας ὑπὸ ζυγὸν ἤγαγε, καὶ γῆν ἐνεούργησε καὶ σπέρματα κατέβαλε, καὶ βλαστήσαντα καὶ ἀκμάσαντα τεμὼν, τῇ ἅλῳ παρέδωκε, καὶ τῶν ἀχύρων ἀπέκρινε, μὴ τῆς πενίας ἐπὶ τοὺς πόνους ὠθούσης; Τίς ἂν λιθοτο μίαις προσήδρευσε, καὶ τῶν λίθων τὰς ὕλας ταῖς οἰκοδομίαις προσήνεγκε, καὶ εὖ καὶ καλῶς συν αρμόσας τὰς οἰκίας ἐτεκτήνατο, μὴ τῆς ἐνδείας νυττούσης, καὶ πρὸς ἐργασίαν κινούσης; Τίς ἂν ναυτικὴν μετελήλυθε τέχνην; τίς δὲ κυβερνητικὴν ἐμπορίαν, καὶ ναυτικὴν φιλοπονίαν; τίς ὑφαντικὴν καὶ σκυτοτομικήν; τίς κεραμευτικὴν καὶ χαλ κευτικήν; Εἰ γὰρ ἴση ἦν τῶν χρημάτων ἡ κτῆσις, οὐκ εἴα διακονεῖν ἑτέρῳ τὸν ἕτερον· ἀλλὰ δυοῖν θά τερον ἀνάγκη, ἢ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἕκαστος πᾶσαν μετὰ σπουδῆς μετῄει διὰ τὴν χρείαν τέχνην, ἢ ἅπαν τες ἂν κατὰ ταυτὸ τῇ σπάνει τῶν ἀναγκαίων δι εφθάρημεν Ὅτι δὲ πάσας ἄνθρωπον ἕνα μετελθεῖν τέχνας τῶν ἀδυνάτων, οὐ δεῖ λόγων, μαρτυρούσης τῆς πείρας. ∆ύο γὰρ εἴ τις κατὰ ταυτὸ μαθεῖν ἐθε λήσειεν, ἀμφοτέρας ἀπόλλυσι, θατέρας τῇ ἑτέρᾳ λυμαινομένης. Εἰς ἄμφω γὰρ ἡ διάνοια μεριζομένη, καὶ ἀμφοτέρων ἐπιλαβέσθαι μὴ δυναμένη, τινὰ μὲν ἐξ ἀμφοῖν ἐκμάττεται μόρια, ἀκριβῆ δὲ καὶ τελείαν οὐδὲ μιᾶς τὴν γνῶσιν εἰσδέχεται. Ὑπελείπετο τοίνυν ἅπαντας πανολεθρίαν ὑπομεῖναι, διὰ τὴν ἴσην τῶν χρημάτων εὐπορίαν, καὶ συμβῆναι ταυτὸν τοῖς τῷ κόρῳ τῶν σιτίων τὴν ἡδονὴν ἀφανίζουσι. Καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι τῇ συνεχείᾳ τῶν ὄψων τὰς ὀρέξεις ἀμβλύνου σι· καὶ οὗτοι, διὰ τὸν τῶν χρημάτων ἔρωτα, καὶ τῶν ἀναγκαίων ἐνδεεῖς γίνεσθαι ποθοῦσι, καὶ τὸν μετὰ χρημάτων ὄλεθρον τῆς μετὰ πενίας προτιμῶσι ζωῆς. Ἀλλὰ τούτους μὲν ληρεῖν καταλίπωμεν, ἡμεῖς δὲ κἀνταῦθα τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ κηδεμονίαν ἐπιδείξωμεν, καὶ τὴν καλουμένην παρ' αὐτῶν ἀνωμαλίαν, ζωῆς θυμήρους ἀφορμὴν, καὶ πολιτείας ἀρίστης ὑπόθεσιν ἀποφήνωμεν. Ὁ γὰρ τῶν ὅλων πρύτανις ἰσότητα κἀνταῦθα πρυτανεύων δειχθήσεται. 83.657 Πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ κοινὸν ἅπασι τὴν γῆν ἔδαφος ἔδωκε, κοινὴν ἑστίαν, καὶ τροφὸν, καὶ μητέρα, καὶ τάφον, μίαν διαπλάσεως ἀφορμὴν, τὸν χοῦν τὸν προπάτορα, κοινὸν ὄροφον τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐξέτεινεν. Ἥλιον, καὶ σελήνην, καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους φωστῆρας, οἷόν τινας λαμπαδηφόρους, κοινοὺς ἐδωρήσατο· ἀέρα μέσον ἐξέχεε, κοινόν τινα καὶ τοῦτον πλοῦτον πᾶσιν ὁμοίως προτεθεικώς. Οὔτε γὰρ σπῶσιν αὐτὸν πλέον τῶν πενήτων οἱ πλούσιοι, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἴσην μοῖ ραν κἀνταῦθα ἡ πενία λαμβάνει, μᾶλλον δὲ πλείονα· πλείους γὰρ ταύτης οἱ τρόφιμοι, καὶ τὰς αἰσθήσεις ἐῤῥωμενεστέρας ἔχοντες, καὶ τῶν περιττῶν φορτίων ἀπηλλαγμένας. Ποταμοὶ καὶ πηγαὶ, κοινὰ πάλιν ἅπασιν ἀναβλύζουσι νάματα· καὶ τὰ σώματα δὲ πά λιν ἴσα καὶ τούτοις κἀκείνοις ἐδημιούργησε· μᾶλλον δὲ κἀνταῦθα πλεονεκτοῦσιν οἱ πένητες· ἐῤῥωμενέ στερα γὰρ τὰ τούτων. Ἔνδεια γὰρ μήτηρ ὑγείας, κατὰ τὸν σοφώτατον τῶν ἰατρῶν· καὶ πόνοι, καὶ γυ μνασίαι, συνεργοὶ ὑγείας, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τοῦτον διδάσκαλον. Καὶ αἱ ψυχαὶ δὲ καὶ τούτων κἀκείνων, τὴν αὐτὴν φύσιν ἂν ἔχουσι· μία κυήσεως ἀφορμὴ καὶ τούτοις κἀκείνοις, μιᾶς δημιουργίας ὁ γάμος ὑπόθεσις, ἴσοι τῆς κυήσεως οἱ μῆνες. Οὐ γὰρ αἰδεῖ ται τῶν χρημάτων τὴν περιουσίαν ὁ χρόνος, οὐδὲ ἀνέχεται, τὸν πλοῦτον αἰσχυνόμενος, πρὸ τῶν κει μένων ὅρων παραπέμψαι τὸ βρέφος, ἢ πλείονα χρό νον ἐγκαθεῖρξαι τῇ μήτρᾳ· ἀλλ' ὁμοίως καὶ τὸ τοῦ πλουτοῦντος καὶ τὸ τοῦ πενομένου προέρχεται. Ὠδῖ νες