Those who maintain (continues Plato) that because women are different from men, therefore the occupations of the two ought to be different--argue like vexatious disputants who mistake verbal distinctions for real: who do not enquire what is the formal or specific distinction indicated by a name, or whether it has any essential bearing on the matter under discussion.[100] Long-haired men are different from bald-heads: but shall we conclude, that if the former are fit to make shoes, the latter are unfit? Certainly not: for when we inquire into the formal distinction connoted by these words, we find that it has no bearing upon such handicraft processes. So again the formal distinction implied by the terms _male_, _female_, in the human race as in other animals, lies altogether in the functions of sex and procreation.[101] Now this has no essential bearing on the occupations of the adult; nor does it confer on the male fitness for one set of occupations--on the female, fitness for another. Each sex is fit for all, but the male is most fit for all: in each sex there are individuals better and worse, and differing one from another in special aptitudes. Men are competent for the duties of Guardians, only on condition of having gone through a complete musical and gymnastical education. Women are competent also, under the like condition; and are equally capable of profiting by the complete education. Moreover, the chiefs must select for those duties the best natural subjects. The total number of such is very limited: and they must select the best that both sexes afford.[102] [Footnote 100: Plato, Republic, v. p. 454 A. [Greek: dia\ to\ mê\ du/nastai kat' ei)/dê diairou/menoi to\ lego/meon e)piskopei=n, a)lla\ kat' au)to\ to\ o)/noma diô/kein tou= lechthe/ntos tê\n e)nanti/ôsin, e)/ridi, ou) diale/ktô|, pro\s a)llê/lous chrô/menoi.] 454 B: [Greek: e)peskepsa/metha de\ ou)d' o(pê|ou=n, ti/ ei)=dos to\ tê=s e(te/ras te kai\ tê=s au)tê=s phu/seôs, kai\ pro\s ti/ tei=non ô(rizo/metha to/te, o(/te ta\ e)pitêdeu/mata a)/llê| phu/sei a)/lla, tê=| de\ au)tê=| ta\ au)ta/, a)pedi/domen.] Xenophon is entirely opposed to Plato on this point. He maintains emphatically the distinct special aptitudes of man and woman. Oeconom. vii. 20-38; compare Euripid. Electra, 74.] [Footnote 101: Plato, Repub. v. p. 455 C-D.] [Footnote 102: Plato, Repub. v. p. 456.] [Side-note: Opponents appealed to nature as an authority against Plato. He invokes Nature on his own side against them.]