But in the City of the Sun, while duty and work are distributed among
all, it only falls to each one to work for about four hours every day.
The remaining hours are spent in learning joyously, in debating, in
reading, in reciting, in writing, in walking, in exercising the mind and
body, and with play. They allow no game which is played while sitting,
neither the single die nor dice, nor chess, nor others like these. But
they play with the ball, with the sack, with the hoop, with wrestling,
with hurling at the stake. They say, moreover, that grinding poverty
renders men worthless, cunning, sulky, thievish, insidious, vagabonds,
liars, false witnesses, etc.; and that wealth makes them insolent,
proud, ignorant, traitors, assumers of what they know not, deceivers,
boasters, wanting in affection, slanderers, etc. But with them all the
rich and poor together make up the community. They are rich because they
want nothing, poor because they possess nothing; and consequently they
are not slaves to circumstances, but circumstances serve them. And on
this point they strongly recommend the religion of the Christians, and
especially the life of the apostles.
G.M. This seems excellent and sacred, but the community of women is a
thing too difficult to attain. The holy Roman Clement says that wives
ought to be common in accordance with the apostolic institution, and
praises Plato and Socrates, who thus teach, but the Glossary interprets
this community with regard to obedience. And Tertullian agrees with
the Glossary, that the first Christians had everything in common except
wives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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