allotted the part they are fit for according to their different merits.
It is also necessary that the landed property should belong to these
men; for it is necessary that the citizens should be rich, and these are
the men proper for citizens; for no mechanic ought to be admitted to the
rights of a citizen, nor any other sort of people whose employment is
not entirely noble, honourable, and virtuous; this is evident from the
principle we at first set out with; for to be happy it is necessary
to be virtuous; and no one should say that a city is happy while he
considers only one part of its citizens, but for that purpose he ought
to examine into all of them. It is evident, therefore, that the landed
property should belong to these, though it may be necessary for them to
have husbandmen, either slaves, barbarians, or servants. There remains
of the different classes of the people whom we have enumerated, the
priests, for these evidently compose a rank by themselves; for neither
are they to be reckoned amongst the husbandmen nor the mechanics; for
reverence to the gods is highly becoming every state: and since the
citizens have been divided into orders, the military and the council,
and it is proper to offer due worship to the gods, and since it is
necessary that those who are employed in their service should have
nothing else to do, let the business of the priesthood be allotted
to those who are in years. We have now shown what is necessary to the
existence of a city, and of what parts it consists, and that husbandmen,
mechanic, and mercenary servants are necessary to a city; but that
the parts of it are soldiers and sailors, and that these are always
different from those, but from each other only occasionally.
CHAPTER X