Part 12 (1/2)
STRANGER: We must carve them like a victim into members or limbs, since we cannot bisect them. (Compare Phaedr.) For we certainly should divide everything into as few parts as possible.
YOUNG SOCRATES: What is to be done in this case?
STRANGER: What we did in the example of weaving--all those arts which furnish the tools were regarded by us as co-operative.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes.
STRANGER: So now, and with still more reason, all arts which make any implement in a State, whether great or small, may be regarded by us as co-operative, for without them neither State nor Statesmans.h.i.+p would be possible; and yet we are not inclined to say that any of them is a product of the kingly art.
YOUNG SOCRATES: No, indeed.
STRANGER: The task of separating this cla.s.s from others is not an easy one; for there is plausibility in saying that anything in the world is the instrument of doing something. But there is another cla.s.s of possessions in a city, of which I have a word to say.
YOUNG SOCRATES: What cla.s.s do you mean?
STRANGER: A cla.s.s which may be described as not having this power; that is to say, not like an instrument, framed for production, but designed for the preservation of that which is produced.
YOUNG SOCRATES: To what do you refer?
STRANGER: To the cla.s.s of vessels, as they are comprehensively termed, which are constructed for the preservation of things moist and dry, of things prepared in the fire or out of the fire; this is a very large cla.s.s, and has, if I am not mistaken, literally nothing to do with the royal art of which we are in search.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly not.
STRANGER: There is also a third cla.s.s of possessions to be noted, different from these and very extensive, moving or resting on land or water, honourable and also dishonourable. The whole of this cla.s.s has one name, because it is intended to be sat upon, being always a seat for something.
YOUNG SOCRATES: What is it?
STRANGER: A vehicle, which is certainly not the work of the Statesman, but of the carpenter, potter, and coppersmith.
YOUNG SOCRATES: I understand.
STRANGER: And is there not a fourth cla.s.s which is again different, and in which most of the things formerly mentioned are contained,--every kind of dress, most sorts of arms, walls and enclosures, whether of earth or stone, and ten thousand other things? all of which being made for the sake of defence, may be truly called defences, and are for the most part to be regarded as the work of the builder or of the weaver, rather than of the Statesman.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly.
STRANGER: Shall we add a fifth cla.s.s, of ornamentation and drawing, and of the imitations produced by drawing and music, which are designed for amus.e.m.e.nt only, and may be fairly comprehended under one name?
YOUNG SOCRATES: What is it?
STRANGER: Plaything is the name.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly.
STRANGER: That one name may be fitly predicated of all of them, for none of these things have a serious purpose--amus.e.m.e.nt is their sole aim.
YOUNG SOCRATES: That again I understand.
STRANGER: Then there is a cla.s.s which provides materials for all these, out of which and in which the arts already mentioned fabricate their works;--this manifold cla.s.s, I say, which is the creation and offspring of many other arts, may I not rank sixth?
YOUNG SOCRATES: What do you mean?