Further, the law enjoins that no private man shall be allowed topossess gold and silver, but only coin for daily use, which isalmost necessary in dealing with artisans, and for payment ofhirelings, whether slaves or immigrants, by all those persons whorequire the use of them. Wherefore our citizens, as we say, shouldhave a coin passing current among themselves, but not accepted amongthe rest of mankind; with a view, however, to expeditions and journeysto other lands-for embassies, or for any other occasion which mayarise of sending out a herald, the state must also possess a commonHellenic currency. If a private person is ever obliged to go abroad,let him have the consent of the magistrates and go; and if when hereturns he has any foreign money remaining, let him give the surplusback to the treasury, and receive a corresponding sum in the localcurrency. And if he is discovered to appropriate it, let it beconfiscated, and let him who knows and does not inform be subject tocurse and dishonour equally him who brought the money, and also to afine not less in amount than the foreign money which has beenbrought back. In marrying and giving in marriage, no one shall give orreceive any dowry at all; and no one shall deposit money withanother whom he does not trust as a friend, nor shall he lend moneyupon interest; and the borrower should be under no obligation to repayeither capital or interest. That these principles are best, any onemay see who compares them with the first principle and intention ofa state. The intention, as we affirm, of a reasonable statesman, isnot what the many declare to be the object of a good legislator,namely, that the state for the true interests of which he isadvising should be as great and as rich as possible, and shouldpossess gold and silver, and have the greatest empire by sea andland;-this they imagine to be the real object of legislation, at thesame time adding, inconsistently, that the true legislator desiresto have the city the best and happiest possible. But they do not seethat some of these things are possible, and some of them areimpossible; and he who orders the state will desire what ispossible, and will not indulge in vain wishes or attempts toaccomplish that which is impossible. The citizen must indeed behappy and good, and the legislator will seek to make him so; butvery rich and very good at the same time he cannot be, not, atleast, in the sense in which the many speak of riches. For they meanby "the rich" the few who have the most valuable possessions, althoughthe owner of them may quite well be a rogue. And if this is true, Ican never assent to the doctrine that the rich man will be happy-hemust be good as well as rich. And good in a high degree, and rich in ahigh degree at the same time, he cannot be. Some one will ask, whynot? And we shall answer-Because acquisitions which come fromsources which are just and unjust indifferently, are more thandouble those which come from just sources only; and the sums which areexpended neither honourably nor disgracefully, are only half asgreat as those which are expended honourably and on honourablepurposes. Thus, if the one acquires double and spends half, theother who is in the opposite case and is a good man cannot possibly bewealthier than he. The first-I am speaking of the saver and not of thespender-is not always bad; he may indeed in some cases be utterly bad,but, as I was saying, a good man he never is. For he who receivesmoney unjustly as well as justly, and spends neither nor unjustly,will be a rich man if he be also thrifty. On the other hand, theutterly bad is in general profligate, and therefore very poor; whilehe who spends on noble objects, and acquires wealth by just meansonly, can hardly be remarkable for riches, any more than he can bevery poor. Our statement, then, is true, that the very rich are notgood, and, if they are not good, they are not happy. But the intentionof our laws was that the citizens should be as happy as may be, and asfriendly as possible to one another. And men who are always at lawwith one another, and amongst whom there are many wrongs done, cannever be friends to one another, but only those among whom crimesand lawsuits are few and slight. Therefore we say that gold and silverought not to be allowed in the city, nor much of the vulgar sort oftrade which is carried on by lending money, or rearing the meanerkinds of live stock; but only the produce of agriculture, and onlyso much of this as will not compel us in pursuing it to neglect thatfor the sake of which riches exist-I mean, soul and body, whichwithout gymnastics, and without education, will never be worthanything; and therefore, as we have said not once but many times,the care of riches should have the last place in our thoughts. Forthere are in all three things about which every man has an interest;and the interest about money, when rightly regarded, is the thirdand lowest of them: midway comes the interest of the body; and,first of all, that of the soul; and the state which we aredescribing will have been rightly constituted if it ordains honoursaccording to this scale. But if, in any of the laws which have beenordained, health has been preferred to temperance, or wealth to healthand temperate habits, that law must clearly be wrong. Wherefore, also,the legislator ought often to impress upon himself thequestion-"What do I want?" and "Do I attain my aim, or do I miss themark?" In this way, and in this way only, he ma acquit himself andfree others from the work of legislation.
Let the allottee then hold his lot upon the conditions which we havementioned.
