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.
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