in, who, out of a bread
factory, more than maintains the whole of his establishment, and lives
in the lap of luxury; and Demeas of Collytus gets a livelihood out of
a cloak business, and Menon as a mantua-maker, and so, again, more than
half the Megarians (7) by the making of vests.

(5) Nausicydes. Cobet, "Pros. Xen." cf. Aristoph. "Eccles." 426.

(6) Lit. "state liturgies," or "to the burden of the public services."
For these see Gow, "Companion," xviii. "Athenian Finance."

(7) Cf. Arist. "Acharnians," 519, {esukophantei Megareon ta
khlaniskia}. See Dr. Merry's note ad loc.

Ar. Bless me, yes! They have got a set of barbarian fellows, whom they
purchase and keep, to manufacture by forced labour whatever takes their
fancy. My kinswomen, I need not tell you, are free-born ladies.

Soc. Then, on the ground that they are free-born and your kinswomen,
you think that they ought to do nothing but eat and sleep? Or is it your
opinion that people who live in this way--I speak of free-born people
in general--lead happier lives, and are more to be congratulated, than
those who give their time and attention to such useful arts of life as
they are skilled in? Is this what you see in the world, that for the
purpose of learning what it is well to know, and of recollecting the
lessons taught, or with a view to health and strength of body, or for
the sake of acquiring and preserving all that gives life its charm,
idleness and inattention are found to be helpful, whilst work and study
are simply a dead loss? Pray, when those relatives of yours were taught
what you tell me they know, did they learn it as barren information
which they would never turn to practical account, or, on the contrary,
as something with which they were to be seriously concerned some day,
and from which they were to reap advantage? Do human beings in general
attain to well-tempered manhood by a course of idling, or by carefully
attending to what will be of use? Which will help a man the more to grow
in justice and uprightness, to be up and doing, or to sit with folded
hands revolving the ways and means of existence? As things now stand,
if I am not mistaken, there is no love lost between you. You cannot help
feeling that they are costly to you, and they must see that you find
them a burthen? This is a perilous state of affairs, in which hatred and
bitterness have every prospect of increasing, whilst the pre-existing
bond of affection (8) is likely