o them, should be such as will neither impair their virtue as
guardians, nor tempt them to prey upon the other citizens. Any man of
sense must acknowledge that.

He must.

Then let us consider what will be their way of life, if they are to
realize our idea of them. In the first place, none of them should have
any property of his own beyond what is absolutely necessary; neither
should they have a private house or store closed against any one who
has a mind to enter; their provisions should be only such as are
required by trained warriors, who are men of temperance and courage;
they should agree to receive from the citizens a fixed rate of pay,
enough to meet the expenses of the year and no more; and they will go
and live together like soldiers in a camp. Gold and silver we will
tell them that they have from God; the diviner metal is within them,
and they have therefore no need of the dross which is current among
men, and ought not to pollute the divine by any such earthly admixture;
for that commoner metal has been the source of many unholy deeds, but
their own is undefiled. And they alone of all the citizens may not
touch or handle silver or gold, or be under the same roof with them, or
wear them, or drink from them. And this will be their salvation, and
they will be the saviours of the State. But should they ever acquire
homes or lands or moneys of their own, they will become housekeepers
and husbandmen instead of guardians, enemies and tyrants instead of
allies of the other citizens; hating and being hated, plotting and
being plotted against, they will pass their whole life in much greater
terror of internal than of external enemies, and the hour of ruin, both
to themselves and to the rest of the State, will be at hand. For all
which reasons may we not say that thus shall our State be ordered, and
that these shall be the regulations appointed by us for guardians
concerning their houses and all other matters? other

Yes, said Glaucon.

BOOK IV

ADEIMANTUS - SOCRATES

HERE Adeimantus interposed a question: How would you answer, Socrates,
said he, if a person were to say that you are making these people
miserable, and that they are the cause of their own unhappiness; the
city in fact belongs to them, but they are none the better for it;
whereas other men acquire lands, and build large and handsome houses,
and have everything handsome about them, offering sacrifices to the
gods on their own accoun