Let the citizens at once distribute their land and houses,and not till the land in common,since a community of goods goes beyond their proposed origin,and nurture,and education.But in making the distribution,let the several possessors feel that their particular lots also belong to the whole city;and seeing that the earth is their parent,let them tend her more carefully than children do their mother.For she is a goddess and their queen,and they are her mortal subjects.Such also are the feelings which they ought to entertain to the Gods and demi-gods of the country.And in order that the distribution may always remain,they ought to consider further that the present number of families should be always retained,and neither increased nor diminished.This may be secured for the whole city in the following manner:-Let the possessor of a lot leave the one of his children who is his best beloved,and one only,to be the heir of his dwelling,and his successor in the duty of ministering to the Gods,the state and the family,as well the living members of it as those who are departed when he comes into the inheritance;but of his other children,if he have more than one,he shall give the females in marriage according to the law to be hereafter enacted,and the males he shall distribute as sons to those citizens who have no children and are disposed to receive them;or if there should be none such,and particular individuals have too many children,male or female,or too few,as in the case of barrenness-in all these cases let the highest and most honourable magistracy created by us judge and determine what is to be done with the redundant or deficient,and devise a means that the number of 5040houses shall always remain the same.There are many ways of regulating numbers;for they in whom generation is affluent may be made to refrain,and,on the other hand,special care may be taken to increase the number of births by rewards and stigmas,or we may meet the evil by the elder men giving advice and administering rebuke to the younger-in this way the object may be attained.And if after all there be very great difficulty about the equal preservation of the 5040houses,and there be an excess of citizens,owing to the too great love of those who live together,and we are at our wits'end,there is still the old device often mentioned by us of sending out a colony,which will part friends with us,and be composed of suitable persons.If,on the other hand,there come a wave bearing a deluge of disease,or a plague of war,and the inhabitants become much fewer than the appointed number by reason of bereavement,we ought not to introduce citizens of spurious birth and education,if this can be avoided;but even God is said not to be able to fight against necessity.
Wherefore let us suppose this "high argument"of ours to address us in the following terms:-Best of men,cease not to honour according to nature similarity and equality and sameness and agreement,as regards number and every good and noble quality.And,above all,observe the aforesaid number 5040throughout life;in the second place,do not disparage the small and modest proportions of the inheritances which you received in the distribution,by buying and selling them to one another.For then neither will the God who gave you the lot be your friend,nor will the legislator;and indeed the law declares to the disobedient that these are the terms upon which he may or may not take the lot.In the first place,the earth as he is informed is sacred to the Gods;and in the next place,priests and priestesses will offer up prayers over a first,and second,and even a third sacrifice,that he who buys or sells the houses or lands which he has received,may suffer the punishment which he deserves;and these their prayers they shall write down in the temples,on tablets of cypress-wood,for the instruction of posterity.Moreover they will set a watch over all these things,that they may be observed;-the magistracy which has the sharpest eyes shall keep watch that any infringement of these commands may be discovered and punished as offences both against the law and the God.How great is the benefit of such an ordinance to all those cities,which obey and are administered accordingly,no bad man can ever know,as the old proverb says;but only a man of experience and good habits.For in such an order of things there will not be much opportunity for making money;no man either ought,or indeed will be allowed,to exercise any ignoble occupation,of which the vulgarity is a matter of reproach to a freeman,and should never want to acquire riches by any such means.
