s same employment, moreover, was, as we agreed, at once the
easiest to learn [6] and the pleasantest to follow, since it gives
to the limbs beauty and hardihood, whilst permitting [7] to the soul
leisure to satisfy the claims of friendship and of civic duty.

[6] {raste mathein}. Vide infra, not supra.

[7] Lit. "least allowing the soul no leisure to care for friends and
state withal."

Again it seemed to us that husbandry acts as a spur to bravery in the
hearts of those that till the fields, [8] inasmuch as the necessaries of
life, vegetable and animal, under her auspices spring up and are reared
outside the fortified defences of the city. For which reason also this
way of life stood in the highest repute in the eyes of statesmen and
commonwealths, as furnishing the best citizens and those best disposed
to the common weal. [9]

[8] Cf. Aristot. "Oec." I. ii. 1343 B, {pros toutois k.t.l.}

[9] Cf. Aristoph. "Archarnians."

Crit. I think I am fully persuaded as to the propriety of making
agriculture the basis of life. I see it is altogether noblest, best, and
pleasantest to do so. But I should like to revert to your remark that
you understood the reason why the tillage of one man brings him in an
abundance of all he needs, while the operations of another fail to
make husbandry a profitable employment. I would gladly hear from you
an explanation of both these points, so that I may adopt the right and
avoid the harmful course. [10]

[10] Lincke conceives the editor's interpolation as ending here.

Soc. Well, Critobulus, suppose I narrate to you from the beginning how
I cam in contact with a man who of all men I ever met seemed to me to
deserve the appellation of a gentleman. He was indeed a "beautiful and
good" man. [11]

[11] Or, "a man 'beautiful and good,' as the phrase goes."

Crit. There is nothing I should better like to hear, since of all titles
this is the one I covet most the right to bear.

Soc. Well, then, I will tell you how I came to subject him to my
inquiry. It did not take me long to go the round of various good
carpenters, good bronze-workers, painters, sculptors, and so forth. A
brief period was sufficient for the contemplation of themselves and of
their most admired works of art. But when it came to examining those who
bore the high-sounding title "beautiful and good," in order to find out
what conduct on their part justified their adoption of this title, I
found my soul eager with