g else to be their own private property; they were to
be like hired troops, receiving pay for keeping guard from those who
were protected by them--the pay was to be no more than would suffice
for men of simple life; and they were to spend in common, and to live
together in the continual practice of virtue, which was to be their sole
pursuit.

TIMAEUS: That was also said.

SOCRATES: Neither did we forget the women; of whom we declared, that
their natures should be assimilated and brought into harmony with those
of the men, and that common pursuits should be assigned to them both in
time of war and in their ordinary life.

TIMAEUS: That, again, was as you say.

SOCRATES: And what about the procreation of children? Or rather was not
the proposal too singular to be forgotten? for all wives and children
were to be in common, to the intent that no one should ever know his own
child, but they were to imagine that they were all one family; those
who were within a suitable limit of age were to be brothers and sisters,
those who were of an elder generation parents and grandparents, and
those of a younger, children and grandchildren.

TIMAEUS: Yes, and the proposal is easy to remember, as you say.

SOCRATES: And do you also remember how, with a view of securing as far
as we could the best breed, we said that the chief magistrates, male
and female, should contrive secretly, by the use of certain lots, so to
arrange the nuptial meeting, that the bad of either sex and the good
of either sex might pair with their like; and there was to be no
quarrelling on this account, for they would imagine that the union was a
mere accident, and was to be attributed to the lot?

TIMAEUS: I remember.

SOCRATES: And you remember how we said that the children of the good
parents were to be educated, and the children of the bad secretly
dispersed among the inferior citizens; and while they were all growing
up the rulers were to be on the look-out, and to bring up from below in
their turn those who were worthy, and those among themselves who were
unworthy were to take the places of those who came up?

TIMAEUS: True.

SOCRATES: Then have I now given you all the heads of our yesterday's
discussion? Or is there anything more, my dear Timaeus, which has been
omitted?

TIMAEUS: Nothing, Socrates; it was just as you have said.

SOCRATES: I should like, before proceeding further, to tell you how I
feel about the State which we have described. I