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[737b] otherwise, for people who have ancient disputes with one another, men will not of their own free will proceed any further with political construction, if they have a grain of sense.1 But as for those to whom—as to us now—God has given a new State to found, and one free as yet from internal feuds,—that those founders should excite enmity against themselves because of the distribution of land and houses would be a piece of folly combined with utter depravity of which no man could be capable.

1 There may be an allusion here to Solon; the first step in his political reforms was a measure for the abolition of debts ( “Seisachtheia” ) .

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