[369b]
“Much
more.” “Shall we try it, then, and go through with it? I
fancy it is no slight task. Reflect, then.” “We have
reflected,1” said Adeimantus;
“proceed and don't refuse.”“The origin of the city, then,” said I, “in
my opinion, is to be found in the fact that we do not severally suffice for
our own needs,2 but each of us lacks many
things. Do you think any other principle establishes the state?”
“No other,” said he. “As a result of this,
1 “C'est tout reflechi.”
2 Often imitated, as e.g. Hooker, Eccles. Pol. i. 10: “Forasmuch as we are not by ourselves sufficient to furnish ourselves with a competent store of things needful for such a life as our nature doth desire . . . therefore to supply these defects . . . we are naturally inclined to seek communion and fellowship with others; this was the cause of men uniting themselves at first in civil societies.”
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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