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Our potters also might be allowed to repose on couches, and feast

by the fireside, passing round the winecup, while their wheel is

conveniently at hand, and working at pottery only as much as they

like; in this way we might make every class happy-and then, as

you imagine, the whole State would be happy. But do not put this

idea into our heads; for, if we listen to you, the husbandman

will be no longer a husbandman, the potter will cease to be a

potter, and no one will have the character of any distinct class

in the State. Now this is not of much consequence where the

corruption of society, and pretension to be what you are not, is

confined to cobblers; but when the guardians of the laws and of

the government are only seeming and not real guardians, then see

how they turn the State upside down; and on the other hand they

alone have the power of giving order and happiness to the State.