[370a]
of the food for himself alone in a
quarter of the time and employ the other three-quarters, the one in the
provision of a house, the other of a garment, the other of shoes, and not
have the bother of associating with other people, but, himself for himself,
mind his own affairs?”1 And Adeimantus
said, “But, perhaps, Socrates, the former way is
easier.” “It would not, by Zeus, be at all
strange,” said I; “for now that you have mentioned it,
it occurs to me myself that, to begin with, our several natures are not
1 It is characteristic of Plato's drama of ideas to give this kind of rhetorical advantage to the expression of the view that he intends to reject. In what follows Plato anticipates the advantages of the division of labor as set forth in Adam Smith, with the characteristic exception of its stimulus to new inventions. Cf. Introduction xv.
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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