[15] Reading {thelousa}, vulg., or if after Cobet, {theos ousa}, transl. "by sanction of her divinity." With {thelousa} Holden aptly compares Virgil's "volentia rura," "Georg." ii. 500.
[16] "That is, her 'lex talionis.'"
[17] "Engaged long time in husbandry."
But there is yet another lesson to be learnt in the public shool of husbandry[18]--the lesson of mutual assistance. "Shoulder to shoulder" must we march to meet the invader;[19] "shoulder to shoulder" stand to compass the tillage of the soil. Therefore it is that the husbandman, who means to win in his avocation, must see that he creates enthusiasm in his workpeople and a spirit of ready obedience; which is just what a general attacking an enemy will scheme to bring about, when he deals out gifts to the brave and castigation[20] to those who are disorderly.
[18] Lit. "But again, husbandry trains up her scholars side by side in lessons of . . ."
[19] {sun anthropois}, "man with his fellow-man," is the "mot d'order" (cf. the author's favourite {sun theois}); "united human effort."
[20] "Lashes," "punishment." Cf. "Anab." II. vi. 10, of Clearchus.
Nor will there be lacking seasons of exhortation, the general haranguing his troops and the husbandman his labourers; nor because they are slaves do they less than free men need the lure of hope and happy expectation,[21] that they may willingly stand to their posts.
[21] "The lure of happy prospects." See "Horsmanship," iii. 1.
It was an excellent saying of his who named husbandry "the mother and nurse of all the arts," for while agriculture prospers all other arts like are vigorous and strong, but where the land is forced to remain desert,[22] the spring that feeds the other arts is dried up; they dwindle, I had almost said, one and all, by land and sea.
[22] Or, "lie waste and barren as the blown sea-sand."
These utterances drew from Critobulus a comment:
Socrates (he said), for my part I agree with all you say; only, one must face the fact that in agriculture nine matters out of ten are beyond man's calculation. Since at one time hailstones and another frost, at another drought or a deluge of rain, or mildew, or other pest, will obliterate all the fair creations and designs of men; or behold, his fleecy flocks most fairly nurtured, then comes murrain, and the end most foul destruction.[23]
[23] See Virg. "Georg." iii. 441 foll.: "Turpis oves tentat scabies, ubi frigidus imber."
To which Socrates: Nay, I thought, Critobulus, you full surely were aware that the operations of husbandry, no less than those of war, lie in the hands of the gods. I am sure you will have noted the behaviour of men engaged in war; how on the verge of military operations they strive to win the acceptance of the divine powers;[24] how eagerly they assail the ears of heaven, and by dint of sacrifices and omens seek to discover what they should and what they should not do. So likewise as regards the processes of husbandry, think you the propitiation of heaven is less needed here? Be well assured (he added) the wise and prudent will pay service to the gods on behalf of moist fruits and dry,[25] on behalf of cattle and horses, sheep and goats; nay, on behalf of all their possessions, great and small, without exception.
[24] See "Hell." III. i. 16 foll., of Dercylidas.
[25] "Every kind of produce, succulent (like the grape and olive) or dry (like wheat and barley, etc.)"
VI
Your words (Critobulus answered) command my entire sympathy, when you bid us endeavour to begin each work with heaven's help,[1] seeing that the gods hold in their hands the issues alike of peace and war. So at any rate will we endeavour to act at all times; but will you now endeavour on your side to continue the discussion of economy from the point at which you broke off, and bring it point by point to its conclusion? What you have said so far has not been thrown away on me. I seem to discern already more clearly, what sort of behaviour is necessary to anything like real living.[2]
[1] Lit. "with the gods," and for the sentiment see below, x. 10; "Cyrop." III. i. 15; "Hipparch," ix. 3.
[2] For {bioteuein} cf. Pind. "Nem." iv. 11, and see Holden ad loc.
Socrates replied: What say you then? Shall we first survey the ground already traversed, and retrace the steps on which we were agreed, so that, if possible we may conduct the remaining portion of the argument to its issue with like unanimity?[3]
[3] Lit. "try whether we can go through the remaining steps with like . . ."
Crit. Why, yes! If it is agreeable for two partners in a business to run through their accounts without dispute, so now as partners in an argument it will be no less agreeable to sum up the points under discussion, as you say, with unanimity.
Soc. Well, then, we agreed that economy was the proper title of a branch of knowledge, and this branch of knowledge appeared to be that whereby men are enabled to enhance the value of their houses or estates; and by this word "house or estate" we understood the whole of a man's possessions; and "possessions" again we defined to include those things which the possessor should find advantageous for the purposes of his life; and things advantageous finally were discovered to mean all that a man knows how to use and turn to good account. Further, for a man to learn all branches of knowledge not only seemed to us an impossibility, but we thought we might well follow the example of civil communties in rejecting the base mechanic arts so called, on the ground that they destroy the bodies of the artisans, as far as we can see, and crush their spirits.
The clearest proof of this, we said,[4] could be discovered if, on the occasion of a hostile inroad, one were to seat the husbandmen and the artisans apart in two divisions, and then proceed to put this question to each group in turn: "Do you think it better to defend our country districts or to retire from the fields[5] and guard the walls?" And we anticipated that those concerned with the soil would vote to defend the soil; while the artisans would vote not to fight, but, in docile obedience to their training, to sit with folded hands, neither expending toil nor venturing their lives.
[4] This S. 6 has no parallel supra. See Breit. and Schenkl ad loc. for attempts to cure the text.
[5] See Cobet, "N. L." 580, reading {uphemenous}, or if {aphemenous} transl. "to abandon."
Next we held it as proved that there was no better employment for a gentleman--we described him as a man beautiful and good--than this of husbandry, by which human beings procure to themselves the necessaries of life. This same employment, moreover, was, as we agreed, at once the easiest to learn[6] and the pleasantest to follow, since it gives to the limbs beauty and hardihood, whilst permitting[7] to the soul leisure to satisfy the claims of friendship and of civic duty.
[6] {raste mathein}. Vide infra, not supra.
[7] Lit. "least allowing the soul no leisure to care for friends and state withal."
Again it seemed to us that husbandry acts as a spur to bravery in the hearts of those that till the fields,[8] inasmuch as the necessaries of life, vegetable and animal, under her auspices spring up and are reared outside the fortified defences of the city. For which reason also this way of life stood in the highest repute in the eyes of statesmen and commonwealths, as furnishing the best citizens and those best disposed to the common weal.[9]