Well then, Lycinus, isn’t it right for everyone to long for citizenship of a city like that, and neither to think of the toils of the journey nor give up because of the time it takes, if once they get there they too are going to be enrolled as citizens and share in the city’s life?

Yes, indeed, Hermotimus, this we must strive for above everything, and all else we must ignore. If our native country here lays claim to us, we must take scant notice, and if any children or parents we may have cling to us weeping, we shall not give way. No, first and foremost we shall urge them to follow the same road. If they will not, or cannot, we must shake them off and make straight for that all-happy city, throwing off our very cloak should they hold on to it to drag us back as we hurry there—for there is no fear of being shut out, even if you come there naked.

On another occasion before this I have heard an old man telling how things were there and urging me to follow him to the city; he would guide me himself and enrol me on my arrival, make me a fellow-tribesman and let me share his clan, so that I might be happy with all the others. “But I would not listen” Homer, Iliad, V, 201; xxii, 103; Od., ix, 228. at that time through folly and youth (it was about fifteen years ago); perhaps by now I should have been in the very suburbs, even by the gates. He told me much about the city, if I remember, and in particular this, that all the inhabitants were aliens and foreigners, not one was a native; there were even many barbarians among the citizens, as well as slaves, cripples, dwarfs, and paupers—in a word anyone who wanted to take part in the city; for property, apparel, height, good looks, family, brilliant ancestry, were not required by law for enrolment; on the contrary, they gave no place in their customs to them; no, intelligence, a desire for what is good, industry, perseverance, a refusal to give in or be weakened by the many hardships encountered on the way, were enough for a man to become a citizen; whoever showed these qualities and kept on going all the way to the city was a citizen there and then equal to them all; inferior or superior, noble or common, bond or free, simply did not exist and were not mentioned in the city.