Economics

We came to the conclusion that for a gentleman the best occupation and the best science is husbandry, from which men obtain what is necessary to them.

For this occupation seemed to be the easiest to learn and the pleasantest to work at, to give to the body the greatest measure of strength and beauty, and to leave to the mind the greatest amount of spare time for attending to the interests of one’s friends and city.

Moreover, since the crops grow and the cattle on a farm graze outside the walls, husbandry seemed to us to help in some measure to make the workers valiant. And so this way of making a living appeared to be held in the highest estimation by our states, because it seems to turn out the best citizens and most loyal to the community.

I have already heard enough, I think, Socrates, to convince me that it is in the highest degree honourable, good and pleasant to get a living by husbandry. But you told me that you have discovered the reasons why some farmers are so successful that husbandry yields them all they need in abundance, and others are so inefficient that they find farming unprofitable. I should like to hear the reasons in each case, in order that we may do what is good and avoid what is harmful.

Well then, Critobulus, I propose to give you a complete account of an interview I once had with a man whom I took to be really one of those who are justly styled gentlemen.I should greatly like to hear it, Socrates, for I long to deserve that title myself.

Then I will tell you how I came to take note of him. For it took me a very little time to visit our good builders, good smiths, good painters, good sculptors, and other people of the kind, and to inspect those of their works that are declared to be beautiful;

but I felt a desire to meet one of those who are called by that grand name gentleman, which implies beautiful as well as good, in order to consider what they did to deserve it.

And, first, because the epithet beautiful is added to good, I went up to every person I noticed, and tried to discover whether I could anywhere see goodness in combination with beauty.

But after all, it was not so: I thought I discovered that some who were beautiful to look at were thoroughly depraved in their minds. So I decided to let good looks alone, and to seek out someone known as a gentleman.

Accordingly, since I heard the name applied to Ischomachus by men, women, citizens and strangers alike, I decided to meet him, if I could.

So, happening one day to see him sitting in the cloister of the temple of Zeus Eleutherius apparently at leisure, I approached, and sitting down at his side, said: Why sitting still, Ischomachus? You are not much in the habit of doing nothing; for generally when I see you in the market-place you are either busy or at least not wholly idle.

True, and you would not have seen me so now, Socrates, had I not made an appointment with some strangers here.Pray where do you spend your time, said I, and what do you do when you are not engaged in some such occupation? For I want very much to learn how you came to be called a gentleman, since you do not pass your time indoors, and your condition does not suggest that you do so. Smiling at my question,

How came you to be called a gentleman?, and apparently well pleased, Ischomachus answered: Well, Socrates, whether certain persons call me so when they talk to you about me, I know not. Assuredly when they challenge me to an exchange of property in order to escape some public burden, fitting a warship or providing a chorus, nobody looks for the gentleman, but the challenge refers to me as plain Ischomachus, my father’s son. Well now, Socrates, as you ask the question, I certainly do not pass my time indoors; for, you know, my wife is quite capable of looking after the house by herself.

Ah, Ischomachus, said I, that is just what I want to hear from you. Did you yourself train your wife to be of the right sort, or did she know her household duties when you received her from her parents?

Why, what knowledge could she have had, Socrates, when I took her for my wife? She was not yet fifteen years old when she came to me, and up to that time she had lived in leading-strings, seeing, hearing and saying as little as possible.

If when she came she knew no more than how, when given wool, to turn out a cloak, and had seen only how the spinning is given out to the maids, is not that as much as could be expected? For in control of her appetite, Socrates, she had been excellently trained; and this sort of training is, in my opinion, the most important to man and woman alike.

But in other respects did you train your wife yourself, Ischomachus, so that she should be competent to perform her duties?Oh no, Socrates; not until I had first offered sacrifice and prayed that I might really teach, and she learn what was best for us both.

Did not your wife join with you in these same sacrifices and prayers?Oh yes, earnestly promising before heaven to behave as she ought to do; and it was easy to see that she would not neglect the lessons I taught her.

Pray tell me, Ischomachus, what was the first lesson you taught her, since I would sooner hear this from your lips than an account of the noblest athletic event or horse-race?