Pagina 158 di 1391

If I went to a sculptor and blamed him for having painted the

eye, which is the noblest feature of the face, not purple but

black, he would reply: 'The eye must be an eye, and you should

look at the statue as a whole.' 'Now I can well imagine a fool's

paradise, in which everybody is eating and drinking, clothed in

purple and fine linen, and potters lie on sofas and have their

wheel at hand, that they may work a little when they please; and

cobblers and all the other classes of a State lose their

distinctive character. And a State may get on without cobblers;

but when the guardians degenerate into boon companions, then the

ruin is complete. Remember that we are not talking of peasants

keeping holiday, but of a State in which every man is expected to

do his own work. The happiness resides not in this or that class,

but in the State as a whole.