Page - 838 - in The Complete Plato

are immediately concerned with States, and which must first be distinguished from one another. YOUNG SOCRATES: Very good. STRANGER: You know that these arts cannot easily be divided into two halves; the reason will be very evident as we proceed. YOUNG SOCRATES: Then we had better do so. STRANGER: We must carve them like a victim into members or limbs, since we cannot bisect them. (Compare Phaedr.) For we certainly should divide everything into as few parts as possible. YOUNG SOCRATES: What is to be done in this case? STRANGER: What we did in the example of weaving—all those arts which furnish the tools were regarded by us as co-operative. YOUNG SOCRATES: Yes. STRANGER: So now, and with still more reason, all arts which make any implement in a State, whether great or small, may be regarded by us as co- operative, for without them neither State nor Statesmanship would be possible; and yet we are not inclined to say that any of them is a product of the kingly art. YOUNG SOCRATES: No, indeed. STRANGER: The task of separating this class from others is not an easy one; for there is plausibility in saying that anything in the world is the instrument of doing something. But there is another class of possessions in a city, of which I have a word to say. YOUNG SOCRATES: What class do you mean? STRANGER: A class which may be described as not having this power; that is to say, not like an instrument, framed for production, but designed for the preservation of that which is produced. YOUNG SOCRATES: To what do you refer? STRANGER: To the class of vessels, as they are comprehensively termed, which are constructed for the preservation of things moist and dry, of things prepared in the fire or out of the fire; this is a very large class, and has, if I am not mistaken, literally nothing to do with the royal art of which we are in search. YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly not. STRANGER: There is also a third class of possessions to be noted, 838