AGAIN, evils also of the following kind cannot easily be avoided by those who plan this communion in a city; viz. blows, murders, involuntary and voluntary, quarrels and reproaches; no one of which it is holy to be guilty of towards fathers and mothers, and towards those who are not remote from us by alliance, as it is towards those who are not related to us. These evils, likewise, must necessarily more frequently happen among those who are ignorant how they are connected to each other than amongst those who are not; and when they do happen, if it is among those who know their connexion to each other, they admit of legal expiations, but if among the latter, they do not. It is likewise absurd for those who make children to be common, to forbid only lovers from copulating with each other, and yet do not prevent them from loving, or from other intercourses, which when they take place between a father and a son, one brother and another, are of all things the most indecorous. It is also absurd to forbid copulation for no other reason, than because the pleasure attending it is very great; but to think at the same time, that it makes no difference, whether it is a father, or a son, or brothers, that have this connexion with each other. It seems, however, to be more advantageous that the husbandmen should have their wives and children in common than the guardians; for they will have less love than when they are common. But it is necessary that those who are governed, should be such persons as these, in order that they may be obedient to the laws, and may not attempt to innovate. In short, from a law of this kind, the very contrary must happen to those things which ought to take place through laws rightly established, and which Socrates thought ought to be established respecting women and children. For we think that friendship is the greatest of goods to cities; since through this they will be in the smallest degree seditious. And Socrates especially applauds unity in a city, which appears to be, and he also says is, the work of friendship; as we learn from Aristophanes in the Erotics [i.e. in the Banquet of Plato,] who says that lovers from the vehemence of their love desire to coalesce, and from being two to become one. Here, therefore, it is necessary that either both, or one of them should be corrupted. But in a city the friendship must necessarily be very weak, in consequence of such a communion as this, and a son must be in the smallest degree able to say this is my father, or a father this is my son. For as a little of what is sweet when mixed with a great quantity of water, is imperceptible through the mixture, thus, also, it will happen that all family connections, and the names by which they are distinguished, will be disregarded in such a community, it being then in the smallest degree necessary, that a father should have any regard for him he called a son, or a son for him he called a father, or brothers for each other. For there are two things which especially induce men to take care of and love their offspring, a knowledge that it is their own, and that it ought to be the object of their tenderest regard; neither of which can take place among men who are thus governed. Moreover, with respect to exchanging the children that are born from the husbandmen and artificers with those of the guardians, and vice versa,—this, in whatever manner it may be effected, will be attended with great confusion; for those who give and exchange the children, must necessarily know from whom they took, and to whom they gave them. Farther still, the evils, also, formerly mentioned by us, will of necessity in a greater degree happen among these, such as blows, [improper] love, and murder. For they will no longer call the guardians who are given to other citizens, their brothers and children, their fathers and mothers, nor again, those who are given from the guardians to other citizens; so as to be afraid to do any thing of this kind, on account of consanguinity. After this manner, therefore, let us determine concerning the possession in common of wives and children.
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