republic (books 1 - 5)   

Yes, Socrates, he said, and if you were providing for a city
of pigs, how else would you feed the beasts?

But what would you have, Glaucon? I replied.

Why, he said, you should give them the ordinary conven-
iences of life. People who are to be comfortable are accus-
tomed to lie on sofas, and dine off tables, and they should have
sauces and sweets in the modern style.

Yes, I said, now I understand: the question which you would
have me consider is, not only how a State, but how a luxurious
State is created; and possibly there is no harm in this, for in
such a State we shall be more likely to see how justice and in-
justice originate. In my opinion the true and healthy consti-
tution of the State is the one which I have described. But if
you wish also to see a State at fever-heat, I have no objection.
For I suspect that many will not be satisfied with the simpler
way of life. They will be for adding sofas and tables and other
furniture; also dainties and perfumes and incense and courte-
sans and cakes, all these not of one sort only, but in every
variety. We must go beyond the necessaries of which I was
at first speaking, such as houses and clothes and shoes; the arts
of the painter and the embroiderer will have to be set in motion,
and gold and ivory and all sorts of materials must be procured.

True, he said.

Then we must enlarge our borders; for the original healthy
State is no longer sufficient. Now will the city have to fill and
swell with a multitude of callings which are not required by
any natural want; such as the whole tribe of hunters and actors,
of whom one large class have to do with forms and colors;
another will be the votaries of music--poets and their attendant
train of rhapsodists, players, dancers, contractors; also makers
of divers kinds of articles, including women's dresses. And
we shall want more servants. Will not tutors be also in re-
quest, and nurses wet and dry, tirewomen and barbers, as well
as confectioners and cooks; and swineherds, too, who were not
needed and therefore had no place in the former edition of our
State, but are needed now? They must not be forgotten: and
there will be animals of many other kinds, if people eat them.

Certainly.

And living in this way we shall have much greater need of
physicians than before?

Much greater.

And the country which was enough to support the original
inhabitants will be too small now, and not enough?

Quite true.

Then a slice of our neighbors' land will be wanted by us for
pasture and tillage, and they will want a slice of ours, if, like
ourselves, they exceed the limit of necessity, and give them-
selves up to the unlimited accumulation of wealth?

That, Socrates, will be inevitable.

And so we shall go to war, Glaucon. Shall we not?