Let Philosophy, then, be like a city--a city whose citizens within it are a happy people, as your master would tell you, having lately come thence, as we suppose.

All the virtues are theirs, and they are little less than gods.

Those acts of violence which happen among us are not to be seen in their streets.

They live together in one mind, very seemly; the things which beyond [153] everything else cause men to contend against each other, having no place upon them.

Gold and silver, pleasure, vainglory, they have long since banished, as being unprofitable to the commonwealth; and their life is an unbroken calm, in liberty, equality, an equal happiness.
-- And is it not reasonable that all men should desire to be of a city such as that, and take no account of the length and difficulty of the way thither, so only they may one day become its freemen?
-- It might well be the business of life:--leaving all else, forgetting one's native country here, unmoved by the tears, the restraining hands, of parents or children, if one had them--only bidding them follow the same road; and if they would not or could not, shaking them off, leaving one's very garment in their hands if they took hold on us, to start off straightway for that happy place! For there is no fear, I suppose, of being shut out if one came thither naked.