21
Then give me your attention and don’t mock me if my investigation is altogether that of a layman; it can’t be helped when you will not explain more precisely although you know better.
22
Virtue then seems to me like a city whose inhabitants are happy (as your teacher, who has come from there, wherever it may be, would say), outstanding in their wisdom, all of them brave, just, prudent, almost gods. All those things that you find here—robbery, violence, cheating—they say you would find none of them ventured in that city; no, they live together in peace and harmony naturally enough; for what, I suppose, in other cities produces strife and discord, plot and counter-plot, is entirely absent. They do not any longer look on gold, pleasures, or glory as things to quarrel about—they drove them from the city long ago, thinking them unnecessary to their common life. So they live a calm and perfectly happy life with good government, equality, freedom, and the other blessings.
23
Well then, Lycinus, isn’t it right for everyone to long for citizenship of a city like that, and neither to think of the toils of the journey nor give up because of the time it takes, if once they get there they too are going to be enrolled as citizens and share in the city’s life?
23
Yes, indeed, Hermotimus, this we must strive for above everything, and all else we must ignore. If our native country here lays claim to us, we must take scant notice, and if any children or parents we may have cling to us weeping, we shall not give way. No, first and foremost we shall urge them to follow the same road. If they will not, or cannot, we must shake them off and make straight for that all-happy city, throwing off our very cloak should they hold on to it to drag us back as we hurry there—for there is no fear of being shut out, even if you come there naked.
