The Poor

But let us see by doing how many and what things they shall pass their lives respectably with us, that they may not often be compelled, sitting idle, to turn to something base.

For perhaps it will appear difficult for such men to maintain themselves in such a life, possessing no other property than their body, especially when we counsel them not to undertake any chance work nor all alike whence it is possible to gain;

so that we shall perhaps be compelled to cast out of the cities in our argument the dainty poor, that we may truly furnish, according to Homer, cities well inhabited, dwelt in by the blessed alone, and shall leave no free labourer, it seems, within the wall.

Let no one of you think, just because he observes that I am a poor man and a man of the people, that the amount I claim should be reduced.

Remember, too, that while the poor have no share in the danger of loss of property, yet fear of injury to our persons is common to all alike;

To exclude the poor from justice was not enough:

But the poorer a man is, the less likely he is to be litigious.

I fear to say—perhaps two thirds, perhaps four fifths, perhaps nine tenths:

Then, dividing them into small pieces, he distributes them to the poor, thus making useful the useless things;

And on the eighth day, returning to the palace, he distributed all the wealth and the moneys to the poor, so that not one of those in need was left out"

And that night, coming to the little house of a certain poor man, he cast off the garments wrapped about him and gave them to the poor man as his last act of well-doing;