Sacred Texts  Christianity  Early Church Fathers  Index  Previous  Next 

Chapter V.—Necessity of Inequality.

“But to make our meaning plainer, we shall explain it by particulars.  Was it proper, for example, that all men in this world should be kings, or princes, or lords, or teachers, or lawyers, or geometers, or goldsmiths, or bakers, or smiths, or grammarians, or rich men, or farmers, or perfumers, or fishermen, or poor men?  It is certain that all could not be these.  Yet all these professions, and many more, the life of men requires, and without these it cannot be passed; therefore inequality is necessary in this world.  For there cannot be a king, unless he has subjects over whom he may rule and reign; nor can there be a master, unless he has one over whom he may bear sway; and in like manner of the rest.