And yet by reason of goodness, and in respect of
use, 'Friends,' as the proverb says, 'will have all things common.'
Even now there are traces of such a principle, showing that it is
not impracticable, but, in well-ordered states, exists already to a
certain extent and may be carried further. For, although every man has
his own property, some things he will place at the disposal of his
friends, while of others he shares the use with them. The
Lacedaemonians, for example, use one another's slaves, and horses, and
dogs, as if they were their own; and when they lack provisions on a
journey, they appropriate what they find in the fields throughout
the country. It is clearly better that property should be private, but
the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to
create in men this benevolent disposition. Again, how immeasurably
greater is the pleasure, when a man feels a thing to be his own; for
surely the love of self is a feeling implanted by nature and not given
in vain, although selfishness is rightly censured; this, however, is
not the mere love of self, but the love of self in excess, like the
miser's love of money; for all, or almost all, men love money and
other such objects in a measure. And further, there is the greatest
pleasure in doing a kindness or service to friends or guests or
companions, which can only be rendered when a man has private
property.
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