as a real hostility exists, its true source is not in any opposition to labor or industry per se, but rather in the political belief that only as citizens have leisure for politics can prepared statesmen take the place of superficial politicians,139 and in the moral feeling that constant devotion merely to the physical necessities of life causes men to neglect the primary purpose of their existence.140
Modern scholars have usually been extreme in their interpretation of Plato on this point.141 Such unwarranted generalizations as the following are common: “Il ne découvre dans les professions qui tendent au lucre qu’égoisme, bassesse d’esprit, dégradation des sentiments.” “Platon et Aristote voient dans le commerce et dans l’industrie deux plaies de la société; ils voudraient les extirper à’fond, si cela était possible.”142 One of the worst misinterpretations has been perpetrated by Roscher, in inferring from the Republic (372 ff.) that Plato “das Leben der Gewerbetreibenden als ein Leben thierischen Behaglichkeit schildert, sie wohl mit Schweinen vergleicht.”143 Such absurdities are unfortunately not rare, though they might be avoided by a careful reading, even in a translation.144