idleness. It produces more happiness, makes the laborer more temperate and just, and is the sine qua non for the independent life.427 This is a strong plea for industry, and is especially significant, since it refers primarily, to manufacture rather than to agriculture. The reference, however, is to women workers, whose loss of leisure would not be an injury to the state. Each person is encouraged to provide for himself, and to do his work in the best possible manner,428 and the maxim of Epicharmus, “For labor, the gods sell all goods to us,” is heartily approved.429 All the foregoing passages are Hesiodic in their insistence upon the value of industry.430 But apart from his evident acceptance of the doctrine of Socrates, as quoted above, Xenophon exhibits a positive interest in labor. His attitude toward the advancement of industry and commerce is thoroughly modern, except that he does not contemplate the employment of free citizen labor.431 He emphasizes labor almost as strongly as natural resources as an important factor in production. He believes also that industrial thrift and prosperity are the best means of realizing a more quiet and orderly state.432
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CHAPTER IV XENOPHON
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