The Economist

"Or picture a trireme, crammed choke-full of mariners; for what reason is she so terror-striking an object to her enemies, and a sight so gladsome to the eyes of friends? is it not that the gallant ship sails so swiftly? And why is it that, for all their crowding, the ship's company (9) cause each other no distress? Simply that there, as you may see them, they sit in order; in order bend to the oar; in order recover the stroke; in order step on board; in order disembark. But disorder is, it seems to me, precisely as though a man who is a husbandman should stow away (10) together in one place wheat and barley and pulse, and by and by when he has need of barley meal, or wheaten flour, or some condiment of pulse, (11) then he must pick and choose instead of laying his hand on each thing separately sorted for use.

"And so with you too, my wife, if you would avoid this confusion, if you would fain know how to administer our goods, so as to lay your finger readily on this or that as you may need, or if I ask you for anything, graciously to give it me: let us, I say, select and assign (12) the appropriate place for each set of things. This shall be the place where we will put the things; and we will instruct the housekeeper that she is to take them out thence, and mind to put them back again there; and in this way we shall know whether they are safe or not. If anything is gone, the gaping space will cry out as if it asked for something back. (13) The mere look and aspect of things will argue what wants mending; (14) and the fact of knowing where each thing is will be like having it put into one's hand at once to use without further trouble or debate."

I must tell you, Socrates, what strikes me as the finest and most accurate arrangement of goods and furniture it was ever my fortune to set eyes on; when I went as a sightseer on board the great Phoenician merchantman, (15) and beheld an endless quantity of goods and gear of all sorts, all separately packed and stowed away within the smallest compass. (16) I need scarce remind you (he said, continuing his narrative) what a vast amount of wooden spars and cables (17) a ship depends on in order to get to moorings; or again, in putting out to sea; (18) you know the host of sails and cordage, rigging (19) as they call it, she requires for sailing; the quantity of engines and machinery of all sorts she is armed with in case she should encounter any hostile craft; the infinitude of arms she carries, with her crew of fighting men aboard. Then all the vessels and utensils, such as people use at home on land, required for the different messes, form a portion of the freight; and besides all this, the hold is heavy laden with a mass of merchandise, the cargo proper, which the master carries with him for the sake of traffic.

(15) See Lucian, lxvi. "The Ship," ad in. (translated by S. T. Irwin). (16) Lit. "in the tiniest receptacle." (17) See Holden ad loc. re {xelina, plekta, kremasta}. (18) "In weighing anchor." (19) "Suspended tackle" (as opposed to wooden spars and masts, etc.)

Well, all these different things that I have named lay packed there in a space but little larger than a fair-sized dining-room. (20) The several sorts, moreover, as I noticed, lay so well arranged, there could be no entanglement of one with other, nor were searchers needed; (21) and if all were snugly stowed, all were alike get-at-able, (22) much to the avoidance of delay if anything were wanted on the instant.

(20) Lit. "a symmetrically-shaped dining-room, made to hold ten couches." (21) Lit. "a searcher"; "an inquisitor." Cf. Shakesp. "Rom. and Jul." V. ii. 8. (22) Lit. "not the reverse of easy to unpack, so as to cause a waste of time and waiting."

Then the pilot's mate (23)—"the look-out man at the prow," to give him his proper title—was, I found, so well acquainted with the place for everything that, even off the ship, (24) he could tell you where each set of things was laid and how many there were of each, just as well as any one who knows his alphabet (25) could tell you how many letters there are in Socrates and the order in which they stand.

I saw this same man (continued Ischomachus) examining at leisure (26) everything which could possibly (27) be needful for the service of the ship. His inspection caused me such surprise, I asked him what he was doing, whereupon he answered, "I am inspecting, stranger," (28) "just considering," says he, "the way the things are lying aboard the ship; in case of accidents, you know, to see if anything is missing, or not lying snug and shipshape. (29) There is no time left, you know," he added, "when God makes a tempest in the great deep, to set about searching for what you want, or to be giving out anything which is not snug and shipshape in its place. God threatens and chastises sluggards. (30) If only He destroy not innocent with guilty, a man may be content; (31) or if He turn and save all hands aboard that render right good service, (32) thanks be to Heaven." (33)

(26) "Apparently when he had nothing better to do"; "by way of amusement." (27) {ara}, "as if he were asking himself, 'Would this or this possibly be wanted for the ship's service?'" (28) "Sir." (29) Or, "things not lying handy in their places." (30) Or, "them that are slack." Cf. "Anab." V. viii. 15; "Mem." IV. ii. 40; Plat. "Gorg." 488 A: "The dolt and good-for-nothing." (31) "One must not grumble." (32) "The whole ship's crew right nobly serving." {uperetein} = "to serve at the oar" (metaphorically = to do service to heaven). (33) Lit. "great thanks be to the gods."

"Stupid in all conscience would it be on our parts, my wife, if those who sail the sea in ships, that are but small things, can discover space and place for everything; can, moreover, in spite of violent tossings up and down, keep order, and, even while their hearts are failing them for fear, find everything they need to hand; whilst we, with all our ample storerooms (34) diversely disposed for divers objects in our mansion, an edifice firmly based (35) on solid ground, fail to discover fair and fitting places, easy of access for our several goods! Would not that argue great lack of understanding in our two selves? Well then! how good a thing it is to have a fixed and orderly arrangement of all furniture and gear; how easy also in a dwelling-house to find a place for every sort of goods, in which to stow them as shall suit each best—needs no further comment. Rather let me harp upon the string of beauty—image a fair scene: the boots and shoes and sandals, and so forth, all laid in order row upon row; the cloaks, the mantles, and the rest of the apparel stowed in their own places; the coverlets and bedding; the copper cauldrons; and all the articles for table use! Nay, though it well may raise a smile of ridicule (not on the lips of a grave man perhaps, but of some facetious witling) to hear me say it, a beauty like the cadence of sweet music (36) dwells even in pots and pans set out in neat array: and so, in general, fair things ever show more fair when orderly bestowed.

The separate atoms shape themselves to form a choir, and all the space between gains beauty by their banishment. Even so some sacred chorus, (37) dancing a roundelay in honour of Dionysus, not only is a thing of beauty in itself, but the whole interspace swept clean of dancers owns a separate charm. (38)

(34) Or, "coffers," "cupboards," "safes." (35) Cf. "Anab." III. ii. 19, "firmly planted on terra firma." (36) Or, "like the rhythm of a song," {euruthmon}. See Mr. Ruskin's most appropriate note ("Bib. Past." i. 59), "A remarkable word, as significant of the complete rhythm ({ruthmos}) whether of sound or motion, that was so great a characteristic of the Greek ideal (cf. xi. 16, {metarruthmizo})," and much more equally to the point. (37) "Just as a chorus, the while its dancers weave a circling dance." (38) Or, "contrasting with the movement and the mazes of the dance, a void appears serene and beautiful."

"The truth of what I say, we easily can test, my wife," I added, "by direct experiment, and that too without cost at all or even serious trouble. (39) Nor need you now distress yourself, my wife, to think how hard it will be to discover some one who has wit enough to learn the places for the several things and memory to take and place them there. We know, I fancy, that the goods of various sorts contained in the whole city far outnumber ours many thousand times; and yet you have only to bid any one of your domestics go buy this, or that, and bring it you from market, and not one of them will hesitate. The whole world knows both where to go and where to find each thing.

"And why is this?" I asked. "Merely because they lie in an appointed place. But now, if you are seeking for a human being, and that too at times when he is seeking you on his side also, often and often shall you give up the search in sheer despair: and of this again the reason? Nothing else save that no appointed place was fixed where one was to await the other." Such, so far as I can now recall it, was the conversation which we held together touching the arrangement of our various chattels and their uses.

Isch. Most certainly she did, with promise to pay all attention. Her delight was evident, like some one's who at length has found a pathway out of difficulties; in proof of which she begged me to lose no time in making the orderly arrangement I had spoken of.

Isch. Well, first of all I thought I ought to show her the capacities of our house. Since you must know, it is not decked with ornaments and fretted ceilings, (1) Socrates; but the rooms were built expressly with a view to forming the most apt receptacles for whatever was intended to be put in them, so that the very look of them proclaimed what suited each particular chamber best. Thus our own bedroom, (2) secure in its position like a stronghold, claimed possession of our choicest carpets, coverlets, and other furniture. Thus, too, the warm dry rooms would seem to ask for our stock of bread-stuffs; the chill cellar for our wine; the bright and well-lit chambers for whatever works or furniture required light, and so forth.

(1) Or, "curious workmanship and paintings." See "Mem." III. viii. 10. Cf. Plat. "Rep." vii. 529 B; "Hipp. maj." 298 A. See Becker, "Charicles," Exc. i. 111. (2) Or, "the bridal chamber." See Becker, op. cit. p. 266. Al. "our store-chamber." See Hom. "Od." xxi. 9:

"And she (Penelope) betook her, with her handmaidens, to the treasure-chamber in the uttermost part of the house, where lay the treasures of her lord, bronze and gold and iron well wrought."—Butcher and Lang. Cf. "Od." ii. 337; "Il." vi. 288.

Next I proceeded to point out to her the several dwelling-rooms, all beautifully fitted up for cool in summer and for warmth in winter. (3) I showed her how the house enjoyed a southern aspect, whence it was plain, in winter it would catch the sunlight and in summer lie in shade. (4) Then I showed her the women's apartments, separated from the men's apartments by a bolted door, (5) whereby nothing from within could be conveyed without clandestinely, nor children born and bred by our domestics without our knowledge and consent (6)—no unimportant matter, since, if the act of rearing children tends to make good servants still more loyally disposed, (7) cohabiting but sharpens ingenuity for mischief in the bad.

(3) See "Mem." III. viii. 8. (4) See "Mem." ib. 9. (5) "By bolts and bars." Lit. "a door fitted with a bolt-pin." See Thuc. ii. 4; Aristoph. "Wasps," 200. (6) Cf. (Aristot.) "Oecon." i. 5, {dei de kai exomereuein tais teknopoiiais}. (7) Lit. "since (you know) if the good sort of servant is rendered, as a rule, better disposed when he becomes a father, the base, through intermarrying, become only more ripe for mischief."

(9) After this we proceeded to set apart the ornaments and holiday attire of the wife, and the husband's clothing both for festivals and war; then the bedding used in the women's apartments, and the bedding used in the men's apartments; then the women's shoes and sandals, and the shoes and sandals of the men.

(10) There was one division devoted to arms and armour; another to instruments used for carding wood; another to implements for making bread; another to utensils for cooking condiments; another to utensils for the bath; another connected with the kneading trough; another with the service of the table. All these we assigned to separate places, distinguishing one portion for daily and recurrent use and the rest for high days and holidays. Next we selected and set aside the supplies required for the month's expenditure; and, under a separate head, (11) we stored away what we computed would be needed for the year.

(8) "Movable property," "meubles." (9) Holden cf. Plut. "De Curios." 515 E, {os gar Xenophon legei toi Oikonomikois, k.t.l.} (10) Cf. "Cyrop." VIII. ii. 5. See Becker, op. cit. p. 447. (11) See Cic. ap. Col. who curiously mistranslates {dikha}. (12) Schneider, etc., cf. Aristot. "Oecon." i. 6.

And so having arranged the different articles of furniture in classes, we proceeded to convey them to their appropriate places. That done, we directed our attention to the various articles needed by our domestics for daily use, such as implements or utensils for making bread, cooking relishes, spinning wool, and anything else of the same sort. These we consigned to the care of those who would have to use them, first pointing out where they must stow them, and enjoining on them to return them safe and sound when done with.

As to the other things which we should only use on feast-days, or for the entertainment of guests, or on other like occasions at long intervals, we delivered them one and all to our housekeeper. Having pointed out to her their proper places, and having numbered and registered (13) the several sets of articles, we explained that it was her business to give out each thing as required; to recollect to whom she gave them; and when she got them back, to restore them severally to the places from which she took them. In appointing our housekeeper, we had taken every pains to discover some one on whose self-restraint we might depend, not only in the matters of food and wine and sleep, but also in her intercourse with men. She must besides, to please us, be gifted with no ordinary memory. She must have sufficient forethought not to incur displeasure through neglect of our interests. It must be her object to gratify us in this or that, and in return to win esteem and honour at our hands. We set ourselves to teach and train her to feel a kindly disposition towards us, by allowing her to share our joys in the day of gladness, or, if aught unkind befell us, by inviting her to sympathise in our sorrow. We sought to rouse in her a zeal for our interests, an eagerness to promote the increase of our estate, by making her intelligent of its affairs, and by giving her a share in our successes.

We instilled in her a sense of justice and uprightness, by holding the just in higher honour than the unjust, and by pointing out that the lives of the righteous are richer and less servile than those of the unrighteous; and this was the position in which she found herself installed in our household. (14)

And now, on the strength of all that we had done, Socrates (he added), I addressed my wife, explaining that all these things would fail of use unless she took in charge herself to see that the order of each several part was kept. Thereupon I taught her that in every well-constituted city the citizens are not content merely to pass good laws, but they further choose them guardians of the laws, (15) whose function as inspectors is to praise the man whose acts are law-abiding, or to mulct some other who offends against the law. Accordingly, I bade her believe that she, the mistress, was herself to play the part of guardian of the laws to her whole household, examining whenever it seemed good to her, and passing in review the several chattels, just as the officer in command of a garrison (16) musters and reviews his men. She must apply her scrutiny and see that everything was well, even as the Senate (17) tests the condition of the Knights and of their horses. (18) Like a queen, she must bestow, according to the power vested in her, praise and honour on the well-deserving, but blame and chastisement on him who stood in need thereof.

(15) See Plat. "Laws," vi. 755 A, 770 C; Aristot. "Pol." iii. 15, 1287 A; iv. 14, 1298 B; vi. 8, 1323 A; "Ath. Pol." viii. 4; and Cic. ap. Col. xii. 3. 10 f. Holden cf. Cic. "de Legg." iii. 20, S. 46; "C. I. G." 3794. (16) Lit. Phrourarch, "the commandant." (17) Or, "Council" at Athens. (18) Cf. "Hipparch." i. 8, 13.