POLITICUS (Statesman) by Plato - Complete text

Page 34

Str. Thus the arts which make spindles, combs, and other instruments of the production of clothes may be called co - operative, and those which treat and fabricate the things themselves, causal.

Y. Soc. Very true.

Str. The arts of washing and mending, and the other preparatory arts which belong to the causal class, and form a division of the great art of adornment, may be all comprehended under what we call the fuller's art.

Y. Soc. Very good.

Str. Carding and spinning threads and all the parts of the process which are concerned with the actual manufacture of a woollen garment form a single art, which is one of thow universally acknowledged - the art of working in wool.

Y. Soc. To be sure.

Str. Of working in wool again, there are two divisions, and both these are parts of two arts at once.

Y. Soc. How is that?

Str. Carding and one half of the use of the comb, and the other processes of wool - working which separate the composite, may be classed together as belonging both to the art of woolworking, and also to one of the two great arts which are of universal application - the art of composition and the art of division.

Y. Soc. Yes.

Str. To the latter belong carding and the other processes of which I was just now speaking the art of discernment or division in wool and yarn, which is effected in one manner with the comb and in another with the hands, is variously described under all the names which I just now mentioned.

Y. Soc. Very true.

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