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.
[23] Cf. 'Pol. Ath.' i. 1; Aristoph. 'Knights,' 543 foll.
[24] Or, 'with his eyes shut, at a distance he could say exactly.'
[25] Or, 'how to spell.' See 'Mem.' IV. iv. 7; Plat. 'Alc.' i. 113 A.
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 mkes 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.'
So spoke the pilot's mate; and I, with this carefulness of stowage still before my eyes, proceeded to enforce my thesis:
'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.
[39] Lit. 'now whether these things I say are true (i.e. are facts), we can make experiment of the things themselves (i.e. of actual facts to prove to us).'
'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.
IX
Well (I replied), and did your wife appear, Ischomachus, to lend a willing ear to what you tried thus earnestly to teach her?
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.
And how did you introduce the order she demanded, Ischomachus? (I asked).
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:
{be d' imenai thalamonde sun amphipoloisi gunaixin eskhaton, k.t.l.}
'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.'
