Laws
better fortune. If the testator has no children at all, he may select
and give to any one whom he pleases the tenth part of the property which
he has acquired; but let him not be blamed if he gives all the rest to
his adopted son, and makes a friend of him according to the law. If the
sons of a man require guardians, and the father when he dies leaves a
will appointing guardians, those who have been named by him, whoever
they are and whatever their number be, if they are able and willing
to take charge of the children, shall be recognised according to the
provisions of the will. But if he dies and has made no will, or a will
in which he has appointed no guardians, then the next of kin, two on
the father's and two on the mother's side, and one of the friends of the
deceased, shall have the authority of guardians, whom the guardians
of the law shall appoint when the orphans require guardians. And the
fifteen eldest guardians of the law shall have the whole care and charge
of the orphans, divided into threes according to seniority--a body of
three for one year, and then another body of three for the next year,
until the cycle of the five periods is complete; and this, as far as
possible, is to continue always. If a man dies, having made no will at
all, and leaves sons who require the care of guardians, they shall share
in the protection which is afforded by these laws. And if a man dying
by some unexpected fate leaves daughters behind him, let him pardon the
legislator if when he gives them in marriage, he have a regard only to
two out of three conditions--nearness of kin and the preservation of
the lot, and omits the third condition, which a father would naturally
consider, for he would choose out of all the citizens a son for himself,
and a husband for his daughter, with a view to his character and
disposition--the father, I say, shall forgive the legislator if he
disregards this, which to him is an impossible consideration. Let the
law about these matters where practicable be as follows: If a man dies
without making a will, and leaves behind him daughters, let his brother,
being the son of the same father or of the same mother, having no lot,
marry the daughter and have the lot of the dead man. And if he have no
brother, but only a brother's son, in like manner let them marry, if
they be of a suitable age; and if there be not even a brother's son,
but only the son of a sister, let them do likewise, and so in the fourth
degree, if there be only the testator's father's brother, or in the
fifth degree, his father's brother's son, or in the sixth degree, the
child of his father's sister. Let kindred be always reckoned in this
way: if a person leaves daughters the relationship shall proceed upwards
through brothers and sisters, and brothers' and sisters' children,
and first the males shall come, and after them the females in the same
family. The judge shall consider and determine the suitableness or
unsuitableness of age in marriage; he shall make an inspection of the
males naked, and of the women naked down to the navel. And if there be a
lack of kinsmen in a family extending to grandchildren of a brother, or
to the grandchildren of a grandfather's children, the maiden may choose
with the consent of her guardians any one of the citizens who is willing
and whom she wills, and he shall be the heir of the dead man, and the
husband of his daughter. Circumstances vary, and there may sometimes be
a still greater lack of relations within the limits of the state; and if
any maiden has no kindred living in the city, and there is some one who
has been sent out to a colony, and she is disposed to make him the heir
of her father's possessions, if he be indeed of her kindred, let him
proceed to take the lot according to the regulation of the law; but if
he be not of her kindred, she having no kinsmen within the city, and he
be chosen by the daughter of the dead man, and empowered to marry by
the guardians, let him return home and take the lot of him who died
intestate. And if a man has no children, either male or female, and dies
without making a will, let the previous law in general hold; and let a
man and a woman go forth from the family and share the deserted house,
and let the lot belong absolutely to them; and let the heiress in
the first degree be a sister, and in a second degree a daughter of a
brother, and in the third, a daughter of a sister, in the fourth degree
the sister of a father, and in the fifth degree the daughter of a
father's brother, and in a sixth degree of a father's sister; and
these shall dwell with their male kinsmen, according to the degree of
relationship and right, as we enacted before. Now we must not conceal
from ourselves that such laws are apt to be oppressive and that there
may sometimes be a hardship in the lawgiver commanding the kinsman
of the dead man to marry his relation; he may be thought not to have
considered the innumerable hindrances which may arise among men in
the execution of such ordinances; for there may be cases in which the
parties refuse to obey, and are ready to do anything rather than marry,
when there is some bodily or mental malady or defect among those who
are bidden to marry or be married. Persons may fancy that the legislator
never thought of this, but they are mistaken; wherefore let us make a
common prelude on behalf of the lawgiver and of his subjects, the law
begging the latter to forgive the legislator, in that he, having to
take care of the common weal, cannot order at the same time the
various circumstances of individuals, and begging him to pardon them if
naturally they are sometimes unable to fulfil the act which he in his
ignorance imposes upon them.
CLEINIAS: And how, Stranger, can we act most fairly under the
circumstances?
ATHENIAN: There must be arbiters chosen to deal with such laws and the
subjects of them.
CLEINIAS: What do you mean?
ATHENIAN: I mean to say, that a case may occur in which the nephew,
having a rich father, will be unwilling to marry the daughter of his
uncle; he will have a feeling of pride, and he will wish to look higher.
And there are cases in which the legislator will be imposing upon him
the greatest calamity, and he will be compelled to disobey the law,
if he is required, for example, to take a wife who is mad, or has some
other terrible malady of soul or body, such as makes life intolerable
to the sufferer. Then let what we are saying concerning these cases
be embodied in a law: If any one finds fault with the established laws
respecting testaments, both as to other matters and especially in what
relates to marriage, and asserts that the legislator, if he were alive
and present, would not compel him to obey--that is to say, would
not compel those who are by our law required to marry or be given in
marriage, to do either--and some kinsman or guardian dispute this, the
reply is that the legislator left fifteen of the guardians of the law to
be arbiters and fathers of orphans, male or female, and to them let the
disputants have recourse, and by their aid determine any matters of the
kind, admitting their decision to be final. But if any one thinks that
too great power is thus given to the guardians of the law, let him bring
his adversaries into the court of the select judges, and there have
the points in dispute determined. And he who loses the cause shall have
censure and blame from the legislator, which, by a man of sense, is felt
to be a penalty far heavier than a great loss of money.
Thus will orphan children have a second birth. After their first birth
we spoke of their nurture and education, and after their second birth,
when they have lost their parents, we ought to take measures that the
misfortune of orphanhood may be as little sad to them as possible. In
the first place, we say that the guardians of the law are lawgivers and
fathers to them, not inferior to their natural fathers. Moreover, they
shall take charge of them year by year as of their own kindred; and we
have given both to them and to the children's own guardians as suitable
admonition concerning the nurture of orphans. And we seem to have spoken
opportunely in our former discourse, when we said that the souls of the
dead have the power after death of taking an interest in human affairs,
about which there are many tales and traditions, long indeed, but true;
and seeing that they are so many and so ancient, we must believe them,
and we must also believe the lawgivers, who tell us that these things
are true, if they are not to be regarded as utter fools. But if these
things are really so, in the first place men should have a fear of the
Gods above, who regard the loneliness of the orphans; and in the second
place of the souls of the departed, who by nature incline to take an
especial care of their own children, and are friendly to those who
honour, and unfriendly to those who dishonour them. Men should also fear
the souls of the living who are aged and high in honour; wherever a city
is well ordered and prosperous, their descendants cherish them, and so
live happily; old persons are quick to see and hear all that relates to
them, and are propitious to those who are just in the fulfilment of such
duties, and they punish those who wrong the orphan and the desolate,
considering that they are the greatest and most sacred of trusts. To all
which matters the guardian and magistrate ought to apply his mind, if
he has any, and take heed of the nurture and education of the orphans,
seeking in every possible way to do them good, for he is making a
contribution to his own good and that of his children. He who obeys the
tale which precedes the law, and does no wrong to an orphan, will never
experience the wrath of the legislator. But he who is disobedient, and
wrongs any one who is bereft of father or mother, shall pay twice the
penalty which he would have paid if he had wronged one whose parents had
been alive. As touching other legislation concerning guardians in their
relation to orphans, or concerning magistrates and their superintendence
of the guardians, if they did not possess examples of the manner in
which children of freemen would be brought up in the bringing up of
their own children, and of the care of their property in the care of
their own, or if they had not just laws fairly stated about these very
things--there would have been reason in making laws for them, under the
idea that they were a peculiar class, and we might distinguish and make
separate rules for the life of those who are orphans and of those who
are not orphans. But as the case stands, the condition of orphans with
us is not different from the case of those who have a father, though in
regard to honour and dishonour, and the attention given to them, the two
are not usually placed upon a level. Wherefore, touching the legislation
about orphans, the law speaks in serious accents, both of persuasion and
threatening, and such a threat as the following will be by no means
out of place: He who is the guardian of an orphan of either sex, and
he among the guardians of the law to whom the superintendence of this
guardian has been assigned, shall love the unfortunate orphan as though
he were his own child, and he shall be as careful and diligent in the
management of his possessions as he would be if they were his own, or
even more careful and diligent. Let every one who has the care of an
orphan observe this law. But any one who acts contrary to the law on
these matters, if he be a guardian of the child, may be fined by a
magistrate, or, if he be himself a magistrate, the guardian may bring
him before the court of select judges, and punish him, if convicted, by
exacting a fine of double the amount of that inflicted by the court. And