Laws
compel women to eat and drink in public? They will defy the legislator
to drag them out of their holes. And in any other state such a proposal
would be drowned in clamour, but in our own I think that I can show the
attempt to be just and reasonable. 'There is nothing which we should
like to hear better.' Listen, then; having plenty of time, we will
go back to the beginning of things, which is an old subject with us.
'Right.' Either the race of mankind never had a beginning and will never
have an end, or the time which has elapsed since man first came into
being is all but infinite. 'No doubt.' And in this infinity of time
there have been changes of every kind, both in the order of the seasons
and in the government of states and in the customs of eating and
drinking. Vines and olives were at length discovered, and the blessings
of Demeter and Persephone, of which one Triptolemus is said to have been
the minister; before his time the animals had been eating one another.
And there are nations in which mankind still sacrifice their fellow-men,
and other nations in which they lead a kind of Orphic existence, and
will not sacrifice animals, or so much as taste of a cow--they offer
fruits or cakes moistened with honey. Perhaps you will ask me what is
the bearing of these remarks? 'We would gladly hear.' I will endeavour
to explain their drift. I see that the virtue of human life depends on
the due regulation of three wants or desires. The first is the desire
of meat, the second of drink; these begin with birth, and make us
disobedient to any voice other than that of pleasure. The third and
fiercest and greatest need is felt latest; this is love, which is a
madness setting men's whole nature on fire. These three disorders of
mankind we must endeavour to restrain by three mighty influences--fear,
and law, and reason, which, with the aid of the Muses and the Gods of
contests, may extinguish our lusts.
But to return. After marriage let us proceed to the generation of
children, and then to their nurture and education--thus gradually
approaching the subject of syssitia. There are, however, some other
points which are suggested by the three words--meat, drink, love.
'Proceed,' the bride and bridegroom ought to set their mind on having a
brave offspring. Now a man only succeeds when he takes pains; wherefore
the bridegroom ought to take special care of the bride, and the bride
of the bridegroom, at the time when their children are about to be born.
And let there be a committee of matrons who shall meet every day at
the temple of Eilithyia at a time fixed by the magistrates, and inform
against any man or woman who does not observe the laws of married life.
The time of begetting children and the supervision of the parents shall
last for ten years only; if at the expiration of this period they have
no children, they may part, with the consent of their relatives and the
official matrons, and with a due regard to the interests of either; if
a dispute arise, ten of the guardians of the law shall be chosen as
arbiters. The matrons shall also have power to enter the houses of the
young people, if necessary, and to advise and threaten them. If their
efforts fail, let them go to the guardians of the law; and if they
too fail, the offender, whether man or woman, shall be forbidden to
be present at all family ceremonies. If when the time for begetting
children has ceased, either husband or wife have connexion with others
who are of an age to beget children, they shall be liable to the same
penalties as those who are still having a family. But when both parties
have ceased to beget children there shall be no penalties. If men
and women live soberly, the enactments of law may be left to slumber;
punishment is necessary only when there is great disorder of manners.
The first year of children's lives is to be registered in their
ancestral temples; the name of the archon of the year is to be inscribed
on a whited wall in every phratry, and the names of the living members
of the phratry close to them, to be erased at their decease. The proper
time of marriage for a woman shall be from sixteen years to twenty; for
a man, from thirty to thirty-five (compare Republic). The age of holding
office for a woman is to be forty, for a man thirty years. The time for
military service for a man is to be from twenty years to sixty; for a
woman, from the time that she has ceased to bear children until fifty.
BOOK VII. Now that we have married our citizens and brought their
children into the world, we have to find nurture and education for them.
This is a matter of precept rather than of law, and cannot be precisely
regulated by the legislator. For minute regulations are apt to be
transgressed, and frequent transgressions impair the habit of obedience
to the laws. I speak darkly, but I will also try to exhibit my wares in
the light of day. Am I not right in saying that a good education tends
to the improvement of body and mind? 'Certainly.' And the body is
fairest which grows up straight and well-formed from the time of birth.
'Very true.' And we observe that the first shoot of every living thing
is the greatest; many even contend that man is not at twenty-five twice
the height that he was at five. 'True.' And growth without exercise of
the limbs is the source of endless evils in the body. 'Yes.' The body
should have the most exercise when growing most. 'What, the bodies of
young infants?' Nay, the bodies of unborn infants. I should like to
explain to you this singular kind of gymnastics. The Athenians are fond
of cock-fighting, and the people who keep cocks carry them about in
their hands or under their arms, and take long walks, to improve, not
their own health, but the health of the birds. Here is a proof of the
usefulness of motion, whether of rocking, swinging, riding, or tossing
upon the wave; for all these kinds of motion greatly increase strength
and the powers of digestion. Hence we infer that our women, when they
are with child, should walk about and fashion the embryo; and the
children, when born, should be carried by strong nurses,--there must be
more than one of them,--and should not be suffered to walk until they
are three years old. Shall we impose penalties for the neglect of these
rules? The greatest penalty, that is, ridicule, and the difficulty of
making the nurses do as we bid them, will be incurred by ourselves.
'Then why speak of such matters?' In the hope that heads of families may
learn that the due regulation of them is the foundation of law and order
in the state.
And now, leaving the body, let us proceed to the soul; but we must first
repeat that perpetual motion by night and by day is good for the young
creature. This is proved by the Corybantian cure of motion, and by the
practice of nurses who rock children in their arms, lapping them at
the same time in sweet strains. And the reason of this is obvious. The
affections, both of the Bacchantes and of the children, arise from fear,
and this fear is occasioned by something wrong which is going on
within them. Now a violent external commotion tends to calm the violent
internal one; it quiets the palpitation of the heart, giving to the
children sleep, and bringing back the Bacchantes to their right minds
by the help of dances and acceptable sacrifices. But if fear has such
power, will not a child who is always in a state of terror grow up timid
and cowardly, whereas if he learns from the first to resist fear he will
develop a habit of courage? 'Very true.' And we may say that the use
of motion will inspire the souls of children with cheerfulness and
therefore with courage. 'Of course.' Softness enervates and
irritates the temper of the young, and violence renders them mean and
misanthropical. 'But how is the state to educate them when they are as
yet unable to understand the meaning of words?' Why, surely they roar
and cry, like the young of any other animal, and the nurse knows the
meaning of these intimations of the child's likes or dislikes, and the
occasions which call them forth. About three years is passed by children
in a state of imperfect articulation, which is quite long enough time
to make them either good- or ill-tempered. And, therefore, during these
first three years, the infant should be as free as possible from fear
and pain. 'Yes, and he should have as much pleasure as possible.' There,
I think, you are wrong; for the influence of pleasure in the beginning
of education is fatal. A man should neither pursue pleasure nor wholly
avoid pain. He should embrace the mean, and cultivate that state of calm
which mankind, taught by some inspiration, attribute to God; and he who
would be like God should neither be too fond of pleasure himself, nor
should he permit any other to be thus given; above all, not the infant,
whose character is just in the making. It may sound ridiculous, but I
affirm that a woman in her pregnancy should be carefully tended, and
kept from excessive pleasures and pains.
'I quite agree with you about the duty of avoiding extremes and
following the mean.'
Let us consider a further point. The matters which are now in question
are generally called customs rather than laws; and we have already made
the reflection that, though they are not, properly speaking, laws, yet
neither can they be neglected. For they fill up the interstices of
law, and are the props and ligatures on which the strength of the whole
building depends. Laws without customs never last; and we must not
wonder if habit and custom sometimes lengthen out our laws. 'Very true.'
Up to their third year, then, the life of children may be regulated by
customs such as we have described. From three to six their minds have
to be amused; but they must not be allowed to become self-willed and
spoilt. If punishment is necessary, the same rule will hold as in the
case of slaves; they must neither be punished in hot blood nor ruined
by indulgence. The children of that age will have their own modes of
amusing themselves; they should be brought for their play to the village
temples, and placed under the care of nurses, who will be responsible
to twelve matrons annually chosen by the women who have authority over
marriage. These shall be appointed, one out of each tribe, and their
duty shall be to keep order at the meetings: slaves who break the rules
laid down by them, they shall punish by the help of some of the public
slaves; but citizens who dispute their authority shall be brought before
the magistrates. After six years of age there shall be a separation of
the sexes; the boys will go to learn riding and the use of arms, and the
girls may, if they please, also learn. Here I note a practical error in
early training. Mothers and nurses foolishly believe that the left hand
is by nature different from the right, whereas the left leg and foot are
acknowledged to be the same as the right. But the truth is that nature
made all things to balance, and the power of using the left hand, which
is of little importance in the case of the plectrum of the lyre, may
make a great difference in the art of the warrior, who should be a
skilled gymnast and able to fight and balance himself in any position.
If a man were a Briareus, he should use all his hundred hands at once;
at any rate, let everybody employ the two which they have. To these
matters the magistrates, male and female, should attend; the women
superintending the nursing and amusement of the children, and the men
superintending their education, that all of them, boys and girls alike,
may be sound, wind and limb, and not spoil the gifts of nature by bad
habits.
Education has two branches--gymnastic, which is concerned with the body;
and music, which improves the soul. And gymnastic has two parts, dancing