Laws
destruction of states; and against this evil what remedy can be devised?
Lacedaemon and Crete give no assistance here; on the subject of love, as
I may whisper in your ear, they are against us. Suppose a person were to
urge that you ought to restore the natural use which existed before the
days of Laius; he would be quite right, but he would not be supported by
public opinion in either of your states. Or try the matter by the test
which we apply to all laws,--who will say that the permission of such
things tends to virtue? Will he who is seduced learn the habit of
courage; or will the seducer acquire temperance? And will any legislator
be found to make such actions legal?
But to judge of this matter truly, we must understand the nature of love
and friendship, which may take very different forms. For we speak of
friendship, first, when there is some similarity or equality of virtue;
secondly, when there is some want; and either of these, when in excess,
is termed love. The first kind is gentle and sociable; the second is
fierce and unmanageable; and there is also a third kind, which is akin
to both, and is under the dominion of opposite principles. The one is of
the body, and has no regard for the character of the beloved; but he who
is under the influence of the other disregards the body, and is a looker
rather than a lover, and desires only with his soul to be knit to the
soul of his friend; while the intermediate sort is both of the body
and of the soul. Here are three kinds of love: ought the legislator to
prohibit all of them equally, or to allow the virtuous love to remain?
'The latter, clearly.' I expected to gain your approval; but I will
reserve the task of convincing our friend Cleinias for another occasion.
'Very good.' To make right laws on this subject is in one point of view
easy, and in another most difficult; for we know that in some cases most
men abstain willingly from intercourse with the fair. The unwritten
law which prohibits members of the same family from such intercourse is
strictly obeyed, and no thought of anything else ever enters into the
minds of men in general. A little word puts out the fire of their lusts.
'What is it?' The declaration that such things are hateful to the Gods,
and most abominable and unholy. The reason is that everywhere, in jest
and earnest alike, this is the doctrine which is repeated to all
from their earliest youth. They see on the stage that an Oedipus or a
Thyestes or a Macareus, when undeceived, are ready to kill themselves.
There is an undoubted power in public opinion when no breath is heard
adverse to the law; and the legislator who would enslave these enslaving
passions must consecrate such a public opinion all through the city.
'Good: but how can you create it?' A fair objection; but I promised to
try and find some means of restraining loves to their natural objects. A
law which would extirpate unnatural love as effectually as incest is
at present extirpated, would be the source of innumerable blessings,
because it would be in accordance with nature, and would get rid of
excess in eating and drinking and of adulteries and frenzies, making men
love their wives, and having other excellent effects. I can imagine that
some lusty youth overhears what we are saying, and roars out in abusive
terms that we are legislating for impossibilities. And so a person
might have said of the syssitia, or common meals; but this is refuted by
facts, although even now they are not extended to women. 'True.' There
is no impossibility or super-humanity in my proposed law, as I shall
endeavour to prove. 'Do so.' Will not a man find abstinence more easy
when his body is sound than when he is in ill-condition? 'Yes.' Have we
not heard of Iccus of Tarentum and other wrestlers who abstained wholly
for a time? Yet they were infinitely worse educated than our citizens,
and far more lusty in their bodies. And shall they have abstained for
the sake of an athletic contest, and our citizens be incapable of a
similar endurance for the sake of a much nobler victory,--the victory
over pleasure, which is true happiness? Will not the fear of impiety
enable them to conquer that which many who were inferior to them have
conquered? 'I dare say.' And therefore the law must plainly declare
that our citizens should not fall below the other animals, who live all
together in flocks, and yet remain pure and chaste until the time of
procreation comes, when they pair, and are ever after faithful to their
compact. But if the corruption of public opinion is too great to allow
our first law to be carried out, then our guardians of the law must turn
legislators, and try their hand at a second law. They must minimize the
appetites, diverting the vigour of youth into other channels, allowing
the practice of love in secret, but making detection shameful. Three
higher principles may be brought to bear on all these corrupt natures.
'What are they?' Religion, honour, and the love of the higher qualities
of the soul. Perhaps this is a dream only, yet it is the best of dreams;
and if not the whole, still, by the grace of God, a part of what we
desire may be realized. Either men may learn to abstain wholly from any
loves, natural or unnatural, except of their wedded wives; or, at
least, they may give up unnatural loves; or, if detected, they shall
be punished with loss of citizenship, as aliens from the state in their
morals. 'I entirely agree with you,' said Megillus, 'but Cleinias must
speak for himself.' 'I will give my opinion by-and-by.'
We were speaking of the syssitia, which will be a natural institution
in a Cretan colony. Whether they shall be established after the model
of Crete or Lacedaemon, or shall be different from either, is an
unimportant question which may be determined without difficulty. We
may, therefore, proceed to speak of the mode of life among our citizens,
which will be far less complex than in other cities; a state which is
inland and not maritime requires only half the number of laws. There is
no trouble about trade and commerce, and a thousand other things. The
legislator has only to regulate the affairs of husbandmen and shepherds,
which will be easily arranged, now that the principal questions, such as
marriage, education, and government, have been settled.
Let us begin with husbandry: First, let there be a law of Zeus against
removing a neighbour's landmark, whether he be a citizen or stranger.
For this is 'to move the immoveable'; and Zeus, the God of kindred,
witnesses to the wrongs of citizens, and Zeus, the God of strangers,
to the wrongs of strangers. The offence of removing a boundary shall
receive two punishments--the first will be inflicted by the God himself;
the second by the judges. In the next place, the differences between
neighbours about encroachments must be guarded against. He who
encroaches shall pay twofold the amount of the injury; of all such
matters the wardens of the country shall be the judges, in lesser cases
the officers, and in greater the whole number of them belonging to
any one division. Any injury done by cattle, the decoying of bees, the
careless firing of woods, the planting unduly near a neighbour's
ground, shall all be visited with proper damages. Such details have been
determined by previous legislators, and need not now be mixed up with
greater matters. Husbandmen have had of old excellent rules about
streams and waters; and we need not 'divert their course.' Anybody
may take water from a common stream, if he does not thereby cut off a
private spring; he may lead the water in any direction, except through
a house or temple, but he must do no harm beyond the channel. If land
is without water the occupier shall dig down to the clay, and if at this
depth he find no water, he shall have a right of getting water from his
neighbours for his household; and if their supply is limited, he
shall receive from them a measure of water fixed by the wardens of the
country. If there be heavy rains, the dweller on the higher ground must
not recklessly suffer the water to flow down upon a neighbour beneath
him, nor must he who lives upon lower ground or dwells in an adjoining
house refuse an outlet. If the two parties cannot agree, they shall go
before the wardens of the city or country, and if a man refuse to abide
by their decision, he shall pay double the damage which he has caused.
In autumn God gives us two boons--one the joy of Dionysus not to be laid
up--the other to be laid up. About the fruits of autumn let the law be
as follows: He who gathers the storing fruits of autumn, whether
grapes or figs, before the time of the vintage, which is the rising of
Arcturus, shall pay fifty drachmas as a fine to Dionysus, if he gathers
on his own ground; if on his neighbour's ground, a mina, and two-thirds
of a mina if on that of any one else. The grapes or figs not used for
storing a man may gather when he pleases on his own ground, but on that
of others he must pay the penalty of removing what he has not laid down.
If he be a slave who has gathered, he shall receive a stroke for every
grape or fig. A metic must purchase the choice fruit; but a stranger may
pluck for himself and his attendant. This right of hospitality, however,
does not extend to storing grapes. A slave who eats of the storing
grapes or figs shall be beaten, and the freeman be dismissed with a
warning. Pears, apples, pomegranates, may be taken secretly, but he who
is detected in the act of taking them shall be lightly beaten off, if
he be not more than thirty years of age. The stranger and the elder may
partake of them, but not carry any away; the latter, if he does not obey
the law, shall fail in the competition of virtue, if anybody brings up
his offence against him.
Water is also in need of protection, being the greatest element of
nutrition, and, unlike the other elements--soil, air, and sun--which
conspire in the growth of plants, easily polluted. And therefore he
who spoils another's water, whether in springs or reservoirs, either by
trenching, or theft, or by means of poisonous substances, shall pay the
damage and purify the stream. At the getting-in of the harvest everybody
shall have a right of way over his neighbour's ground, provided he is
careful to do no damage beyond the trespass, or if he himself will gain
three times as much as his neighbour loses. Of all this the magistrates
are to take cognizance, and they are to assess the damage where the
injury does not exceed three minae; cases of greater damage can be
tried only in the public courts. A charge against a magistrate is to
be referred to the public courts, and any one who is found guilty of
deciding corruptly shall pay twofold to the aggrieved person. Matters
of detail relating to punishments and modes of procedure, and summonses,
and witnesses to summonses, do not require the mature wisdom of the aged
legislator; the younger generation may determine them according to their
experience; but when once determined, they shall remain unaltered.
The following are to be the regulations respecting handicrafts:--No
citizen, or servant of a citizen, is to practise them. For the citizen
has already an art and mystery, which is the care of the state; and no
man can practise two arts, or practise one and superintend another. No
smith should be a carpenter, and no carpenter, having many slaves who
are smiths, should look after them himself; but let each man practise
one art which shall be his means of livelihood. The wardens of the city
should see to this, punishing the citizen who offends with temporary
deprival of his rights--the foreigner shall be imprisoned, fined,
exiled. Any disputes about contracts shall be determined by the wardens
of the city up to fifty drachmae--above that sum by the public courts.