Laws
keeping quails and cocks (compare Republic), which they train to fight
one another. And they are far from thinking that the contests in which
they stir them up to fight with one another are sufficient exercise;
for, in addition to this, they carry them about tucked beneath their
armpits, holding the smaller birds in their hands, the larger under
their arms, and go for a walk of a great many miles for the sake of
health, that is to say, not their own health, but the health of the
birds; whereby they prove to any intelligent person, that all bodies
are benefited by shakings and movements, when they are moved without
weariness, whether the motion proceeds from themselves, or is caused by
a swing, or at sea, or on horseback, or by other bodies in whatever way
moving, and that thus gaining the mastery over food and drink, they are
able to impart beauty and health and strength. But admitting all this,
what follows? Shall we make a ridiculous law that the pregnant woman
shall walk about and fashion the embryo within as we fashion wax before
it hardens, and after birth swathe the infant for two years? Suppose
that we compel nurses, under penalty of a legal fine, to be always
carrying the children somewhere or other, either to the temples, or into
the country, or to their relations' houses, until they are well able to
stand, and to take care that their limbs are not distorted by leaning
on them when they are too young (compare Arist. Pol.),--they should
continue to carry them until the infant has completed its third year;
the nurses should be strong, and there should be more than one of them.
Shall these be our rules, and shall we impose a penalty for the neglect
of them? No, no; the penalty of which we were speaking will fall upon
our own heads more than enough.
CLEINIAS: What penalty?
ATHENIAN: Ridicule, and the difficulty of getting the feminine and
servant-like dispositions of the nurses to comply.
CLEINIAS: Then why was there any need to speak of the matter at all?
ATHENIAN: The reason is, that masters and freemen in states, when they
hear of it, are very likely to arrive at a true conviction that without
due regulation of private life in cities, stability in the laying down
of laws is hardly to be expected (compare Republic); and he who makes
this reflection may himself adopt the laws just now mentioned, and,
adopting them, may order his house and state well and be happy.
CLEINIAS: Likely enough.
ATHENIAN: And therefore let us proceed with our legislation until we
have determined the exercises which are suited to the souls of young
children, in the same manner in which we have begun to go through the
rules relating to their bodies.
CLEINIAS: By all means.
ATHENIAN: Let us assume, then, as a first principle in relation both to
the body and soul of very young creatures, that nursing and moving about
by day and night is good for them all, and that the younger they are,
the more they will need it (compare Arist. Pol.); infants should live,
if that were possible, as if they were always rocking at sea. This
is the lesson which we may gather from the experience of nurses, and
likewise from the use of the remedy of motion in the rites of the
Corybantes; for when mothers want their restless children to go to sleep
they do not employ rest, but, on the contrary, motion--rocking them in
their arms; nor do they give them silence, but they sing to them and lap
them in sweet strains; and the Bacchic women are cured of their frenzy
in the same manner by the use of the dance and of music.
CLEINIAS: Well, Stranger, and what is the reason of this?
ATHENIAN: The reason is obvious.
CLEINIAS: What?
ATHENIAN: The affection both of the Bacchantes and of the children is
an emotion of fear, which springs out of an evil habit of the soul. And
when some one applies external agitation to affections of this sort, the
motion coming from without gets the better of the terrible and violent
internal one, and produces a peace and calm in the soul, and quiets the
restless palpitation of the heart, which is a thing much to be desired,
sending the children to sleep, and making the Bacchantes, although they
remain awake, to dance to the pipe with the help of the Gods to whom
they offer acceptable sacrifices, and producing in them a sound mind,
which takes the place of their frenzy. And, to express what I mean in a
word, there is a good deal to be said in favour of this treatment.
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: But if fear has such a power we ought to infer from these
facts, that every soul which from youth upward has been familiar with
fears, will be made more liable to fear (compare Republic), and every
one will allow that this is the way to form a habit of cowardice and not
of courage.
CLEINIAS: No doubt.
ATHENIAN: And, on the other hand, the habit of overcoming, from our
youth upwards, the fears and terrors which beset us, may be said to be
an exercise of courage.
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: And we may say that the use of exercise and motion in the
earliest years of life greatly contributes to create a part of virtue in
the soul.
CLEINIAS: Quite true.
ATHENIAN: Further, a cheerful temper, or the reverse, may be regarded as
having much to do with high spirit on the one hand, or with cowardice on
the other.
CLEINIAS: To be sure.
ATHENIAN: Then now we must endeavour to show how and to what extent we
may, if we please, without difficulty implant either character in the
young.
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: There is a common opinion, that luxury makes the disposition
of youth discontented and irascible and vehemently excited by trifles;
that on the other hand excessive and savage servitude makes men mean and
abject, and haters of their kind, and therefore makes them undesirable
associates.
CLEINIAS: But how must the state educate those who do not as yet
understand the language of the country, and are therefore incapable of
appreciating any sort of instruction?
ATHENIAN: I will tell you how:--Every animal that is born is wont to
utter some cry, and this is especially the case with man, and he is also
affected with the inclination to weep more than any other animal.
CLEINIAS: Quite true.
ATHENIAN: Do not nurses, when they want to know what an infant desires,
judge by these signs?--when anything is brought to the infant and he is
silent, then he is supposed to be pleased, but, when he weeps and cries
out, then he is not pleased. For tears and cries are the inauspicious
signs by which children show what they love and hate. Now the time which
is thus spent is no less than three years, and is a very considerable
portion of life to be passed ill or well.
CLEINIAS: True.
ATHENIAN: Does not the discontented and ungracious nature appear to you
to be full of lamentations and sorrows more than a good man ought to be?
CLEINIAS: Certainly.
ATHENIAN: Well, but if during these three years every possible care were
taken that our nursling should have as little of sorrow and fear, and in
general of pain as was possible, might we not expect in early childhood
to make his soul more gentle and cheerful? (Compare Arist. Pol.)
CLEINIAS: To be sure, Stranger--more especially if we could procure him
a variety of pleasures.
ATHENIAN: There I can no longer agree, Cleinias: you amaze me. To bring
him up in such a way would be his utter ruin; for the beginning is
always the most critical part of education. Let us see whether I am
right.
CLEINIAS: Proceed.
ATHENIAN: The point about which you and I differ is of great importance,
and I hope that you, Megillus, will help to decide between us. For I
maintain that the true life should neither seek for pleasures, nor,
on the other hand, entirely avoid pains, but should embrace the middle
state (compare Republic), which I just spoke of as gentle and benign,
and is a state which we by some divine presage and inspiration rightly
ascribe to God. Now, I say, he among men, too, who would be divine
ought to pursue after this mean habit--he should not rush headlong into
pleasures, for he will not be free from pains; nor should we allow
any one, young or old, male or female, to be thus given any more than
ourselves, and least of all the newly-born infant, for in infancy more
than at any other time the character is engrained by habit. Nay, more,
if I were not afraid of appearing to be ridiculous, I would say that a
woman during her year of pregnancy should of all women be most carefully
tended, and kept from violent or excessive pleasures and pains, and
should at that time cultivate gentleness and benevolence and kindness.
CLEINIAS: You need not ask Megillus, Stranger, which of us has most
truly spoken; for I myself agree that all men ought to avoid the life
of unmingled pain or pleasure, and pursue always a middle course. And
having spoken well, may I add that you have been well answered?
ATHENIAN: Very good, Cleinias; and now let us all three consider a
further point.
CLEINIAS: What is it?
ATHENIAN: That all the matters which we are now describing are commonly
called by the general name of unwritten customs, and what are termed
the laws of our ancestors are all of similar nature. And the reflection
which lately arose in our minds, that we can neither call these things
laws, nor yet leave them unmentioned, is justified; for they are the
bonds of the whole state, and come in between the written laws which
are or are hereafter to be laid down; they are just ancestral customs of
great antiquity, which, if they are rightly ordered and made habitual,
shield and preserve the previously existing written law; but if they
depart from right and fall into disorder, then they are like the props
of builders which slip away out of their place and cause a universal
ruin--one part drags another down, and the fair super-structure falls
because the old foundations are undermined. Reflecting upon this,
Cleinias, you ought to bind together the new state in every possible
way, omitting nothing, whether great or small, of what are called laws
or manners or pursuits, for by these means a city is bound together,
and all these things are only lasting when they depend upon one another;
and, therefore, we must not wonder if we find that many apparently
trifling customs or usages come pouring in and lengthening out our laws.
CLEINIAS: Very true: we are disposed to agree with you.
ATHENIAN: Up to the age of three years, whether of boy or girl, if a
person strictly carries out our previous regulations and makes them a
principal aim, he will do much for the advantage of the young creatures.
But at three, four, five, and even six years the childish nature
will require sports; now is the time to get rid of self-will in him,
punishing him, but not so as to disgrace him. We were saying about
slaves, that we ought neither to add insult to punishment so as to anger
them, nor yet to leave them unpunished lest they become self-willed; and
a like rule is to be observed in the case of the free-born. Children at
that age have certain natural modes of amusement which they find out for
themselves when they meet. And all the children who are between the
ages of three and six ought to meet at the temples of the villages, the
several families of a village uniting on one spot. The nurses are to see
that the children behave properly and orderly--they themselves and all
their companies are to be under the control of twelve matrons, one for
each company, who are annually selected to inspect them from the women
previously mentioned [i.e. the women who have authority over marriage],
whom the guardians of the law appoint. These matrons shall be chosen by
the women who have authority over marriage, one out of each tribe;
all are to be of the same age; and let each of them, as soon as she is