Laws (version 2) — The Preamble Part 5

About property in general there is little difficulty, with the exception of property in slaves, which is an institution of a very doubtful character.

The slavery of the Helots is approved by some and condemned by others; and there is some doubt even about the slavery of the Mariandynians at Heraclea and of the Thessalian Penestae.

This makes us ask, What shall we do about slaves?

To which every one would agree in replying,--Let us have the best and most attached whom we can get.

All of us have heard stories of slaves who have been better to their masters than sons or brethren.

Yet there is an opposite doctrine, that slaves are never to be trusted; as Homer says, 'Slavery takes away half a man's understanding.'

And different persons treat them in different ways: there are some who never trust them, and beat them like dogs, until they make them many times more slavish than they were before; and others pursue the opposite plan.

Man is a troublesome animal, as has been often shown, Megillus, notably in the revolts of the Messenians; and great mischiefs have arisen in countries where there are large bodies of slaves of one nationality.

Two rules may be given for their management: first that they should not, if possible, be of the same country or have a common language; and secondly, that they should be treated by their master with more justice even than equals, out of regard to himself quite as much as to them.

For he who is righteous in the treatment of his slaves, or of any inferiors, will sow in them the seed of virtue.

Masters should never jest with their slaves: this, which is a common but foolish practice, increases the difficulty and painfulness of managing them.

Next as to habitations.

These ought to have been spoken of before; for no man can marry a wife, and have slaves, who has not a house for them to live in.

Let us supply the omission.

The temples should be placed round the Agora, and the city built in a circle on the heights.

Near the temples, which are holy places and the habitations of the Gods, should be buildings for the magistrates, and the courts of law, including those in which capital offences are to be tried.

As to walls, Megillus, I agree with Sparta that they should sleep in the earth; 'cold steel is the best wall,' as the poet finely says.

Besides, how absurd to be sending out our youth to fortify and guard the borders of our country, and then to build a city wall, which is very unhealthy, and is apt to make people fancy that they may run there and rest in idleness, not knowing that true repose comes from labour, and that idleness is only a renewal of trouble.

If, however, there must be a wall, the private houses had better be so arranged as to form one wall; this will have an agreeable aspect, and the building will be safer and more defensible.

These objects should be attended to at the foundation of the city.

The wardens of the city must see that they are carried out; and they must also enforce cleanliness, and preserve the public buildings from encroachments.

Moreover, they must take care to let the rain flow off easily, and must regulate other matters concerning the general administration of the city.

If any further enactments prove to be necessary, the guardians of the law must supply them.

And now, having provided buildings, and having married our citizens, we will proceed to speak of their mode of life.

In a well-constituted state, individuals cannot be allowed to live as they please.

Why do I say this?

Because I am going to enact that the bridegroom shall not absent himself from the common meals.

They were instituted originally on the occasion of some war, and, though deemed singular when first founded, they have tended greatly to the security of states.

There was a difficulty in introducing them, but there is no difficulty in them now.

There is, however, another institution about which I would speak, if I dared.

I may preface my proposal by remarking that disorder in a state is the source of all evil, and order of all good.

Now in Sparta and Crete there are common meals for men, and this, as I was saying, is a divine and natural institution.

But the women are left to themselves;

they live in dark places, and, being weaker, and therefore wickeder, than men, they are at the bottom of a good deal more than half the evil of states.

This must be corrected, and the institution of common meals extended to both sexes.

But, in the present unfortunate state of opinion, who would dare to establish them?

And still more, who can 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 and wrestling.

Of dancing one kind imitates musical recitation and aims at stateliness and freedom; another kind is concerned with the training of the body, and produces health, agility, and beauty.

There is no military use in the complex systems of wrestling which pass under the names of Antaeus and Cercyon, or in the tricks of boxing, which are attributed to Amycus and Epeius; but good wrestling and the habit of extricating the neck, hands, and sides, should be diligently learnt and taught.

In our dances imitations of war should be practised, as in the dances of the Curetes in Crete and of the Dioscuri at Sparta, or as in the dances in complete armour which were taught us Athenians by the goddess Athene.

Youths who are not yet of an age to go to war should make religious processions armed and on horseback; and they should also engage in military games and contests.

These exercises will be equally useful in peace and war, and will benefit both states and families.

Next follows music, to which we will once more return; and here I shall venture to repeat my old paradox, that amusements have great influence on laws.

He who has been taught to play at the same games and with the same playthings will be content with the same laws.

There is no greater evil in a state than the spirit of innovation.

In the case of the seasons and winds, in the management of our bodies and in the habits of our minds, change is a dangerous thing.

And in everything but what is bad the same rule holds.

We all venerate and acquiesce in the laws to which we are accustomed; and if they have continued during long periods of time, and there is no remembrance of their ever having been otherwise, people are absolutely afraid to change them.

Now how can we create this quality of immobility in the laws?

I say, by not allowing innovations in the games and plays of children.

The children who are always having new plays, when grown up will be always having new laws.

Changes in mere fashions are not serious evils, but changes in our estimate of men's characters are most serious; and rhythms and music are representations of characters, and therefore we must avoid novelties in dance and song.

For securing permanence no better method can be imagined than that of the Egyptians.

'What is their method?'

They make a calendar for the year, arranging on what days the festivals of the various Gods shall be celebrated, and for each festival they consecrate an appropriate hymn and dance.

In our state a similar arrangement shall in the first instance be framed by certain individuals, and afterwards solemnly ratified by all the citizens.

He who introduces other hymns or dances shall be excluded by the priests and priestesses and the guardians of the law; and if he refuses to submit, he may be prosecuted for impiety.

But we must not be too ready to speak about such great matters.

Even a young man, when he hears something unaccustomed, stands and looks this way and that, like a traveller at a place where three ways meet; and at our age a man ought to be very sure of his ground in so singular an argument.

'Very true.'

Then, leaving the subject for further examination at some future time, let us proceed with our laws about education, for in this manner we may probably throw light upon our present difficulty.

'Let us do as you say.'

The ancients used the term nomoi to signify harmonious strains, and perhaps they fancied that there was a connexion between the songs and laws of a country.

And we say--Whosoever shall transgress the strains by law established is a transgressor of the laws, and shall be punished by the guardians of the law and by the priests and priestesses.

'Very good.'

How can we legislate about these consecrated strains without incurring ridicule?

Moulds or types must be first framed, and one of the types shall be--Abstinence from evil words at sacrifices.

When a son or brother blasphemes at a sacrifice there is a sound of ill-omen heard in the family; and many a chorus stands by the altar uttering inauspicious words, and he is crowned victor who excites the hearers most with lamentations.

Such lamentations should be reserved for evil days, and should be uttered only by hired mourners; and let the singers not wear circlets or ornaments of gold.

To avoid every evil word, then, shall be our first type.

'Agreed.'

Our second law or type shall be, that prayers ever accompany sacrifices; and our third, that, inasmuch as all prayers are requests, they shall be only for good; this the poets must be made to understand.

'Certainly.'

Have we not already decided that no gold or silver Plutus shall be allowed in our city?

And did not this show that we were dissatisfied with the poets?

And may we not fear that, if they are allowed to utter injudicious prayers, they will bring the greatest misfortunes on the state?

And we must therefore make a law that the poet is not to contradict the laws or ideas of the state; nor is he to show his poems to any private persons until they have first received the imprimatur of the director of education.

A fourth musical law will be to the effect that hymns and praises shall be offered to Gods, and to heroes and demigods.

Still another law will permit eulogies of eminent citizens, whether men or women, but only after their death.

As to songs and dances, we will enact as follows:--There shall be a selection made of the best ancient musical compositions and dances; these shall be chosen by judges, who ought not to be less than fifty years of age.

They will accept some, and reject or amend others, for which purpose they will call, if necessary, the poets themselves into council.

The severe and orderly music is the style in which to educate children, who, if they are accustomed to this, will deem the opposite kind to be illiberal, but if they are accustomed to the other, will count this to be cold and unpleasing.

'True.'

Further, a distinction should be made between the melodies of men and women.

Nature herself teaches that the grand or manly style should be assigned to men, and to women the moderate and temperate.

So much for the subjects of education.

But to whom are they to be taught, and when?

I must try, like the shipwright, who lays down the keel of a vessel, to build a secure foundation for the vessel of the soul in her voyage through life.

Human affairs are hardly serious, and yet a sad necessity compels us to be serious about them.

Let us, therefore, do our best to bring the matter to a conclusion.

'Very good.'

I say then, that God is the object of a man's most serious endeavours.

But man is created to be the plaything of the Gods; and therefore the aim of every one should be to pass through life, not in grim earnest, but playing at the noblest of pastimes, in another spirit from that which now prevails.

For the common opinion is, that work is for the sake of play, war of peace; whereas in war there is neither amusement nor instruction worth speaking of.

The life of peace is that which men should chiefly desire to lengthen out and improve.

They should live sacrificing, singing, and dancing, with the view of propitiating Gods and heroes.

I have already told you the types of song and dance which they should follow: and 'Some things,' as the poet well says, 'you will devise for yourself--others, God will suggest to you.'

These words of his may be applied to our pupils.

They will partly teach themselves, and partly will be taught by God, the art of propitiating Him; for they are His puppets, and have only a small portion in truth.

'You have a poor opinion of man.'

No wonder, when I compare him with God; but, if you are offended, I will place him a little higher.

Next follow the building for gymnasia and schools; these will be in the midst of the city, and outside will be riding-schools and archery-grounds.

In all of them there ought to be instructors of the young, drawn from foreign parts by pay, and they will teach them music and war.

Education shall be compulsory; the children must attend school, whether their parents like it or not; for they belong to the state more than to their parents.

And I say further, without hesitation, that the same education in riding and gymnastic shall be given both to men and women.

The ancient tradition about the Amazons confirms my view, and at the present day there are myriads of women, called Sauromatides, dwelling near the Pontus, who practise the art of riding as well as archery and the use of arms.

But if I am right, nothing can be more foolish than our modern fashion of training men and women differently, whereby the power the city is reduced to a half.

For reflect--if women are not to have the education of men, some other must be found for them, and what other can we propose?

Shall they, like the women of Thrace, tend cattle and till the ground; or, like our own, spin and weave, and take care of the house?

or shall they follow the Spartan custom, which is between the two?

--there the maidens share in gymnastic exercises and in music; and the grown women, no longer engaged in spinning, weave the web of life, although they are not skilled in archery, like the Amazons, nor can they imitate our warrior goddess and carry shield or spear, even in the extremity of their country's need.

Compared with our women, the Sauromatides are like men.

But your legislators, Megillus, as I maintain, only half did their work; they took care of the men, and left the women to take care of themselves.

'Shall we suffer the Stranger, Cleinias, to run down Sparta in this way?'

'Why, yes; for we cannot withdraw the liberty which we have already conceded to him.'

What will be the manner of life of men in moderate circumstances, freed from the toils of agriculture and business, and having common tables for themselves and their families which are under the inspection of magistrates, male and female?

Are men who have these institutions only to eat and fatten like beasts?

If they do, how can they escape the fate of a fatted beast, which is to be torn in pieces by some other beast more valiant than himself?

True, theirs is not the perfect way of life, for they have not all things in common; but the second best way of life also confers great blessings.

Even those who live in the second state have a work to do twice as great as the work of any Pythian or Olympic victor; for their labour is for the body only, but ours both for body and soul.

And this higher work ought to be pursued night and day to the exclusion of every other.

The magistrates who keep the city should be wakeful, and the master of the household should be up early and before all his servants; and the mistress, too, should awaken her handmaidens, and not be awakened by them.

Much sleep is not required either for our souls or bodies.

When a man is asleep, he is no better than if he were dead; and he who loves life and wisdom will take no more sleep than is necessary for health.

Magistrates who are wide awake at night are terrible to the bad; but they are honoured by the good, and are useful to themselves and the state.

When the morning dawns, let the boy go to school.

As the sheep need the shepherd, so the boy needs a master; for he is at once the most cunning and the most insubordinate of creatures.

Let him be taken away from mothers and nurses, and tamed with bit and bridle, being treated as a freeman in that he learns and is taught, but as a slave in that he may be chastised by all other freemen; and the freeman who neglects to chastise him shall be disgraced.

All these matters will be under the supervision of the Director of Education.

Him we will address as follows: We have spoken to you, O illustrious teacher of youth, of the song, the time, and the dance, and of martial strains; but of the learning of letters and of prose writings, and of music, and of the use of calculation for military and domestic purposes we have not spoken, nor yet of the higher use of numbers in reckoning divine things--such as the revolutions of the stars, or the arrangements of days, months, and years, of which the true calculation is necessary in order that seasons and festivals may proceed in regular course, and arouse and enliven the city, rendering to the Gods their due, and making men know them better.

There are, we say, many things about which we have not as yet instructed you--and first, as to reading and music: Shall the pupil be a perfect scholar and musician, or not even enter on these studies?

He should certainly enter on both:--to letters he will apply himself from the age of ten to thirteen, and at thirteen he will begin to handle the lyre, and continue to learn music until he is sixteen;

no shorter and no longer time will be allowed, however fond he or his parents may be of the pursuit.

The study of letters he should carry to the extent of simple reading and writing, but he need not care for calligraphy and tachygraphy, if his natural gifts do not enable him to acquire them in the three years.

And here arises a question as to the learning of compositions when unaccompanied with music, I mean, prose compositions.

They are a dangerous species of literature.

Speak then, O guardians of the law, and tell us what we shall do about them.

'You seem to be in a difficulty.'

Yes; it is difficult to go against the opinion of all the world.

'But have we not often already done so?'

Very true.

And you imply that the road which we are taking, though disagreeable to many, is approved by those whose judgment is most worth having.

'Certainly.'

Then I would first observe that we have many poets, comic as well as tragic, with whose compositions, as people say, youth are to be imbued and saturated.

Some would have them learn by heart entire poets; others prefer extracts.

Now I believe, and the general opinion is, that some of the things which they learn are good, and some bad.

'Then how shall we reject some and select others?'

A happy thought occurs to me; this long discourse of ours is a sample of what we want, and is moreover an inspired work and a kind of poem.

I am naturally pleased in reflecting upon all our words, which appear to me to be just the thing for a young man to hear and learn.

I would venture, then, to offer to the Director of Education this treatise of laws as a pattern for his guidance; and in case he should find any similar compositions, written or oral, I would have him carefully preserve them, and commit them in the first place to the teachers who are willing to learn them (he should turn off the teacher who refuses), and let them communicate the lesson to the young.

I have said enough to the teacher of letters; and now we will proceed to the teacher of the lyre.

He must be reminded of the advice which we gave to the sexagenarian minstrels; like them he should be quick to perceive the rhythms suited to the expression of virtue, and to reject the opposite.

With a view to the attainment of this object, the pupil and his instructor are to use the lyre because its notes are pure; the voice and string should coincide note for note: nor should there be complex harmonies and contrasts of intervals, or variations of times or rhythms.

Three years' study is not long enough to give a knowledge of these intricacies; and our pupils will have many things of more importance to learn.

The tunes and hymns which are to be consecrated for each festival have been already determined by us.

Having given these instructions to the Director of Music, let us now proceed to dancing and gymnastic, which must also be taught to boys and girls by masters and mistresses.

Our minister of education will have a great deal to do; and being an old man, how will he get through so much work?

There is no difficulty;--the law will provide him with assistants, male and female; and he will consider how important his office is, and how great the responsibility of choosing them.

For if education prospers, the vessel of state sails merrily along; or if education fails, the consequences are not even to be mentioned.

Of dancing and gymnastics something has been said already.

We include under the latter military exercises, the various uses of arms, all that relates to horsemanship, and military evolutions and tactics.

There should be public teachers of both arts, paid by the state, and women as well as men should be trained in them.

The maidens should learn the armed dance, and the grown-up women be practised in drill and the use of arms, if only in case of extremity, when the men are gone out to battle, and they are left to guard their families.

Birds and beasts defend their young, but women instead of fighting run to the altars, thus degrading man below the level of the animals.

'Such a lack of education, Stranger, is both unseemly and dangerous.'