And now, assuming children of both sexes to have been born, itwill be proper for us to consider, in the next place, their nurtureand education; this cannot be left altogether unnoticed, and yet maybe thought a subject fitted rather for precept and admonition than forlaw. In private life there are many little things, not alwaysapparent, arising out of the pleasures and pains and desires ofindividuals, which run counter to the intention of the legislator, andmake the characters of the citizens various and dissimilar:-this is anevil in states; for by reason of their smallness and frequentoccurrence, there would be an unseemliness and want of propriety inmaking them penal by law; and if made penal, they are thedestruction of the written law because mankind get the habit offrequently transgressing the law in small matters. The result isthat you cannot legislate about them, and still less can you besilent. I speak somewhat darkly, but I shall endeavour also to bringmy wares into the light of day, for I acknowledge that at presentthere is a want of clearness in what I am saying.
Cleinias. Very true.
Athenian. Stranger. Am I not right in maintaining that a goodeducation is that which tends most, to the improvement of mind andbody?
Cle. Undoubtedly.
Ath. And nothing can be plainer than that the fairest bodies arethose which grow up from infancy in the best and straightest manner?
Cle. Certainly.
Ath. And do we not further observe that the first shoot of everyliving thing is by far the greatest and fullest? Many will evencontend that a man at twenty-five does not reach twice the heightwhich he attained at five.
Cle. True.
Ath. Well, and is not rapid growth without proper and abundantexercise the source endless evils in the body?
Cle. Yes.
Ath. And the body should have the most exercise when it receivesmost nourishment?
Cle. But, Stranger, are we to impose this great amount of exerciseupon newly-born infants?
Ath. Nay, rather on the bodies of infants still unborn.
Cle. What do you mean, my good sir? In the process of gestation?
Ath. Exactly. I am not at all surprised that you have never heard ofthis very peculiar sort of gymnastic applied to such little creatures,which, although strange, I will endeavour to explain to you.
Cle. By all means.
Ath. The practice is more easy for us to understand than for you, byreason of certain amusements which are carried to excess by us atAthens. Not only boys, but often older persons, are in the habit ofkeeping quails and cocks, which they train to fight one another. Andthey are far from thinking that the contests in which they stir themup to fight with one another are sufficient exercise; for, in additionto this, they carry them about tucked beneath their armpits, holdingthe smaller birds in their hands, the larger under their arms, andgo for a walk of a great many miles for the sake of health, that is tosay, not their own, health, but the health of the birds; wherebythey prove to any intelligent person, that all bodies are benefited byshakings and movements, when they are moved without weariness, whethermotion proceeds from themselves, or is caused by a swing, or at sea,or on horseback, or by other bodies in whatever way moving, and thatthus gaining the mastery over food and drink, they are able toimpart beauty and health and strength. But admitting all this, whatfollows? Shall we make a ridiculous law that the pregnant womanshall walk about and fashion the embryo within as we fashion waxbefore it hardens, and after birth swathe the infant for two years?
Suppose that we compel nurses, under penalty of a legal fine, to bealways carrying the children somewhere or other, either to thetemples, or into the country, or to their relations, houses, untilthey are well able to stand, and to take care that their limbs are notdistorted by leaning on them when they are too young-they shouldcontinue to carry them until the infant has completed its thirdyear; the nurses should be strong, and there should be more than oneof them. Shall these be our rules, and shall we impose a penalty forthe neglect of them? No, no; the penalty of which we were speakingwill fall upon our own heads more than enough.
Cle. What penalty?
Ath. Ridicule, and the difficulty of getting the feminine andservant-like dispositions of the nurses to comply.
Cle. Then why was there any need to speak of the matter at all?
Ath. The reason is that masters and freemen in states, when theyhear of it, are very likely to arrive at a true conviction thatwithout due regulation of private life in cities, stability in thelaying down of laws is hardly to be expected; and he who makes thisreflection may himself adopt the laws just now mentioned, and,adopting them, may order his house and state well and be happy.
Cle. Likely enough.
Ath. And therefore let us proceed with our legislation until we havedetermined the exercises which are suited to the souls of youngchildren, in the same manner in which we have begun to go throughthe rules relating to their bodies.
Cle. By all means.
Ath. Let us assume, then, as a first principle in relation both tothe body and soul of very young creatures, that nursing and movingabout by day and night is good for them all, and that the younger theyare, the more they will need it; infants should live, if that werepossible, as if they were always rocking at sea. This is the lessonwhich we may gather from the experience of nurses, and likewise fromthe use of the remedy of motion in the rites of the Corybantes; forwhen mothers want their restless children to go to sleep they do notemploy rest, but, on the contrary, motion-rocking them in theirarms; nor do they give them silence, but they sing to them and lapthem in sweet strains; and the Bacchic women are cured of their frenzyin the same manner by the use of the dance and of music.
Cle. Well, Stranger, and what is the reason of this?
Ath. The reason is obvious.
Cle. What?
Ath. The affection both of the Bacchantes and of the children isan emotion of fear, which springs out of an evil habit of the soul.