And to men living under this second polity there remains a work tobe accomplished which is far from being small or insignificant, but isthe greatest of all works, and ordained by the appointment ofrighteous law. For the life which may be truly said to be concernedwith the virtue of body and soul is twice, or more than twice, as fullof toil and trouble as the pursuit after Pythian and Olympicvictories, which debars a man from every employment of life. For thereought to be no bye-work interfering with the greater work of providingthe necessary exercise and nourishment for the body, and instructionand education for the soul. Night and day are not long enough forthe accomplishment of their perfection and consummation; and thereforeto this end all freemen ought to arrange the way in which they willspend their time during the whole course of the day, from morning tillevening and from evening till the morning of the next sunrise. Theremay seem to be some impropriety in the legislator determining minutelythe numberless details of the management of the house, includingsuch particulars as the duty of wakefulness in those who are to beperpetual watchmen of the whole city; for that any citizen shouldcontinue during the whole of any night in sleep, instead of being seenby all his servants, always the first to awake and get up-this,whether the regulation is to be called a law or only a practice,should be deemed base and unworthy of a freeman; also that themistress of the house should be awakened by her handmaidens instead ofherself first awakening them, is what the slaves, male and female, andthe serving-boys, and, if that were possible, everybody and everythingin the house should regard as base. If they rise early, they may allof them do much of their public and of their household business, asmagistrates in the city, and masters and mistresses in their privatehouses, before the sun is up. Much sleep is not required by nature,either for our souls or bodies, or for the actions which they perform.
For no one who is asleep is good for anything, any more than if hewere dead; but he of us who has the most regard for life and reasonkeeps awake as long he can, reserving only so much time for sleep asis expedient for health; and much sleep is not required, if thehabit of moderation be once rightly formed. Magistrates in stateswho keep awake at night are terrible to the bad, whether enemies orcitizens, and are honoured and reverenced by the just and temperate,and are useful to themselves and to the whole state.
A night which is passed in such a manner, in addition to all theabove-mentioned advantages, infuses a sort of courage into the mindsof the citizens. When the day breaks, the time has arrived for youthto go to their schoolmasters. Now neither sheep nor any otheranimals can live without a shepherd, nor can children be leftwithout tutors, or slaves without masters. And of all animals theboy is the most unmanageable, inasmuch as he has the fountain ofreason in him not yet regulated; he is the most insidious,sharp-witted, and insubordinate of animals. Wherefore he must be boundwith many bridles; in the first place, when he gets away frommothers and nurses, he must be under the management of tutors onaccount of his childishness and foolishness; then, again, being afreeman, he must be controlled by teachers, no matter what they teach,and by studies; but he is also a slave, and in that regard any freemanwho comes in his way may punish him and his tutor and hisinstructor, if any of them does anything wrong; and he who comesacross him and does not inflict upon him the punishment which hedeserves, shall incur the greatest disgrace; and let the guardian ofthe law, who is the director of education, see to him who coming inthe way of the offences which we have mentioned, does not chastisethem when he ought, or chastises them in a way which he ought not; lethim keep a sharp look-out, and take especial care of the training ofour children, directing their natures, and always turning them to goodaccording to the law.
But how can our law sufficiently train the director of education.