BOOK VII - CHAPTER XVII

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_ When a child is born it must be supposed that the strength of its body
will depend greatly upon the quality of its food. Now whoever will
examine into the nature of animals, and also observe those people who
are very desirous their children should acquire a warlike habit, will
find that they feed them chiefly with milk, as being best accommodated
to their bodies, but without wine, to prevent any distempers: those
motions also which are natural to their age are very serviceable; and
to prevent any of their limbs from being crooked, on account of their
extreme ductility, some people even now use particular machines that
their bodies may not be distorted. It is also useful to enure them to
the cold when they are very little; for this is very serviceable for
their health; and also to enure them to the business of war; for which
reason it is customary with many of the barbarians to dip their
children in rivers when the water is cold; with others to clothe them
very slightly, as among the Celts; for whatever it is possible to
accustom children to, it is best to accustom them to it at first, but
to do it by degrees: besides, boys have naturally a habit of loving
the cold, on account of the heat. These, then, and such-like things
ought to be the first object of our attention: the next age to this
continues till the child is five years old; during which time it is
best to teach him nothing at all, not even necessary labour, lest it
should hinder his growth; but he should be accustomed to use so much
motion as not to acquire a lazy habit of body; which he will get by
various means and by play also: his play also ought to be neither
illiberal nor too laborious nor lazy. Their governors and preceptors
also should take care what sort of tales and stories it may be proper
for them to hear; for all these ought to pave the way for their future
instruction: for which reason the generality of their play should be
imitations of what they are afterwards to do seriously. They too do
wrong who forbid by laws the disputes between boys and their quarrels,
for they contribute to increase their growth--as they are a sort of
exercise to the body: for the struggles of the heart and the
compression of the spirits give strength to those who labour, which
happens to boys in their disputes. The preceptors also ought to have
an eye upon their manner of life, and those with whom they converse;
and to take care that they are never in the company of slaves. At this
time and till they are seven [1336b] years old it is necessary that
they should be educated at home. It is also very proper to banish,
both from their hearing and sight, everything which is illiberal and
the like. Indeed it is as much the business of the legislator as
anything else, to banish every indecent expression out of the state:
for from a permission to speak whatever is shameful, very quickly
arises the doing it, and this particularly with young people: for
which reason let them never speak nor hear any such thing: but if it
appears that any freeman has done or said anything that is forbidden
before he is of age to be thought fit to partake of the common meals,
let him be punished by disgrace and stripes; but if a person above
that age does so, let him be treated as you would a slave, on account
of his being infamous. Since we forbid his speaking everything which
is forbidden, it is necessary that he neither sees obscene stories nor
pictures; the magistrates therefore are to take care that there are no
statues or pictures of anything of this nature, except only to those
gods to whom the law permits them, and to which the law allows persons
of a certain age to pay their devotions, for themselves, their wives,
and children. It should also be illegal for young persons to be
present either at iambics or comedies before they are arrived at that
age when they are allowed to partake of the pleasures of the table:
indeed a good education will preserve them from all the evils which
attend on these things. We have at present just touched upon this
subject; it will be our business hereafter, when we properly come to
it, to determine whether this care of children is unnecessary, or, if
necessary, in what manner it must be done; at present we have only
mentioned it as necessary. Probably the saying of Theodoras, the
tragic actor, was not a bad one: That he would permit no one, not even
the meanest actor, to go upon the stage before him, that he might
first engage the ear of the audience. The same thing happens both in
our connections with men and things: what we meet with first pleases
best; for which reason children should be kept strangers to everything
which is bad, more particularly whatsoever is loose and offensive to
good manners. When five years are accomplished, the two next may be
very properly employed in being spectators of those exercises they
will afterwards have to learn. There are two periods into which
education ought to be divided, according to the age of the child; the
one is from his being seven years of age to the time of puberty; the
other from thence till he is one-and-twenty: for those who divide ages
by the number seven [1337a] are in general wrong: it is much better to
follow the division of nature; for every art and every instruction is
intended to complete what nature has left defective: we must first
consider if any regulation whatsoever is requisite for children; in
the next place, if it is advantageous to make it a common care, or
that every one should act therein as he pleases, which is the general
practice in most cities; in the third place, what it ought to be. _

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