Greek Texts & Translations

In what way, then, should the State at large rear up infants that are still incapable of understanding speech or receiving other kinds of education?

In this way: it is usual for every creature that is born—and the human child as much as any— to utter at once a loud outcry; and, what is more, the child is the most liable of them all to be afflicted with tears as well as outcries.

Quite true.

When nurses are trying to discover what a baby wants, they judge by these very same signs in offering it things. 792aIf it remains silent when the thing is offered, they conclude that it is the right thing, but the wrong thing if it weeps and cries out. Thus infants indicate what they like by means of weepings and outcries—truly no happy signals!—and this period of infancy lasts not less than three years, which is no small fraction of one's time to spend ill or well.

You are right.

When a man is peevish and not cheerful at all, do you not regard him 792bas a doleful person and more full, as a rule, of complaints than a good man ought to be?

I certainly regard him as such.

Well then, suppose one should try to secure by every available means that our nursling should experience the least possible amount of grief or fear or pain of any kind, may we not believe that by this means the soul of the nursling would be rendered more bright and cheerful?

Plainly it would, Stranger; and most of all if one should provide him 792cwith many pleasures.

There, my good sir, I must part company with Clinias. For in our eyes such a proceeding is the worst possible form of corruption, for it occurs in every instance at the very beginning of the child's nurture. ^note But let us consider whether I am right.

Explain your view.

I believe that the issue before us is one of extreme importance. You also, Megillus, consider the matter, I pray, and lend us the aid of your judgment. What I maintain is this: that the right life ought neither to pursue pleasures nor to shun pains entirely; 792dbut it ought to embrace that middle state of cheerfulness (as I termed it a moment ago), which—as we all rightly suppose, on the strength of an inspired utterance—is the very condition of God himself. And I maintain that whosoever of us would be godlike must pursue this state of soul, neither becoming himself prone at all to pleasures, even as he will not be devoid of pain, not allowing any other person—old or young, man or woman—to be in this condition and least of all, 792eso far as possible, the new-born babe. For because of the force of habit, it is in infancy that the whole character is most effectually determined. ^note I should assert further—were it not that it would be taken as a jest—that women with child, above all others, should be cared for during their years of pregnancy, lest any of them should indulge in repeated and intense pleasures or pains, instead of cultivating, during the whole of that period, a cheerful, bright and calm demeanor.

There is no need for you, Stranger, to ask Megillus 793awhich of us two has made the truer statement. For I myself grant you that all men ought to shun the life of unmixed pain and pleasure, and follow always a middle path. So all is well both with your statement and with my reply.

You are perfectly right, Clinias. So then let the three of us together consider this next point.

What is that?

That all the regulations which we are now expounding are what are commonly termed “unwritten laws.” And these as a whole are just the same as 793bwhat men call “ancestral customs.” Moreover, the view which was recently ^note impressed upon us, that one should neither speak of these as “laws” nor yet leave them without mention, was a right view. For it is these that act as bonds in every constitution, forming a link between all its laws (both those already enacted in writing and those still to be enacted), exactly like ancestral customs of great antiquity, which, if well established and practiced, serve to wrap up securely the laws already written, whereas if they perversely 793cgo aside from the right way, like builders' props that collapse under the middle of a house, they bring everything else tumbling down along with them, one thing buried under another, first the props themselves and then the fair superstructure, once the ancient supports have fallen down. Bearing this in mind, Clinias, we must clamp together this State of yours, which is a new one, by every possible means, omitting nothing great or small 793din the way of laws, customs and institutions; for it is by all such means that a State is clamped together, and neither kind of law is permanent without the other. Consequently, we need not be surprised if the influx of a number of apparently trivial customs or usages should make our laws rather long.

What you say is quite true, and we will bear it in mind.

If one could carry out these regulations methodically, and not merely apply them casually,