If then the legislator ought to take care from the beginning, that the bodies of those that are educated are in the best condition, in the first place, he should pay attention to matrimony, when, and in what situation, it is requisite that the citizens should engage in the nuptial contract. With respect, however, to this alliance, it is necessary that the legislator should consider the parties, and their time of life, that their ages may accord, and that their bodily powers may not be discordant; the man, indeed, being still able to beget children, but the woman not being able; or the woman being able, but the man not. For these things produce strife and dissentions with each other. In the next place, the legislator should pay attention to the succession of children. For there ought not to be a very great interval of time between children and their parents; since when there is, the affection of the children is useless to the parents, and the children can derive no advantage from the protection of their fathers. Nor should the ages of the two be very near to each other; for this is attended with many difficulties. For less reverence is paid by children to such parents, as are nearly their equals in age, and complaints are produced through it in the economy of the family. Again, that we may return from this digression, care ought to be taken, that the bodies of the children may be conformable to the wish of the legislator. Nearly, therefore, all these particulars are accomplished through the same kind of attention. For since the ability of procreation is bounded, for the most part, in men by the seventieth year, but in women in the fiftieth, it is necessary that the commencement of marriage should be regulated with a view to these periods. The conjunction, however, in wedlock of young persons is bad for the procreation of children. For in all animals the offspring of young parents are imperfect, and such parents more frequently produce females than males, and bodies small in their form; so that this also must necessarily happen in the human species. As a proof of this, in those cities in which it is usual for young men and young women to be joined together in wedlock, the bodies of the inhabitants are imperfect and small. Farther still, in childbirth, also, young women suffer more than those that are not young, and many of them die. Hence, some persons say, that the oracle was given to the Troezenians on this account, because many of the inhabitants perished through their too early marriages, and not through gathering their fruits too soon. Again, it is also conducive to temperance, not to marry early in life; for young women through using copulation, appear to be more intemperate. The bodies of the males, also, are seen to be injured in their growth, if they copulate while the seed is yet increasing. For there is a certain definite time of the increase of this, which it does not exceed in becoming multiplied. Hence, the proper time for females to marry is when they are about eighteen years of age, but for males when they are about thirty-seven. For at this period, their conjunction in wedlock is when their bodies have arrived at their acme, and they will then cease to have children at a proper time. Again, with respect to the succession of the children, if they are born at the time which may reasonably be expected, they will be just arriving at their perfection, when their fathers are verging to their seventieth year. And thus much concerning the time which is proper for marriage. With respect, however, to the season of the year, which is adapted to this purpose, it is requisite to use that season, which many persons at present properly employ, and to appropriate the winter for the business of marriage. The married couple, also, ought to pay attention to the precepts of physicians and physiologists, in the procreation of children. For physicians have sufficiently spoken of the times adapted to the body for copulation; and physiologists praise the northern more than the southern winds for this purpose. What kind of bodies, however, are adapted to the procreation of children, will be better mentioned in the discussion on the education of children. But it will be sufficient to delineate this at present. For neither is the habit of athletics useful for the purposes of a political good habit of body, nor for the purposes of health and the procreation of children, nor a habit which is adapted to the offices of a slave and is debile, but that which is between both these. It is necessary, therefore, to have a habit of labour, but not of violent labour; nor a habit adapted to one labour only, like that of athletics, but fitted for the actions of freemen. And these things are equally necessary for men and women. Pregnant women, also, should take care of their bodies, neither neglecting proper exercise, nor being too sparing in their diet. But it is easy for the legislator to effect this, if he orders them every day to repair to the worship of the gods who preside over the birth of children, and to whom religious honours are paid on this account. The reasoning power, however, contrary to the body, ought to be kept in a more tranquil state. For as plants partake of the nature of the soil in which they grow, so likewise children appear to partake of the nature of the mother. But with respect to the exposing and nurturing of children, let it be a law, that nothing mutilated shall be nurtured. And in order to avoid having too great a number of children, if it be not permitted by the laws of the country to expose them, it is then requisite to define how many a man may have; and if any have more than that prescribed number, some means must be adopted that the fruit may be destroyed in the womb of the mother, before sense and life are ingenerated in it. For what is holy, and what is not in this affair, will be determined by sensation and life. Since, however, we have shown at what age the man and woman should be conjoined in wedlock, so likewise let us determine for how long a time it is proper to beget children. For the offspring of more elderly, in the same manner as the offspring of younger parents, are imperfect both in body and mind. But the progeny of old parents are imbecile. Hence, the proper time for the procreation of children is during the acme of the reasoning power. This, however, is in most men, as some of the poets say, who measure the age of the life of man by sevens, about the age of fifty. Hence, those who exceed this period by four or five years, ought to abstain from bringing children into existence; though it may be requisite they should have connection with women for the sake of health, or some other such-like cause. And with respect to connection with another woman, or another man, when a man and woman are betrothed, let it, in short, be by no means considered as proper. But if any one should appear to do a thing of this kind after the marriage is consummated, let him be punished by a disgrace adapted to his crime.
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