Ath.And if we can show that such is really the fact,then all these matters ought to be learned so far as is necessary for the avoidance of impiety;but if we cannot,they may be let alone,and let this be our decision.
Cle.Very good.
Ath.Enough of laws relating to education and learning.But hunting and similar pursuits in like manner claim our attention.For the legislator appears to have a duty imposed upon him which goes beyond mere legislation.There is something over and above law which lies in a region between admonition and law,and has several times occurred to us in the course of discussion;for example,in the education of very young children there were things,as we maintain,which are not to be defined,and to regard them as matters of positive law is a great absurdity.Now,our laws and the whole constitution of our state having been thus delineated,the praise of the virtuous citizen is not complete when he is described as the person who serves the laws best and obeys them most,but the higher form of praise is that which describes him as the good citizen who passes through life undefiled and is obedient to the words of the legislator,both when he is giving laws and when he assigns praise and blame.This is the truest word that can be spoken in praise of a citizen;and the true legislator ought not only to write his laws,but also to interweave with them all such things as seem to him honourable and dishonourable.And the perfect citizen ought to seek to strengthen these no less than the principles of law which are sanctioned by punishments.I will adduce an example which will clear up my meaning,and will be a sort of witness to my words.Hunting is of wide extent,and has a name under which many things are included,for there is a hunting of creatures in the water,and of creatures in the air,and there is a great deal of hunting of land animals of all kinds,and not of wild beasts only.The hunting after man is also worthy of consideration;there is the hunting after him in war,and there is often a hunting after him in the way of friendship,which is praised and also blamed;and there is thieving,and the hunting which is practised by robbers,and that of armies against armies.Now the legislator,in laying down laws about hunting,can neither abstain from noting these things,nor can he make threatening ordinances which will assign rules and penalties about all of them.What is he to do?
He will have to praise and blame hunting with a view to the exercise and pursuits of youth.And,on the other hand,the young man must listen obediently;neither pleasure nor pain should hinder him,and he should regard as his standard of action the praises and injunctions of the legislator rather than the punishments which he imposes by law.
This being premised,there will follow next in order moderate praise and censure of hunting;the praise being assigned to that kind which will make the souls of young men better,and the censure to that which has the opposite effect.
And now let us address young men in the form of a prayer for their welfare:O friends,we will say to them,may no desire or love of hunting in the sea,or of angling or of catching the creatures in the waters,ever take possession of you,either when you are awake or when you are asleep,by hook or with weels,which latter is a very lazy contrivance;and let not any desire of catching men and of piracy by sea enter into your souls and make you cruel and lawless hunters.And as to the desire of thieving in town or country,may it never enter into your most passing thoughts;nor let the insidious fancy of catching birds,which is hardly worthy of freemen,come into the head of any youth.There remains therefore for our athletes only the hunting and catching of land animals,of which the one sort is called hunting by night,in which the hunters sleep in turn and are lazy;this is not to be commended any more than that which has intervals of rest,in which the will strength of beasts is subdued by nets and snares,and not by the victory of a laborious spirit.
Thus,only the best kind of hunting is allowed at all-that of quadrupeds,which is carried on with horses and dogs and men's own persons,and they get the victory over the animals by running them down and striking them and hurling at them,those who have a care of godlike manhood taking them with their own hands.The praise and blame which is assigned to all these things has now been declared;and let the law be as follows:-Let no one hinder these who verily are sacred hunters from following the chase wherever and whither soever they will;but the hunter by night,who trusts to his nets and gins,shall not be allowed to hunt anywhere.The fowler in the mountains and waste places shall be permitted,but on cultivated ground and on consecrated wilds he shall not be permitted;and any one who meets him may stop him.As to the hunter in waters,he may hunt anywhere except in harbours or sacred streams or marshes or pools,provided only that he do not pollute the water with poisonous juices.And now we may say that all our enactments about education are complete.
Cle.Very good.