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ought to seek after what is suitable and appropriate. For, as Cleinias says,
every law should have a suitable prelude.
Cleinias. You recollect at the right moment, Stranger, and do not miss the
opportunity which the argument affords of saying a word in season.
Athenian. I thank you. We will say to him who is born of good parents—O
my son, you ought to make such a marriage as wise men would approve. Now
they would advise you neither to avoid a poor marriage, nor specially to
desire a rich one; but if other things are equal, always to honour inferiors, and
with them to form connections;—this will be for the benefit of the city and of
the families which are united; for the equable and symmetrical tends infinitely
more to virtue than the unmixed. And he who is conscious of being too
headstrong, and carried away more than is fitting in all his actions, ought to
desire to become the relation of orderly parents; and he who is of the opposite
temper ought to seek the opposite alliance. Let there be one word concerning
all marriages:—Every man shall follow, not after the marriage which is most
pleasing to himself, but after that which is most beneficial to the state. For
somehow every one is by nature prone to that which is likest to himself, and
in this way the whole city becomes unequal in property and in disposition;
and hence there arise in most states the very results which we least desire to
happen. Now, to add to the law an express provision, not only that the rich
man shall not marry into the rich family, nor the powerful into the family of
the powerful, but that the slower natures shall be compelled to enter into
marriage with the quicker, and the quicker with the slower, may awaken anger
as well as laughter in the minds of many; for there is a difficulty in perceiving
that the city ought to be well mingled like a cup, in which the maddening
wine is hot and fiery, but when chastened by a soberer God, receives a fair
associate and becomes an excellent and temperate drink. Yet in marriage no
one is able to see that the same result occurs. Wherefore also the law must let
alone such matters, but we should try to charm the spirits of men into
believing the equability of their children’s disposition to be of more
importance than equality in excessive fortune when they marry; and him who
is too desirous of making a rich marriage we should endeavour to turn aside
by reproaches, not, however, by any compulsion of written law.
Let this then be our exhortation concerning marriage, and let us remember
what was said before—that a man should cling to immortality, and leave
behind him children’s children to be the servants of God in his place for ever.
All this and much more may be truly said by way of prelude about the duty of
marriage. But if a man will not listen and remains unsocial and alien among
his fellow–citizens, and is still unmarried at thirty–five years of age, let him
pay a yearly fine;—he who of the highest class shall pay a fine of a hundred
1448
zurĂĽck zum
Buch The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Titel
- The Complete Plato
- Autor
- Plato
- Datum
- ~347 B.C.
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 1612
- Schlagwörter
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Kategorien
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International