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parents will be too old to derive any pleasure from their affection, or to be of
any use to them. Nor ought they to be too nearly of an age; to youthful
marriages there are many objections—the children will be wanting in respect
to the parents, who will seem to be their contemporaries, and disputes will
arise in the management of the household. Thirdly, and this is the point from
which we digressed, the legislator must mold to his will the frames of newly-
born children. Almost all these objects may be secured by attention to one
point. Since the time of generation is commonly limited within the age of
seventy years in the case of a man, and of fifty in the case of a woman, the
commencement of the union should conform to these periods. The union of
male and female when too young is bad for the procreation of children; in all
other animals the offspring of the young are small and in-developed, and with
a tendency to produce female children, and therefore also in man, as is proved
by the fact that in those cities in which men and women are accustomed to
marry young, the people are small and weak; in childbirth also younger
women suffer more, and more of them die; some persons say that this was the
meaning of the response once given to the Troezenians—the oracle really
meant that many died because they married too young; it had nothing to do
with the ingathering of the harvest. It also conduces to temperance not to
marry too soon; for women who marry early are apt to be wanton; and in men
too the bodily frame is stunted if they marry while the seed is growing (for
there is a time when the growth of the seed, also, ceases, or continues to but a
slight extent). Women should marry when they are about eighteen years of
age, and men at seven and thirty; then they are in the prime of life, and the
decline in the powers of both will coincide. Further, the children, if their birth
takes place soon, as may reasonably be expected, will succeed in the
beginning of their prime, when the fathers are already in the decline of life,
and have nearly reached their term of three-score years and ten.
Thus much of the age proper for marriage: the season of the year should
also be considered; according to our present custom, people generally limit
marriage to the season of winter, and they are right. The precepts of
physicians and natural philosophers about generation should also be studied
by the parents themselves; the physicians give good advice about the
favorable conditions of the body, and the natural philosophers about the
winds; of which they prefer the north to the south.
What constitution in the parent is most advantageous to the offspring is a
subject which we will consider more carefully when we speak of the
education of children, and we will only make a few general remarks at
present. The constitution of an athlete is not suited to the life of a citizen, or to
health, or to the procreation of children, any more than the valetudinarian or
exhausted constitution, but one which is in a mean between them. A man’s
2087
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book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156