第61章 BOOK VI(12)

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 drachmae,and he who is of the second dass a fine of seventy drachmae;the third class shall pay sixty drachmae,and the fourth thirty drachmae,and let the money be sacred to Here;he who does not pay the fine annually shall owe ten times the sum,which the treasurer of the goddess shall exact;and if he fails in doing so,let him be answerable and give an account of the.money at his audit.He who refuses to marry shall be thus punished in money,and also be deprived of all honour which the younger show to the elder;let no young man voluntarily obey him,and if he attempt to punish any one,let every one come to the rescue and defend the injured person,and he who is present and does not come to the rescue,shall be pronounced by the law to be a coward and a bad citizen.Of the marriage portion I have already spoken;and again I say for the instruction of poor men that he who neither gives nor receives a dowry on account of poverty,has a compensation;for the citizens of our state are provided with the necessaries of life,and wives will be less likely to be insolent,and husbands to be mean and subservient to them on account of property.And he who obeys this law will do a noble action;but he who will not obey,and gives or receives more than fifty drachmae as the price of the marriage garments if he be of the lowest,or more than a mina,or a mina and-a-half,if he be of the third or second classes,or two minae if he be of the highest class,shall owe to the public treasury a similar sum,and that which is given or received shall be sacred to Here and Zeus;and let the treasurers of these Gods exact the money,as was said before about the unmarried-that the treasurers of Here were to exact the money,or pay the fine themselves.

The betrothal by a father shall be valid in the first degree,that by a grandfather in the second degree,and in the third degree,betrothal by brothers who have the same father;but if there are none of these alive,the betrothal by a mother shall be valid in like manner;in cases of unexampled fatality,the next of kin and the guardians shall have authority.What are to be the rites before marriages,or any other sacred acts,relating either to future,present,or past marriages,shall be referred to the interpreters;and he who follows their advice may be satisfied.Touching the marriage festival,they shall assemble not more than five male and five female friends of both families;and a like number of members of the family of either sex,and no man shall spend more than his means will allow;he who is of the richest class may spend a mina-he who is of the second,half a mina,and in the same proportion as the census of each decreases:all men shall praise him who is obedient to the law;but he who is disobedient shall be punished by the guardians of the law as a man wanting in true taste,and uninstructed in the laws of bridal song.Drunkenness is always improper,except at the festivals of the God who gave wine;and peculiarly dangerous,when a man is engaged in the business of marriage;at such a crisis of their lives a bride and bridegroom ought to have all their wits about them-they ought to take care that their offspring may be born of reasonable beings;for on what day or night Heaven will give them increase,who can say?Moreover,they ought not to begetting children when their bodies are dissipated by intoxication,but their offspring should be compact and solid,quiet and compounded properly;whereas the drunkard is all abroad in all his actions,and beside himself both in body and soul.Wherefore,also,the drunken man is bad and unsteady in sowing the seed of increase,and is likely to beget offspring who will be unstable and untrustworthy,and cannot be expected to walk straight either in body or mind.Hence during the whole year and all his life long,and especially while he is begetting children,ought to take care and not intentionally do what is injurious to health,or what involves insolence and wrong;for he cannot help leaving the impression of himself on the souls and bodies of his offspring,and he begets children in every way inferior.And especially on the day and night of marriage should a man abstain from such things.For the beginning,which is also a God dwelling in man,preserves all things,if it meet with proper respect from each individual.He who marries is further to consider that one of the two houses in the lot is the nest and nursery of his young,and there he is to marry and make a home for himself and bring up his children,going away from his father and mother.For in friendships there must be some degree of desire,in order to cement and bind together diversities of character;but excessive intercourse not having the desire which is created by time,insensibly dissolves friendships from a feeling of satiety;wherefore a man and his wife shall leave to his and her father and mother their own dwelling-places,and themselves go as to a colony and dwell there,and visit and be visited by their parents;and they shall beget and bring up children,handing on the torch of life from one generation to another,and worshipping the Gods according to law for ever.