Book VII, 1333b–1337a

1333b1but rather live in peace and enjoy leisure; and they must do what is necessary and useful, but still more what is noble. Therefore toward these ends we must educate both those who are still children and people of every other age that needs5 education.

Yet those Greeks who now seem to have the best constitutions, and the legislators who established these constitutions, appear neither to have ordered their constitutional arrangements toward the best end nor to have directed their laws and education toward all the virtues. Instead, they have crudely inclined1333b10 toward the virtues that seem useful and better suited to gaining an advantage. In much the same way, some later writers have also declared this same opinion. For in praising the constitution of the Lacedaemonians, they admire the legislator's purpose, because he framed all his laws with a view to conquest and war. These claims15 are easily refuted by argument, and have now been refuted by events. Just as most people covet mastery over many, because it brings an abundant supply of the goods of fortune, so Thibron too evidently admired the legislator of the Laconians, as did each of the other20 writers on their constitution, because their training to face dangers enabled them to rule over many. Yet it is clear that, since the Laconians no longer possess their empire, they are not happy, nor is their legislator good. And this is absurd, if, while they abide by his laws and nothing prevents25 their use of them, they have lost the ability to live nobly. Nor do they understand correctly the kind of rule that a legislator ought evidently to honor. For rule over free people is nobler than rule as a master, and more in keeping with virtue. Moreover, we must not on this account consider a city happy30 and praise its legislator, because he trained it to conquer so as to rule its neighbors. Such things bring great harm. For clearly any citizen capable of this must also try to pursue it, so that he may rule his own city. This is precisely the charge the Laconians bring against King Pausanias, although35 he held so great an honor.

None of these arguments or laws, then, is suited to a city, or beneficial, or true. For the same things are best both for individuals and for the community, and the legislator must implant them in people's souls. Nor should they practice training in warfare for the purpose of enslaving1333b40 those who do not deserve it, but first so that they themselves may not be enslaved to others, and next so that they may seek leadership for the1334a1 benefit of the ruled,

and not mastery over everyone; and third, to exercise mastery over those who deserve to be slaves. That the legislator should take greater care to arrange his laws concerning warfare, as well as his other legislation, with leisure1334a5 and peace as their purpose is an argument to which events bear witness. For most cities of this kind survive while they are at war, but perish when they have gained an empire. They lose their temper, like iron, when they live in peace. The legislator is responsible, because he did not educate them to be capable of leisure.

1334a10Since the end appears to be the same for people collectively and individually, and the same standard must apply to the best man and the best constitution, it is evident that the virtues directed toward leisure must be present. For the end,15 as has often been said, is peace for war, and leisure for occupation. Among the virtues useful for leisure and the conduct of life are both those whose activity belongs to leisure and those whose activity belongs to occupation. For many necessities must be available if leisure is to be possible. Therefore the city ought to be temperate,20 courageous, and enduring. For, as the proverb says, there is no leisure for slaves, and those unable to face danger courageously are slaves to their attackers. Courage and endurance, then, are needed for occupation, philosophy for leisure, and temperance and justice at both times,25 but more especially when people live in peace and enjoy leisure. For war compels them to be just and temperate, whereas the enjoyment of good fortune and leisure in peace make them more insolent. Much justice and much temperance, then, are needed by those who seem to fare best30 and who enjoy everything accounted blessed—as would any who dwell, as the poets say, in the Isles of the Blessed. For these people will most need philosophy, temperance, and justice, the more they enjoy leisure amid an abundance of such goods. It is therefore evident why a city that is to be happy35 and good must share in these virtues. For if it is shameful to be unable to use good things, it is still more shameful to be unable to use them in leisure: to appear good when occupied and at war, but slavish when living in peace and at leisure.40 Therefore virtue must not be cultivated as the city of the Lacedaemonians cultivates it.

For they differ from others not in this respect,1334b1 that they do not regard the same things as the greatest goods, but in the fact that these are attained more through a certain virtue. But since these are greater goods, and the enjoyment of them greater than that of the virtues […]. […] and that it is for its own sake, is evident5 from these considerations. How, and by what means, it will be attained is what we must now examine.

We have already distinguished the need for nature, habit, and reason. Of these, what sort of people they must be by nature has been determined earlier; it remains to examine whether they should first be educated through reason or through habits. For these must1334b10 accord with one another in the best possible harmony. Reason may miss the best starting point, and habits may likewise have led one astray. First, then, this much is evident, as in other matters: coming to be proceeds from a starting point, and the end proceeds from a starting point that is itself another end.15 Reason and intellect are the end of our nature, so our coming to be and the cultivation of our habits must be prepared with a view to them. Next, just as soul and body are two, so we see two parts in the soul, the irrational and the part possessing reason; and their dispositions are two in number,20 one being desire and the other intellect. Just as the body is prior to the soul in coming to be, so the irrational part is prior to the part possessing reason. This too is evident. For spirit and wish, and also appetite, are present in children from birth, whereas reasoning and intellect, as they advance25 in age, naturally develop. Therefore care for the body must necessarily come before care for the soul, and care for desire must come next; yet care for desire must be for the sake of intellect, and care for the body for the sake of the soul.

If, then, the legislator must see from the beginning that1334b30 the bodies of those brought up become as good as possible, he must first attend to their union: when, and in what condition, they should enter into marital intercourse with one another. He must legislate for this partnership with an eye both to the partners themselves and to their span of life, so that they reach the decline of their years35 at the same time, and their capacities do not fall out of harmony, with the man still able to beget children but the woman unable, or the woman able but the man unable. For this causes both faction and differences between them. Next he must consider the succession of children. For children must neither be too far behind in40 age compared with their fathers, since the benefit from the children is then of no use to the elderly, nor, from the1335a1 fathers, assistance to the children,

nor be too close to them in age. For this brings many difficulties: such children have less reverence, as though they were of the same age, and closeness in age leads to complaints concerning household management. Further, there is the matter from which we began and came1335a5 to this discussion: how the bodies of those born may conform to the legislator's intention.

Almost all these things are secured by attention to one point. For since the limit of procreation is fixed, generally speaking, at seventy years at the latest for men, and fifty1335a10 for women, the beginning of their union, in respect of age, must be timed to reach these limits together. The mating of the young is poor for the production of children. For in all animals the offspring of the young are imperfect, more often female, and small in form; hence the same must necessarily occur15 among human beings. Here is evidence: in all cities where it is customary to pair young men and young women, their offspring are imperfect and small in body. Moreover, young women suffer more in childbirth, and more of them die. For this reason, some say that the oracle was given on such an account20 to the Troezenians, because many women were dying through marrying too young, and not with reference to the gathering of the harvest. It is also advantageous for temperance to give women in marriage when they are older, since those who have sexual intercourse when young are thought to be more intemperate. The bodies of males too25 seem to be injured in their growth if they have intercourse while their seed is still increasing. For this too has a definite period, beyond which its increase does not continue, or only a little. Therefore it is fitting to unite women in marriage at about eighteen years of age, and men at thirty-seven or a little earlier.30 For at these ages their union will take place while their bodies are in their prime, and will arrive at the cessation of childbearing at a suitable time for both. Moreover, the children's succession will come as they begin their prime, if birth follows at once as may reasonably be expected, while the parents' age will already have declined35 toward the number of seventy years.

We have spoken, then, about when their union should take place. As for the season of the year, they should follow the times most people use: even now they rightly determine to begin this life together in winter. The partners themselves should also attend, with a view to producing children, both to1335a40 what physicians say and to what students of nature say. For physicians give sufficient advice about the right bodily conditions,

1335b1and students of nature about the winds, favoring northerly over southerly winds. What bodily conditions in the parents would most benefit their offspring must be discussed more carefully in our treatment of the supervision of children;5 but it is enough even now to give an outline. For neither the condition of athletes is useful for civic fitness, or for health and the production of children, nor a pampered condition or one excessively worn by toil, but the condition between these. Their condition, then, must be trained, but trained by exertions that are not violent, nor directed toward only one10 activity, as is the condition of athletes, but toward the activities of free people. These things must hold alike for men and women.

Pregnant women must also care for their bodies, neither remaining inactive nor taking insufficient food. The legislator can readily bring this about by prescribing each1335b15 day a walk to worship the gods who have been allotted the honor of presiding over birth. But their minds, unlike their bodies, should pass the time more gently. For offspring evidently draw upon the woman carrying them, just as plants draw upon the earth. As for the exposure and20 rearing of offspring, let there be a law that no deformed child is to be reared; but if the established customs forbid the exposure of any offspring because of their number, a limit must be set to the number of children. If some couples conceive beyond this limit, before sensation and life arise,25 an abortion must be procured. For sensation and life will determine what is holy and what is not. Since the initial age has been determined for a man and a woman, at which they should begin their union, let the length of time for which they should perform this service of producing children also be determined. For older parents'30 offspring, like those of younger parents, are imperfect in both body and mind, while those of the aged are weak. Therefore the limit should accord with the prime of the mind. In most people this occurs at the age mentioned by some of the poets who measure age in periods of seven years, around fifty35 years. Thus, when a man exceeds this age by four or five years, he should be released from producing children for the community; for the rest of his life, intercourse should evidently be for health or some other such reason. As for intercourse with another woman or another man, let it simply be regarded as ignoble40 for anyone to be found engaging in it in any way whatever, when he is and is called a husband.

During the period of producing children,1336a1 if anyone is found doing such a thing, let him be punished by a loss of honor appropriate to the offense.

Once children are born, we must consider that nourishment makes a great difference to the strength of their bodies, depending on what kind1336a5 it may be. An examination both of other animals and of peoples who take care to develop a warlike condition shows that nourishment rich in milk is most suited to their bodies, and that it should contain less wine because of diseases. Moreover, as much movement as is possible at this age is beneficial.10 To prevent their limbs from becoming distorted through their softness, some peoples even now use certain mechanical devices that keep the bodies of such children straight. It is also beneficial to accustom them to cold from early childhood. For both health and military15 activities, this is most useful. Hence among many non-Greek peoples there is a custom: some immerse newborn children in a cold river, while others clothe them in little covering, as the Celts do. For in everything to which they can be accustomed, it is better to accustom them from the beginning, but to do so gradually.20 Children's bodily condition, through its warmth, is naturally well suited to training in enduring cold.

For their earliest age, then, it is beneficial to provide care of this kind and similar care. In the age following this, up to five years, when it is not yet fitting to introduce any learning1336a25 or compulsory exertions, lest they hinder growth, children must receive enough movement to avoid bodily inactivity. This should be provided both through other activities and through play. Their games must be neither unworthy of free people, nor exhausting, nor lax.30 The rulers called supervisors of children should also attend to the kinds of stories and tales that children of this age ought to hear. For all such things must prepare the way for their later pursuits. Hence most games should be imitations of the things they will later do in earnest. As for the straining35 of children and their crying, those who forbid them in their laws are wrong to prohibit them, for they contribute to growth. In a way they exercise the body: holding the breath produces strength in those exerting themselves, and this also happens in children when they strain.

Inspection is required:1336a40 the supervisors of children must examine how they pass their time, in other respects and also to ensure that they spend as little time as possible with slaves. For at this age,

1336b1and up to seven years, they must be brought up at home. It is therefore reasonable to expect that, even at this age, they will acquire what is unworthy of free people from what they hear and see. In general, then, foul speech from the city, as much as anything else, must be5 banished by the legislator, for speaking readily of anything shameful brings doing it close at hand. Above all, it must be kept from the young, so that they neither say nor hear anything of the kind. If anyone is found saying or doing any of the forbidden things, a free person who is not yet deemed worthy to recline10 at the common messes should be punished by dishonor and blows; but one older than this age should be punished with forms of dishonor suited to slaves, for his slavish conduct. Since we banish speaking of such things, it is clear that we also banish viewing indecent pictures or hearing indecent stories. Care should therefore be taken by the15 rulers that no statue or picture represents such acts, except in the precincts of certain gods to whom the law also assigns ribaldry. To these the law permits people whose age is sufficiently advanced to honor the gods on behalf of themselves, their children, and their wives.20 But younger people should not be allowed to attend performances of iambic verse or comedy before they reach the age at which they may also take part in reclining at meals and in intoxication, and their education will make them altogether immune to the harm arising from such things.

For now we have treated this subject in passing.1336b25 Later we must consider it carefully and determine it more fully, first examining whether these things should be permitted or not, and how they should be permitted. For the present we have mentioned it as necessary. Perhaps Theodorus, the tragic actor, spoke well on this point. For he never allowed anyone to appear before him, not even30 one of the lesser actors, on the ground that audiences grow attached to what they first hear. The same thing happens in our relations both with people and with things: we always cherish the first more. Hence we must make everything base unfamiliar to the young, especially whatever35 contains depravity or ill will. Once the five years have passed, during the two years up to seven they should already observe the studies they will have to learn themselves. There are two ages into which education must necessarily be divided: the period from seven to puberty, and then the period from40 puberty to twenty-one years. For those who divide ages into periods of seven years speak, for the most part, not1337a1 without reason,

but we must follow nature's divisions. For every art and education seeks to fill out what nature leaves lacking. First, then, we must examine whether some system should be established for children; next, whether a common arrangement is advantageous1337a5 for their care, or an individual one, as happens now in most cities; and third, what this care ought to be.

1333b1but more importantly to live in peace and have leisure. They must also do what is necessary and useful, but still more what is noble. So education must aim at these goals, both for children and for people of other ages who need5 education.

The Greeks who are now thought to have the best constitutions, and the lawmakers who established those constitutions, clearly haven't organized their constitutions around the best goal. Nor have they directed their laws and education toward all the virtues. Instead, they have crudely leaned1333b10 toward the virtues that seem useful and more likely to bring gains. Some later writers have expressed the same view. In praising the constitution of Lacedaemon, they admire the lawmaker's aim: he made all his laws for conquest and war. These views15 are easy to refute by argument, and events have now refuted them too. Most people envy mastery over many others because it brings a large supply of the goods of fortune. In the same way, Thibron clearly admires the Laconians' lawmaker, as does every other20 writer on their constitution, because their training for danger enabled them to rule many people. Yet it's clear that, now the Laconians no longer rule, they aren't happy, and their lawmaker wasn't good. It's ridiculous if they have kept his laws, with nothing preventing them25 from using those laws, but have lost the ability to live well. They also misunderstand the kind of rule a lawmaker should be seen to honor. Rule over free people is nobler and involves more virtue than ruling as a master. Nor should we consider a city happy30 and praise its lawmaker because he trained it to conquer and rule its neighbors. This does great harm. Clearly, any citizen who can do this must also try to pursue it, so that he can rule his own city. This is just what the Laconians accuse King Pausanias of doing, despite35 the great honor he held.

None of these arguments or laws is fit for a city, useful, or true. The same things are best for individuals and for the community, and the lawmaker must instill them in people's souls. Training for war shouldn't aim at enslaving1333b40 those who don't deserve slavery. Its first aim should be to keep people from being enslaved by others. Its next aim should be to seek leadership for the1334a1 benefit of the ruled,

not mastery over everyone. Its third aim should be mastery over those who deserve slavery. The lawmaker should above all take care to arrange both military laws and the rest of his laws for leisure1334a5 and peace. Events confirm this argument. Most cities of this kind survive while at war, but perish once they have won an empire. In peace they lose their temper, like iron. The lawmaker is to blame because he hasn't educated them to be able to use leisure.

1334a10People clearly have the same goal as a community and as individuals. The same standard must apply to the best man and the best constitution. So clearly they must have the virtues needed for leisure. For the goal,15 as we've often said, is this: peace is the goal of war, and leisure is the goal of work. The virtues useful for leisure and the way we spend it include both those exercised in leisure and those exercised at work. Many necessities must be available for leisure to be possible. So a city must be self-controlled,20 brave, and able to endure hardship. As the proverb says, slaves have no leisure. Those who can't face danger bravely are slaves to their attackers. So courage and endurance are needed for work, philosophy for leisure, and self-control and justice for both,25 especially when people are at peace and have leisure. War forces people to be just and self-controlled. But enjoying good fortune and leisure in peace is more likely to make them arrogant. So people who seem to be doing best need a great deal of justice and self-control,30 if they enjoy everything that people call a blessing. This would apply to anyone living in the Islands of the Blessed, if there are such people, as the poets say. They will need philosophy, self-control, and justice most of all, the more leisure they have amid an abundance of these goods. Clearly, then, a city that is to be happy35 and good must share in these virtues. It's shameful not to be able to use good things. It's even more shameful not to be able to use them in leisure, but to seem good while working and fighting, and slavish while at peace and at leisure.40 So we must not practice virtue as the city of Lacedaemon does.

They differ from others not1334b1 by judging different things to be the greatest goods, but by obtaining those goods more through a particular virtue. Since these goods and the enjoyment of them are greater than those of the virtues […]. […] And that it is for its own sake is clear5 from this. We must now consider how it will come about, and through what means.

We have already distinguished the need for nature, habit, and reason. We have already defined what people's nature should be like. It remains to consider whether education should start with reason or with habits. These must1334b10 be in the best possible agreement. Reason can miss the best starting point, and habits can lead people astray in the same way. First, this much is clear: as in other cases, development starts from a beginning, and an end starts from a beginning that is itself another end.15 For us, reason and understanding are nature's goal. So we must arrange both development and training in habits with these in view. Next, just as soul and body are two, we see two parts in the soul: the part without reason and the part with reason. Their states are also two in number,20 desire and understanding. Just as the body develops before the soul, the part without reason develops before the part with reason. This too is clear. Spirit, wish, and appetite are present in children as soon as they're born. Reasoning and understanding, as they grow25 older, develop naturally. So care of the body must come before care of the soul, and care of desire must come next. But care of desire must be for the sake of understanding, and care of the body for the sake of the soul.

If the lawmaker must take care from the beginning that1334b30 those brought up have the best possible bodies, he must first attend to marriage: when, and in what condition, people should enter married life together. His laws for this partnership must consider the couple themselves and their life spans. They should reach the end of their reproductive years35 at the same time. Their powers shouldn't be out of step, with the man still able to have children and the woman unable, or the woman able and the man unable. This causes conflict and disagreement between them. Next, he must consider the children's succession. Children must not be too far behind in40 age compared with their fathers. Otherwise the children's gratitude is no use to their elderly parents, nor, from the1335a1 fathers, is help any use to their children.

Nor should they be too close in age. This brings many difficulties. Children in that position have less respect for their parents, as if they were the same age, and closeness in age leads to complaints about household management. Also, to return to the point that brought us1335a5 here, the bodies of the children born must be what the lawmaker wants.

Almost all these results follow from taking care of one thing. The limit of childbearing is, generally speaking, seventy years at the latest for men and fifty1335a10 for women. So the age at which marriage begins must allow it to end at these times. Marriage between young people is bad for having children. In all animals, the offspring of the young are underdeveloped, more often female, and small in size. The same thing must therefore happen15 with human beings. Here's the evidence: in cities where young men and young women commonly marry, the children are underdeveloped and small in body. Also, young women suffer more in childbirth, and more of them die. Some say this was the reason for the oracle given20 to the people of Troezen: many women were dying because they married too young. They say it wasn't about gathering crops. Having women marry when they're older also helps self-control. Women who have sex when young seem more likely to lack restraint. Men's bodies too25 seem to have their growth harmed if they have sex while their semen is still developing. This too has a definite period, beyond which it no longer increases, or only a little. So it's suitable for women to marry at about eighteen, and for men at thirty-seven or a little earlier.30 At those ages the marriage will take place when their bodies are at their peak, and their ages will reach the end of childbearing together at the right time. Also, if children are born immediately, as one can reasonably expect, the children will be starting their prime as their parents' time of life is already ending,35 at about seventy years.

We have now said when people should marry. As for the season, they should follow what most people do. Even now people have correctly decided to begin married life in winter. The couple themselves must also consider, with a view to having children, what1335a40 doctors and students of nature say. Doctors give adequate advice about the right bodily conditions,

1335b1and students of nature advise about winds, favoring north winds over south winds. We should discuss more carefully, in our treatment of the care of children, what bodily condition in the parents would most benefit their children.5 For now, an outline is enough. The condition of athletes is no use for a citizen's fitness, or for health and having children. Nor is a pampered condition, or one worn down by too much work. The condition between these is best. The body should be trained, but not with violent exertion, or for just one10 activity, as an athlete's body is. It should be trained for the activities of free people. This should apply equally to men and women.

Pregnant women too must care for their bodies. They must not be inactive or eat too little. The lawmaker can easily bring this about by ordering them each1335b15 day to make a journey to worship the gods whose appointed honor concerns childbirth. Their minds, however, unlike their bodies, should be kept more at rest. The unborn clearly draw nourishment from the woman carrying them, as plants do from the earth. As for exposing and20 raising newborn children, let there be a law that no child with a disability is raised. Where established customs forbid exposing any newborn because there are too many children, a limit must be set to the number of children people have. If a couple conceives beyond this limit, before sensation and life develop25 an abortion must be induced. Sensation and life will determine what is religiously permitted and what isn't. We have set the starting age for men and women to marry. Let us also set how long they should perform their public duty of having children. For older parents'30 offspring, like those of younger parents, are underdeveloped in both body and mind, while the offspring of the aged are weak. So the limit should be the mind's prime. For most people this comes at the time mentioned by some poets who measure age in periods of seven years, around fifty35 years. So four or five years after this age, a person must stop producing children for the community. After that, they should be seen to have sex for health or some other similar reason. As for relations with another woman or another man, let it be regarded as simply not noble40 to be found having such relations in any circumstances or in any way, while one is and is called a spouse.

During the period of having children,1336a1 if anyone is found doing such a thing, let the penalty be loss of honor suited to the offense.

Once children are born, we must recognize that food makes a great difference to their bodily strength, depending on what kind1336a5 it is. Looking at other animals and at peoples who take care to develop a condition suited to war, we see that a diet rich in milk is most suitable for their bodies, and one with less wine avoids disease. As much movement as is possible at that age is also useful.10 To keep their limbs from becoming crooked because they're soft, some peoples still use mechanical devices that keep such children's bodies straight. It's also useful to get them used to cold from early childhood. For health and military15 action, this is especially helpful. So many non-Greek peoples have a custom of dipping newborns into a cold river, or, like the Celts, putting only a light covering on them. For everything that people can get used to, it's better to start from the beginning, but to accustom them gradually.20 Children's bodily condition, because of its warmth, is naturally suited to training in enduring cold.

Care at the first stage of life should be of this kind, or something similar. At the next stage, up to five years old, it's not yet right to introduce any learning1336a25 or compulsory work, so that these don't interfere with growth. Children should have enough movement to keep their bodies from being inactive. This should be provided through other activities and through play. Their games should not be unfit for free people, exhausting, or slack.30 The rulers called supervisors of children should take care over what stories and tales children of this age hear. All such things must prepare the way for their later activities. So most of their games should be imitations of what they will later do seriously. As for the straining35 of children and their crying, those who forbid these by law are wrong. They help growth, since they are a kind of exercise for the body. Holding the breath gives strength to people exerting themselves, and this happens with children too when they strain.

A check must be made:1336a40 the supervisors of children must watch how they spend their time, in general and especially to ensure that they're with slaves as little as possible. For at this age,

1336b1and up to seven years old, they must be brought up at home. So it's reasonable to expect them, even at this age, to pick up attitudes unfit for free people from what they hear and see. In general, foul language, like any other such thing, must be5 banished from the city by the lawmaker. Casually saying anything shameful leads directly toward doing it. Above all he must keep it away from the young, so they neither say nor hear anything like it. If anyone is found saying or doing something forbidden, a free person not yet entitled to recline10 at the common messes, the shared meals, should be punished with loss of honor and blows. Anyone above that age should suffer humiliations unfit for a free person, because of his slavish behavior. Since we banish speaking of these things, clearly we must also ban looking at indecent pictures or accounts. The15 rulers must ensure that no statue or picture imitates such acts, except at the shrines of certain gods to whom the law assigns even mockery. The law allows those old enough to honor these gods on behalf of themselves, their children, and their wives to do so.20 Younger people must not be allowed to watch lampooning verse or comedy until they're old enough to share in reclining at meals and getting drunk. By then their education will make them entirely immune to the harm these things cause.

For now we have discussed this in passing.1336b25 Later we must examine it more closely and define it more fully. We must first consider whether or not it should be done, and how it should be done. For the present we have mentioned it as necessary. Perhaps Theodorus the tragic actor was right to say something of this kind. He never allowed anyone to come on stage before him, not even30 a minor actor, because audiences become attached to what they hear first. The same thing happens in our contacts with people and with things. We always like the first ones more. So we must keep everything bad unfamiliar to the young, especially anything35 that involves wickedness or ill will. After they have passed the age of five, in the two years up to seven they should watch the lessons they will have to learn themselves. Education must be divided into two age groups: from seven to puberty, and then from40 puberty to twenty-one. Those who divide ages into periods of seven years are generally not1337a1 wrong,

but we must follow nature's divisions. Every skill and every kind of education aims to fill in what nature leaves lacking. So first we must consider whether to make some organized provision for children. Next, whether a public approach is better1337a5 for their care, or a private one, as it is now in most cities. Third, what this care should be like.