PLATO WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION LAWS by R.G.Bury VOL.II -LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY 192- 1926

LAWS, BOOK VII
share of business, both political and economical, the
magistrates in the city, and the masters and mistresses
in their own houses. For much sleep is not
naturally suitable either to our bodies or souls, nor
yet to employment on any such matters.
For when
asleep no man is worth anything, any more than if
he were dead : on the contrary, every one of us
who cares most greatly for life and thought keeps
awake as long as possible, only reserving so much
time for sleep as his health requires—and that is but
little, once the habit is well formed. And rulers
that are watchful by night in cities are a terror to
evil-doers, be they citizens or enemies, but objects
of respect and admiration to the just and temperate ;
and they confer benefit alike on themselves and on
the whole State.
The night, if spent in this way, will—in addition
to all the other benefits described—lend greater
fortitude to the souls of all who reside in these
States. With the return of daylight the children
should go to their teachers ; for just as no sheep or
other witless creature ought to exist without a
herdsman, so children cannot live without a tutor,
nor slaves without a master. And, of all wild
creatures, the child is the most intractable ; for in
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so far as it, above all others, possesses a fount of
reason that is as yet uncurbed, it is a treacherous,
sly and most insolent creature. Wherefore the child
must be strapped up, as it were, with many bridles
—first, when he leaves the care of nurse and mother,
with tutors, to guide his childish ignorance, and
after that with teachers of all sorts of subjects and
lessons, treating him as becomes a freeborn child.
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