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

—
LAWS, BOOK VII
have not as yet, my friend, been fully declared to
you by the lawgiver are these— first, literature, next,
lyre-playing ; also arithmetic, of which I said that
there ought to be as much as everyone needs to
learn for purposes of war, house-management and
civic administration ; together with what it is useful
for these same purposes to learn about the courses
of the heavenly bodies—stars and sun and moon
in so far as every State is obliged to take them into
account. What I allude to is this—the arranging of
days into monthly periods, and of months into a
year, in each instance, so that the seasons, with
their respective sacrifices and feasts, may each be
assigned its due position by being held as nature
dictates, and that thus they may create fresh liveliness
and alertness in the State, and may pay their
due honours to the gods, and may render the citizens
more intelligent about these matters. These points,
my friend, have not all as yet been explained to you
sufficiently by the lawgiver. Now attend carefully
to what is next to be said. In the first place,
you are, as we said, insufficiently instructed as
yet concerning letters. The point we complain of
is this — that the law has not yet told you clearly
whether the man who is to be a good citizen must
pursue this study with precision, or neglect it altogether
; and so likewise with regard to the lyre.
That he must not neglect them we now affirm. For
the study of letters, about three years is a reasonable
period for a child of ten years old ; and for lyreplaying,
he should begin at thirteen and continue at
And whether he likes or dislikes
it for three years.
the study, neither the child nor his father shall be
permitted either to cut short or to prolong the years
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