Book 6
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Ath. Thirdly comes our greatest need and keenest lust, which, though the latest to emerge, influences the soul of men with most raging frenzy—the lust for the sowing of offspring that burns with utmost violence. These three morbid statesThe soul is in a diseased state when wholly dominated by any irrational desire or passion. we must direct towards what is most good, instead of what is (nominally) most pleasant, trying to check them by means of the three greatest forces—fear, law, and true reasoning,—reinforced by the Muses and the Gods of Games, so as to quench thereby their increase and inflow. So let us place the subject of the production of children next after that of marriage, and after their production, their nurture and education. If our discourse proceeds on these lines, possibly each of our laws will attain completion, and when we come to the public meals, by approaching these at close quarters we shall probably discern more clearly whether such associations ought to be for men only, or for women as well; and thus we shall not only prescribe the preliminaries that are still without legal regulation, and place them as fences before the common meals, but also, as I said just now, we shall discuss more exactly the character of the common meals, and thus be more likely to prescribe for them laws that are suitable and fitting.
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Clin. You are perfectly right.
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Ath. Let us, then, bear in mind the things we mentioned a moment ago; for probably we shall need them all presently.
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Clin. What are the things you bid us remember?
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Ath. Those we distinguished by the three terms we used: we spoke, you recollect, of eating, secondly of drinking, and thirdly of sexual excitement.
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Clin. We shall certainly remember the things you now bid us, Stranger.
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Ath. Very good. Let us now come to the nuptials, so as to instruct them how and in what manner they ought to produce children, and, if we fail to persuade them, to threaten them by certain laws.
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Clin. How?
