Lamprocles again assented.

Socrates continued: And where can we hope to find greater benefits than
those which children derive from their parents--their father and mother
who brought them out of nothingness into being, who granted them to look
upon all these fair sights, and to partake of all those blessings which
the gods bestow on man, things so priceless in our eyes that one and all
we shudder at the thought of leaving them, and states have made death
the penalty for the greatest crimes, because there is no greater evil
through fear of which to stay iniquity.

You do not suppose that human beings produce children for the sake of
carnal pleasure (1) merely; were this the motive, street and bordell are
full of means to quit them of that thrall; whereas nothing is plainer
than the pains we take to seek out wives who shall bear us the finest
children. (2) With these we wed, and carry on the race. The man has a
twofold duty to perform: partly in cherishing her who is to raise up
children along with him, and partly towards the children yet unborn
in providing them with things that he thinks will contribute to their
well-being--and of these as large a store as possible. The woman,
conceiving, bears her precious burthen with travail and pain, and at the
risk of life itself--sharing with that within her womb the food on which
she herself is fed. And when with much labour she has borne to the end
and brought forth her offspring, she feeds it and watches over it with
tender care--not in return for any good thing previously received, for
indeed the babe itself is little conscious of its benefactor and cannot
even signify its wants; only she, the mother, making conjecture of what
is good for it, and what will please it, essays to satisfy it; (3)
and for many months she feeds it night and day, enduring the toil nor
recking what return she shall receive for all her trouble. Nor does the
care and kindness of parents end with nurture; but when the children
seem of an age to learn, they teach them themselves whatever cunning
they possess, as a guide to life, or where they feel that another is
more competent, to him they send them to be taught at their expense.
Thus they watch over their children, doing all in their power to enable
them to grow up to be as good as possible.

(1) Lit. "the joys of Aphrodite."

(2) "For the procreation of children." See below, IV. iv. 22; "Pol.
Lac." i.

(3) Lit. "to leave nought lacking."