ever a city
is well ordered and prosperous, their descendants cherish them, and so
live happily; old persons are quick to see and hear all that relates to
them, and are propitious to those who are just in the fulfilment of such
duties, and they punish those who wrong the orphan and the desolate,
considering that they are the greatest and most sacred of trusts. To all
which matters the guardian and magistrate ought to apply his mind, if
he has any, and take heed of the nurture and education of the orphans,
seeking in every possible way to do them good, for he is making a
contribution to his own good and that of his children. He who obeys the
tale which precedes the law, and does no wrong to an orphan, will never
experience the wrath of the legislator. But he who is disobedient, and
wrongs any one who is bereft of father or mother, shall pay twice the
penalty which he would have paid if he had wronged one whose parents had
been alive. As touching other legislation concerning guardians in their
relation to orphans, or concerning magistrates and their superintendence
of the guardians, if they did not possess examples of the manner in
which children of freemen would be brought up in the bringing up of
their own children, and of the care of their property in the care of
their own, or if they had not just laws fairly stated about these very
things--there would have been reason in making laws for them, under the
idea that they were a peculiar class, and we might distinguish and make
separate rules for the life of those who are orphans and of those who
are not orphans. But as the case stands, the condition of orphans with
us is not different from the case of those who have a father, though in
regard to honour and dishonour, and the attention given to them, the two
are not usually placed upon a level. Wherefore, touching the legislation
about orphans, the law speaks in serious accents, both of persuasion and
threatening, and such a threat as the following will be by no means
out of place: He who is the guardian of an orphan of either sex, and
he among the guardians of the law to whom the superintendence of this
guardian has been assigned, shall love the unfortunate orphan as though
he were his own child, and he shall be as careful and diligent in the
management of his possessions as he would be if they were his own, or
even more careful and diligent. Let every one who has the care of an
orphan observe this law. But any one who acts