. But if any one is rejected in the
scrutiny at any ballot or decision, others shall be chosen in the same
manner, and undergo a similar scrutiny.

There remains the minister of the education of youth, male and female;
he too will rule according to law; one such minister will be sufficient,
and he must be fifty years old, and have children lawfully begotten,
both boys and girls by preference, at any rate, one or the other. He who
is elected, and he who is the elector, should consider that of all the
great offices of state this is the greatest; for the first shoot of any
plant, if it makes a good start towards the attainment of its natural
excellence, has the greatest effect on its maturity; and this is not
only true of plants, but of animals wild and tame, and also of men.
Man, as we say, is a tame or civilized animal; nevertheless, he requires
proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he
becomes the most divine and most civilized (Arist. Pol.); but if he
be insufficiently or ill educated he is the most savage of earthly
creatures. Wherefore the legislator ought not to allow the education of
children to become a secondary or accidental matter. In the first place,
he who would be rightly provident about them, should begin by taking
care that he is elected, who of all the citizens is in every way
best; him the legislator shall do his utmost to appoint guardian and
superintendent. To this end all the magistrates, with the exception of
the council and prytanes, shall go to the temple of Apollo, and elect by
ballot him of the guardians of the law whom they severally think will be
the best superintendent of education. And he who has the greatest number
of votes, after he has undergone a scrutiny at the hands of all the
magistrates who have been his electors, with the exception of the
guardians of the law,--shall hold office for five years; and in the
sixth year let another be chosen in like manner to fill his office.

If any one dies while he is holding a public office, and more than
thirty days before his term of office expires, let those whose business
it is elect another to the office in the same manner as before. And if
any one who is entrusted with orphans dies, let the relations both on
the father's and mother's side, who are residing at home, including
cousins, appoint another guardian within ten days, or be fined a drachma
a day for neglect to do so.

A city which has no regular courts of la