n health, but the health of the
birds; whereby they prove to any intelligent person, that all bodies
are benefited by shakings and movements, when they are moved without
weariness, whether the motion proceeds from themselves, or is caused by
a swing, or at sea, or on horseback, or by other bodies in whatever way
moving, and that thus gaining the mastery over food and drink, they are
able to impart beauty and health and strength. But admitting all this,
what follows? Shall we make a ridiculous law that the pregnant woman
shall walk about and fashion the embryo within as we fashion wax before
it hardens, and after birth swathe the infant for two years? Suppose
that we compel nurses, under penalty of a legal fine, to be always
carrying the children somewhere or other, either to the temples, or into
the country, or to their relations' houses, until they are well able to
stand, and to take care that their limbs are not distorted by leaning
on them when they are too young (compare Arist. Pol.),--they should
continue to carry them until the infant has completed its third year;
the nurses should be strong, and there should be more than one of them.
Shall these be our rules, and shall we impose a penalty for the neglect
of them? No, no; the penalty of which we were speaking will fall upon
our own heads more than enough.

CLEINIAS: What penalty?

ATHENIAN: Ridicule, and the difficulty of getting the feminine and
servant-like dispositions of the nurses to comply.

CLEINIAS: Then why was there any need to speak of the matter at all?

ATHENIAN: The reason is, that masters and freemen in states, when they
hear of it, are very likely to arrive at a true conviction that without
due regulation of private life in cities, stability in the laying down
of laws is hardly to be expected (compare Republic); and he who makes
this reflection may himself adopt the laws just now mentioned, and,
adopting them, may order his house and state well and be happy.

CLEINIAS: Likely enough.

ATHENIAN: And therefore let us proceed with our legislation until we
have determined the exercises which are suited to the souls of young
children, in the same manner in which we have begun to go through the
rules relating to their bodies.

CLEINIAS: By all means.

ATHENIAN: Let us assume, then, as a first principle in relation both to
the body and soul of very young creatures, that nursing and moving about
by day and night is good for them all, and that the