t proper reverence being shown to a father by a boy who considers him
as nearly his equal in age, and also from the disputes it occasions in
the economy of the family. But, to return from this digression, care
ought to be taken that the bodies of the children may be such as will
answer the expectations of the legislator; this also will be affected
by the same means. Since season for the production of children is
determined (not exactly, but to speak in general), namely, for the man
till seventy years, and the woman till fifty, the entering into the
marriage state, as far as time is concerned, should be regulated by
these periods. It is extremely bad for the children when the father
is too young; for in all animals whatsoever the parts of the young are
imperfect, and are more likely to be productive of females than males,
and diminutive also in size; the same thing of course necessarily holds
true in men; as a proof of this you may see in those cities where the
men and women usually marry very young, the people in general are very
small and ill framed; in child-birth also the women suffer more, and
many of them die. And thus some persons tell us the oracle of Traezenium
should be explained, as if it referred to the many women who were
destroyed by too early marriages, and not their gathering their fruits
too soon. It is also conducive to temperance not to marry too soon; for
women who do so are apt to be intemperate. It also prevents the bodies
of men from acquiring their full size if they marry before their growth
is completed; for this is the determinate period, which prevents any
further increase; for which reason the proper time for a woman to marry
is eighteen, for a man thirty-seven, a little more or less; for when
they marry at that time their bodies are in perfection, and they will
also cease to have children at a proper time; and moreover with respect
to the succession of the children, if they have them at the time which
may reasonably be expected, they will be just arriving into perfection
when their parents are sinking down under the load of seventy years.
And thus much for the time which is proper for marriage; but moreover
a proper season of the year should be observed, as many persons do now,
and appropriate the winter for this business. The married couple ought
also to regard the precepts of physicians and naturalists, each of whom
have treated on these [1335b] subjects. What is the fit disposition of
the bo