e very desirous their children should acquire a warlike habit, will
find that they feed them chiefly with milk, as being best accommodated
to their bodies, but without wine, to prevent any distempers: those
motions also which are natural to their age are very serviceable; and
to prevent any of their limbs from being crooked, on account of their
extreme ductility, some people even now use particular machines that
their bodies may not be distorted. It is also useful to enure them to
the cold when they are very little; for this is very serviceable for
their health; and also to enure them to the business of war; for which
reason it is customary with many of the barbarians to dip their children
in rivers when the water is cold; with others to clothe them very
slightly, as among the Celts; for whatever it is possible to accustom
children to, it is best to accustom them to it at first, but to do it
by degrees: besides, boys have naturally a habit of loving the cold, on
account of the heat. These, then, and such-like things ought to be the
first object of our attention: the next age to this continues till
the child is five years old; during which time it is best to teach him
nothing at all, not even necessary labour, lest it should hinder his
growth; but he should be accustomed to use so much motion as not to
acquire a lazy habit of body; which he will get by various means and by
play also: his play also ought to be neither illiberal nor too laborious
nor lazy. Their governors and preceptors also should take care what sort
of tales and stories it may be proper for them to hear; for all these
ought to pave the way for their future instruction: for which reason
the generality of their play should be imitations of what they are
afterwards to do seriously. They too do wrong who forbid by laws
the disputes between boys and their quarrels, for they contribute to
increase their growth--as they are a sort of exercise to the body:
for the struggles of the heart and the compression of the spirits give
strength to those who labour, which happens to boys in their disputes.
The preceptors also ought to have an eye upon their manner of life, and
those with whom they converse; and to take care that they are never
in the company of slaves. At this time and till they are seven [1336b]
years old it is necessary that they should be educated at home. It
is also very proper to banish, both from their hearing and sight,
everything which is illiberal a