We have already
assigned three causes on which it will depend; nature, custom, and
reason, arid shown what sort of men nature must produce for this
purpose; it remains then that we determine which we shall first begin
by in education, reason or custom, for these ought always to preserve
the most entire harmony with each other; for it may happen that reason
may err from the end proposed, and be corrected by custom. In the
first place, it is evident that in this as in other things, its
beginning or production arises from some principle, and its end also
arises from another principle, which is itself an end. Now, with us,
reason and intelligence are the end of nature; our production,
therefore, and our manners ought to be accommodated to both these. In
the next place, as the soul and the body are two distinct things, so
also we see that the soul is divided into two parts, the reasoning and
not-reasoning, with their habits which are two in number, one
belonging to each, namely appetite and intelligence; and as the body
is in production before the soul, so is the not-reasoning part of the
soul before the reasoning; and this is evident; for anger, will and
desire are to be seen in children nearly as soon as they are born; but
reason and intelligence spring up as they grow to maturity. The body,
therefore, necessarily demands our care before the soul; next the
appetites for the sake of the mind; the body for the sake of the soul.
CHAPTER XVI
If then the legislator ought to take care that the bodies of the
children are as perfect as possible, his first attention ought to be
given to matrimony; at what time and in what situation it is proper
that the citizens should engage in the nuptial contract.
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