Now, with
respect to this alliance, the legislator ought both to consider the
parties and their time of life, that they may grow old at the same
part of time, and that their bodily powers may not be different; that
is to say, the man being able to have children, but the woman too old
to bear them; or, on the contrary, the woman be young enough to
produce children, but the man too old to be a father; for from such a
situation discords and disputes continually arise. In the next place,
with respect to the succession of children, there ought not to be too
great an interval of time between them and their parents; for when
there is, the parent can receive no benefit from his child's
affection, or the child any advantage from his father's protection;
[1335a] neither should the difference in years be too little, as great
inconveniences may arise from it; as it prevents that 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.
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